New Homeworld 3 gameplay and cinematic footage released as part of a huge development update

In May, we got the disappointing news that developer Blackbird Interactive decided to delay the release of its space-based RTS game sequel Homeworld 3 from late 2023 to February 2024.

Today, Blackbird posted a huge development update on the game on its Steam page, which went into more detail on its cinematics, its audio features, and its visuals. It also offered up some new gameplay and cinematic footage from the game.

In the previous Homeworld games, the cinematics were created as 2D animated cut scenes. For Homeworld 3, the cinematics will be a mix of pre-rendered graphics and in-game cutscenes in Unreal Engine 4. Blackbird stated:

What's so exciting about this level of cinematic fidelity is how it'll bring the Homeworld universe to life like never before. You're going to get closely acquainted with key characters, like Imogen, but also get a much better sense of people aboard the Khar-Kushan and the enemies threatening your very existence. This, in turn, will add a new dimension of humanity to the battles that unfold between each cinematic.

Homeworld 3 will use a different approach when it comes to the ship unit's voices. Blackbird says:

In Homeworld 3 each ship has two voices: The primary voice is that of the ship commander, and is focused on direct responses to player commands, notifications for important events such as coming into contact with enemy ships, and a select few flavor events. This informational layer is clear and (mostly) concise, clearly audible from all distance ranges, and designed to keep the player informed and situationally aware.

The second voice is that of a tactical officer on the ship, and this role is focused on contextual conversational chatter. This contextual flavor layer is full of character, only audible within a certain range from the ship, and designed to breathe life into the vacuum of space.

As we mentioned, the game uses Unreal Engine 4 and the dev update goes through how Homeworld 3 will use its more advanced lighting features to make the game look more immersive. It will also use a new nebula generation system in order to give players ways to hide their ships inside gas clouds.

You can check out a lot more about the game at the Steam dev update page and Blackbird will reveal more about Homeworld 3 later this summer.