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In many works of science fiction, a being's homeworld is their planet of origin. For example, in Star Wars Luke Skywalker's homeworld is Tatooine.
The homeworld of the human race is Earth.
Homeworld is a computer game released in 1999 developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment.
Unlike most of the Real-time strategy games that precede it, Homeworld allows for movement of units in all three spatial dimensions.
Storyline
 The original Homeworld box. Homeworld's storyline is complex and highly detailed. It is delivered to the player through (1) an introductory manual explaning the game's universe and backstory, (2) short animated films between game levels, and (3) cut-scenes which take place during gameplay itself. This method of storyline presentation is popular in modern Real-time strategy (RTS) games.
The game tells the story of a humanoid race, the Kushan, living on a planet called Kharak. This desert planet is so inhospitable that the Kushan could settle only in the polar regions.
For all of its known history, the population of Kharak was divided into independent political entities known as "Kiiths". Each kiith embodied unique racial, religious, and cultural traits, and most kiiths were constantly at war. Most notable of the warring kiiths were Kiith Gaalsien and Kiith Siidim, whose conflict was started over a disagreement about whether Sajuuk had placed the Kushan on Kharak as an act of mercy or an act of vengeance. Many smaller Kiiths, such as Soban and Paktu, were eventually drawn into the fighting. The war finally ended when the reclusive Kitth Naabal entered the war and easily defeated both sides using explosive-based weaponry (up to that point, the other Kiiths were very technologically unadvanced).
The extremely inhospitable Kharak climate led many Kharakians to question how they evolved on the planet in the first place. The revelation that the Kushan genetic makeup was highly unlike any other life-form on the planet, and the eventual discovery of a huge alien ship, the Khar-Toba (First City), would lend final proof to this 'xenogenesis' hypothesis. Within the Khar-Toba, the Guidestone was discovered - an artifact revealing the location of the Kushan's homeworld, simply named Hiigara (Our Home).
The Kushan (otherwise known as the Hiigarans) eventually managed to unite all but the most extreme kiiths towards the goal of reaching their previous homeworld and discovering the reasons behind their exile. To this end, a giant colony ship, the Mothership, was constructed. Construction of the ship would take 60 years and required entirely new disciplines in macro-engineering to be developed. It was also made possible by the discovery of new technologies within the Khar-Toba, including the 'quantum waveform generator', capable of moving a ship between two points faster than the speed of light by bending and manipulating spacetime. The engines were back-engineered from the Khar Toba, and the actual technical principles governing the operation of the waveform generators are poorly understood by the Kushan. Karan Sjet, a young female scientist, made the ultimate sacrifice by permanently integrating her physical body into the Mothership to serve as its living CPU.
After the departure of the Mothership, Kharak was attacked by the Taiidan, a large interstellar empire who now controlled the planet of Hiigara and viciously opposed the exiles' attempt to reclaim their homeworld. The remaining surface population of Kharak was eliminated in this attack.
Over remaining levels of the game, the Kushan encounter other alien races, including the benevolent group of traders known as the Bentusi (The Unbound), and the hostile, fanatical and enigmatic Kadeshi. They eventually succeed in reclaiming their home planet, and discover the reasons for their exile.
Gameplay
Homeworld is best known for its single player campaign, although the game also contains a multiplayer option. Gameplay, both single and multiplayer, is complicated by the addition of a third dimension. Homeworld's user interface, while initially difficult, allows players full control of their ships in this new setting.
The general flow of gameplay resembles other RTS games, such as StarCraft and the Command and Conquer series. The player scouts the map, harvests resouces and builds units. Since the game takes place in space, there are obviously no 'structures' as in most RTS games - However, the Mothership, carriers, and research ships essentially serve the same purposes, allowing the player to construct and upgrade units.
Ships in the game range from agile strike craft to lumbering capital ships such as the heavy cruiser. Each unit serves a particular function and represents a trade off in strength, offensive power, speed, and cost.
In the single player game, Homeworld uses a unique fleet inheritance concept (aka persistent fleet), in which all ships from a previous mission remain in the next. Therefore, it is theoretically possible for a ship built in the first mission to still be present at the end of the game. This feature, coupled with the limited avalibility of resources in each level, forces the player to make hard decisions on the make up of their fleet.
Soundtrack
With the exception of a song by the rock group "Yes" entitled "Homeworld", most of the music in the game is ambient, matching the lonely but beautiful environment of deep space. Also worthy of note is the of Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei, the choral version of his Adagio for Strings.
Influences and context
Homeworld was undoubtably influenced by the many RTS games which preceded it. The epic storyline is reminiscent of titles such as StarCraft and Dark Reign. Homeworld's battles, involving dozens and sometimes hundreds of small swarming ships were inspired by George Lucas's famous Star Wars. The voice of the game's narrator also appears to be identical to the narrator from the animated Sci-Fi series Robotech, further reinforcing the game's space-opera atmosphere.
Many of the starship designs were inspired by the Terran Trade Authority books, published by Hamlyn Publishing Group in the 1970s, and illustrated by artists Peter Elson and Chris Foss. Both are honored by getting special credit mentions in the game, while defecting Taiidan character, Group Captain Elson, is named after Peter Elson.
Homeworld revolutionized the RTS genre and paved the way for games such as Hegemonia: Legions of Iron and Far Gate.
There is also a strong Middle-Eastern/Islamic influence to the feel of the game. This is evident in the music, as well as the culture of the Kushan. There is some good evidence that the Kushan practise a religion very similar to Islam. Especially notable is the Kushan name for their Homeworld, Hiigara, which strongly resembles the word Hegira, which refers to the Prophet Muhammed's historic flight from Mecca. However, a lot of what is apparently an Islamic/Arab touch may in fact be secondary influence filtred through the science fiction Dune series.
Reviews and recognition
Homeworld was given high marks by most of the gaming community, and earned numerous awards, including IGN's game of the year award for 1999. The game was praised for its eye catching, movie like graphics engine, large battles, appropriate soundtrack, and its revolutionary 3D interface.
Sequels
In September 2000 a stand-alone expansion was released, Homeworld: Cataclysm.
The sequel, Homeworld 2, was released in late 2003. In the game, the Hiigarans (Kushan) must defend their newly recovered home from the Vaygr, a powerful nomadic raider race led by a man named Makaan, who managed to rally his normally warring race after recovering the second of the three hyperspace cores (quantum waveform generators) in a remote region of the galaxy.
Relic released the source code to Homeworld in late 2003 from which unofficial ports to different platforms like Linux were made.
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