Homeworld: Vast Reaches
Fleet Control UI
From spring 2023 to summer 2024 I was part of a nearly 30 person team at FarBridge creating Homeworld: Vast Reaches in partnership with Gearbox Software. I was the solo UX / UI designer and was responsible for the in-game and menu UI, along with designing multiple gameplay interaction systems.
The majority of my time on the project was spent designing the UI and interaction systems related to controlling and managing the player’s fleet of ships. Additionally, I contributed to the XR design of the game, working to adapt RTS mechanics to suit the needs of virtual reality.
Challenge:
How do we offer the precision and granularity of a traditional RTS in a virtual reality context?
Genre Research:
Pain Point:
It was too difficult to select and command individual ships with precision in real-time
Solution: The “strike group” mechanic was created to keep ships in more manageable clusters. Strike groups provided concentrated points for the player to interface with.
Building Ships & Organizing Strike Groups
Dragging and dropping ships from a build panel into the strike groups and arranging them into formations was not only an opportunity to lean into more tactile interactions permitted by VR, it became a strategic element of the gameplay.