STAR WARS GALAXY AT WAR

ROLE

Game, Systems & Level Designer

DESCRIPTION

Star Wars: Galaxy at War is a personal fan project that I have been working on since shortly after the release of EA's SWBF in 2015. This project has been something that I work on periodically, usually around multiple Star Wars releases due to my excitement and hype for the franchise.

This concept focuses heavily on the space combat and resource management, taking the ideas explored in Empire at War and evolving them for the modern age of games and fidelity.

This is an idea that I like to work on every so often to keep me fresh and I'd love one day to be lucky enough to have the opportunity to make it a reality.

YEAR

2016-2023

GENRE

Real Time Strategy

PLATFORM

PC (Windows)

PROJECT TYPE

Solo Fan Project

GAME DESIGN

Star Wars: Galaxy at War is a long term fan project that I like to work on periodically around Star Wars Releases. Galaxy at war takes heavy inspiration from Empire at War but uses a resource system and not purely credits.

For many Years this was just spreadsheets and mockups but the last few times I've actually started putting stuff in-engine using Unreal Engine 5.

Core Game Mechanics

Galactic Map & Locations

One of the Aspects that i enjoyed during the mockup and database phases of this project was mapping out the star wars galaxy using whatever resources I was given.

The issue became one of scale that there was no way I could actually create the assets to have both ground and space battles for every planet that i'd need for resource reasons and have them live up to the fidelity of SWBF 2015.

So before me where two choices, a major/minor planet system where major locations would have actual ground battles or a space only game that used dots on a sphere for locations and it would be more like Risk to take over those locations.

My inital plan was to have Major and Minor Planets with the idea being that as we expanded into other eras or expand the game alongside Star Wars Game/Film/Streaming releases turn more of those minor planets into Major locations with ground battles.

However as I continued i realised for me it would be better to focus purely on space battles for now and if somehow I get to actually make the game we can roll our ground battles as an expansion or for v1.0.

Sectors

One aspect that other depictions of the Star Wars galaxy had to change for gameplay reasons but always annoyed me was how they spread out planets and sectors to space them out. Empire at War and even the Galactic Conquest mode in the original SWBF II had planets in the same system depicted as being as if they were separate star systems.

Star War's Lore breaks things down into sectors and after researching on Wookiepedia I found that some games had successfully depicted sectors faithfully and came to the conclusion that for sectors with lots of potential content it would be better to have them as a sub-map of the galactic map.

The mock-up shown here was an early attempt to understand how this might look and work.

Planetary control like in Empire at War was how you gathered resources but this time it wouldn't just be credits but also resources like fuel that would be required to keep the war machine of the empire or the rebellion operational.

Ground Battles & Control

One of the things that frustrated me with Empire at War was that ground battles felt like they truly lacked the feel of the locations they were depicting and that one battle decided the fate of an entire planet which mean that Mos Eisley might fall and then suddenly all of Tattooine would be under control of the new faction with no resistance.

My Plan for ground battles was that each planet would have it's major cities and POI's some of them would be actual ground maps and others just minor locations which would play out like risk with teams with higher strength or the means to undermine the enemies forces that would end up winning.

With me pausing on full RTS ground battles I realised my plan could work if I put part of this system in place and it would still make for an enjoyable game. You would send detachments to capture the locations and hold them against attacks/pacify civil unrest/resistance.

This also allowed me to have a civil unrest bar which would rise and full depending on who controlled the planet and their use of it. If it reached full unrest production would cease and resistance forces could be controlled by your opponent.

Tatooine Planet Screen - Control&Conquest.png

Planetary Upgrades

One of the Other aspects I wanted to explore was more research and planetary specific purchases or upgrades.

To the right is an mock-up example of the core concept (it's not what I would go for for final UI or anything) but the idea was that if you had control of a planet you could further exploit the planet or research upgrades that would make a planet more valuable or easier to defend.

This could have build a mine to get specific resources, trade agreements that allow for extra scrap, research that allowed for specialty units to be built/unlocked, or even tax the planet for extra credits at the risk of higher civil unrest etc.

This would also mean i could make some planets have resources that you couldn't access until you had invested in them such as Fuel Sources on Tatooine that would require the Dilarium Derrick or the Sand Mineral Filtration Facility.

Making it an interest investment proposition if it were on the frontlines of your galactic wide battle.

Representing Resources in Space Battles

Mines & Resource
Production Facilities

For the Space battles I really want to represent any space infrastructure in the battles themselves and allow both the Empire and Rebel Alliance to focus key assets in a battle and escape like you seen in the movies and other games.

These would become a secondary objective to just total conquest of a planet or space location that especially in mode with multiple players on each side could be used to tie up your opponents resources in defending their vital facilities whilst a friend pushes the attack on your true goals.

I feel like those kind of strategics attacks can allow for emergent gameplay where they can make their own Rogue One moments where a plucky band of rebels manage to against all odds hit an Imperial facility and cripple it's usefulness.

This would subsequently also give a real meaning to the word defense in a player defending their territory, they might have the defenders advantage but it comes at the cost of potentially loosing a vital asset to their war machine.

Resource Movement & Convoys

One of the other aspects of Star Wars is that the rebel alliance gets a lot of their materials via intercepting convoys of resources.

So I thought it'd be interesting for the resources to be actually moved from production to storage/manufacturing facilities and allow them to be captured in space battles or en route to their end destinations. These could be mini objectives in a space battle or on their own the could be micro battles that players can control or have the AI complete but it would give more of those rebellion vs imperial rule moments and give depth to the resource system without going overly complex.

this would also make the construction of interdiction vessels which can bring other ships out of hyperspeed incredibly useful for protecting trade routes or intercepting them.

This would also mean that researching hyperlanes that the enemy don't have would allow players to leave those unguarded and move their resources elsewhere, be that in the protection of vulnerable trade routes or for use on the attack.

Unit Construction

Orbital Shipyards would also be represented in space battles which could be attacked to cripple production in that facility until it has been repaired, but these facilities would also be able to produce units during the battle if resources are supplied to them which might be what turns the battle in favour of the defenders.

Enemies might also want to capture facilities to use for their own or scuttle them if defeat is imminent which would add an extra layer of depth and tactics to a battle.

You might go in with the goal of taking out their production to find you can capture it instead, or realising the enemy needs shipyards and is likely to win this engagement you can scuttle them leaving the battle with a loss but still holding the manufacturing advantage.

I also think it would be cool to just open a planet that's building you a new flagship to see it in progress, especially in single player mode where you can slow time or pause.

Tactics in Space Battles

I did a test level design of an asteroid field map as in my early tests I realised there was a massive scale problem in Star Wars's ships as having a super stardestroyer at 19km long would be roughly the size of the entire map.

One aspect I wanted to test using this map was how I could make lanes or pathways in space and how I could also allow for battles in asteroid fields that felt like they do in the movies which i felt was important to getting a sesne of immersion in the universe.

In Empire Strikes Back the fact that they have Stardestroyers power on through an asteroid field lead me to the idea of having allowing players to move through them but depending on their weapons and shields they might take damage or even be destroyed if they try to sneakily path through too dense a patch of asteroid.

I also worked on combat tactics for both larger ships and tighter lanes for smaller ships and how to create dangers for them to avoid, my favourite of which would be an Exogorth (Space Slug) that would eat small fighters and support ships if they came too close to their home asteroid).

Database, Pre-Production & Pre-Prototyping

Galaxy At War (RTS) - Empire At War - Excel.png

SWGaW- Locations (Notion) - Age of Empire.png

For me as a Star Wars fan, I've always since childhood wanted to explore this galaxy and universe through my own stories and interpretations, be that via games or film.

With the the advent of EA's Star Wars titles, especially SWBF 2015 games had reached the stage where we could make content that looked like the original movies and i'd always love the RTS genre and yearned for the times of Empire at War.

Going back to it years later was still lots of fun but even with all the faithful modding communities. it was dated... it made ask myeslf what I would do if I was in charge of a new RTS for the Star Wars franchise in this modern era of film quality fidelity in games.

So at first it was just a bit of some mock ups using assets I could find on the internet but all that did was make me want to be able to play this more.

So after that I started in what I call the database phase which was compiling the info about planets their resources, vehicles, manufactuers, units, notable research items etc into an excel spreadsheet and slowly adding to it each time a new game film or streaming show came out.

In the Christmas period of 2021-2022 I was offered a role at a AAA FPS studio which would ultimately fall through but in that time I decided to start on a passion project that I could do in my spare time so I started by moving everything over to Notion as I was now using it for all my design wikis. I was then offered another role again at the launch of Unreal 5 so I started learning UE5 and working on this concept in engine.

First was a test of star wars scale in their ships which I knew was going to be an issue before starting but could only really see the scope of it once I had things in engine. The Super Star Destroyer is so massive in comparison to everything else that it becomes a detriment to any fun gameplay and the fighters would be specs of sand in comparison.

Excluding them from gameplay I could make arguments for the scale of all other objects. and set off with a max size of vehicles for my experiments and testing with the most massive ships being a problem for future Michael which might just be scaling them down for the sake of gameplay.

Game Modes

Campaigns

Campaigns were designed as ways for players to live out the events of the Star Wars timeline by playing through them as the commanders of the forces.

These campaigns would be limited to areas of the galaxy and have set objectives that match canonical timeline but allow the player to achieve those goals however the saw fit.

The idea for Galaxy at war was for it to release in era updates 1 year that would happen annually on the anniversary of the launch with minor updates between including any new star wars releases. These Era updates would expand the game adding new eras, planets, vehicles and allowing them to be used in all applicable eras. So starting with the Age of Empire we'd go back to the Age of the Republic which would add older Republic/CIS ships to both the Empire and Rebel alliance fleets and continue until the major know eras are complete. Then it would be adding upon the game when new SW content was available.

SW GaW - CAMPAIGN MENU SELECTION MOCK UP.png

Galactic Conquest

Galactic Conquest was one of my favourite modes of all time in the original SWBF II.

It tapped into something my child, and even adult, mind latches onto the power fantasy of conquering an entire galaxy, not a better power fantasy i can think of.

But it was also a long term strategic battle, a war of attrition and the ability to plan, problem solve and overcome insurmountable odds. Where it was 1v1 against players or AI it made for a experience you would came back to session after session, one you would think about your next move between sessions.

This for me was a no-brainer of a mode where you could play with friends local or online or even a random 1-on-1 via matchmaking for those bold enough.

Sector Fleet Mode

If Galactic Conquest is 1v1 me bro for pinkslips to the galaxy, then Sector fleet mode was old school 4v4, skins vs shirts but this time you are relying on the ability of your friends to strategise and command their separate forces together in a cohesive way to eek out control of the galaxy.

In Sector Fleets mode each player would take control of a sector fleet,commanding those forces and the terroritories held by them.

Players would be able to coordinate attacks on enemy held territory, supply friendly forces on the frontlines with renforcements or resources. They would be able to come to each others aid fighting along side in battle or even temporarily relinquish control of their forces to another sector fleet.

If the sector was lost and forces were destroyed that player would be able to take over any free sector controlled by the faction if not they'd have to wait for their team to make back some ground.

An alternative version of this mode was Moff Mode, where players were actually controlling a unit in the game and if they died their game was over, so they'd have to protect flag ships or escape vessels going down to protect themselves and keep them in the game, something i think would make for excellent long form esports watching.

Sector Fleet - Sector Selection Menu Mock Up.png

Current Status

Paused

Currently this is has reached the end of a pre-prototyping phase but is now ready for actual prototyping now that I have completed the level design test, scale tests and the database being failry complete (with more content always being added every time there is a new Star Wars).

Progress is always slow on this as it's my side-side-side project that I use to take a break and refresh myself with so it goes in an out of active development all the time, usually around periods with lots of new Star Wars content.

In 2023 I was working on Star Wars content in the VFX industry so I didn't get much done as I was getting my fill for working on this franchise I adore elsewhere.

Having recently finished my stint in that industry getting credits on Star Wars for my work on Ahsoka it has pushed my work on fan passion projects more toward the film side of my passion projects for star wars, with even some ex-ILM employees suggesting I pursue that film idea.

This will continue in the background but I've recently started a project where I can use my lessons from this experience and I'm already making good progress just 2 weeks into it early prototyping.

First Contact

In the last few weeks of 2023 I started a new solo project alongside my team work as I felt like working in a team environment when everyone is busy was holding back my own production so I decided that I would start something I could work on myself especially having some down time after finishing up my contract at Luma.

First Contact as combination of a Civilisation Builder and RTS game was born out of my love of space, sci-fi and science in general.

I was able to get to in engine tests and prototyping really quickly for this as my time working on Galaxy at war had already answered some questions on how to get this to work.

I've only stopped this project to update my portfolio then it's back to it whilst I have the time to do so.