Cinematics feature character conversation using static character images

Unlike the games in your local EB, the SuperXStudios team that developed Far Gate for the first 2 years didn't consist of 10 or 20 people. Nope, four guys built most of the game. Gamers with a dream, they subsisted without support from a publisher for almost two years, living on credit cards and loans from family members, and scraping two cents together wherever possible. James Thrush, founder of SuperXStudios, (formerly ThrushWave), slept in the office for almost a year. Hey -- nobody said starting a game development studio would be easy, right?

For those of you out there wondering, yeah, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. After sending out builds of the game to various publishers every six months or so for two years, fortune and hard work finally paid off at the last Game Developers Conference Independent Games Festival: The Rift (as Far Gate was titled at the time) won the Audience award. Once so honored, publishers began to take a lot more notice of The Rift, and soon a deal was struck for a European release by French publisher Microids. In fact, last December Far Gate shipped in France, the UK, Spain and Portugal -- Germans can look forward to Far Gate next month. A deal's not been struck with a US publisher at this time, but you can still take a peek at the game by downloading the demo. We've already had a gander -- and for those of that don't want to download the 73 MB demo and play for yourselves, we've even whipped up a little preview.

Eventually you'll control a non-human species

The first thought that will immediately pop into the mind of any PC gamer checking out Far Gate will be similarities to Homeworld. Since there hasn't exactly been a glut in the 3D space-based RTS genre, it's only natural that the games are compared. Truth be told, there are similarities -- but there are far more differences.

Differences include the story, which, while also a science-fiction epic, is primarily based on humanity and its tribulations with two different space-faring alien species, as well as difficulties between various factions of the government. Instead of controlling a massive mothership, you'll be building up temporary space stations to use a base. The cinematics and between-level story elements are all in-engine, while conversations between the characters happen with static character animations, similar to the style of the recently released Oni.

A massive battle

While controlling the camera will seem familiar to Homeworld players, the viewing freedom is much greater. The camera encompasses a vastly larger area of space; most of the missions we've played take place at the level of a solar system. That doesn't mean you can't zoom in on one specific spaceship -- you can -- but mission goals can take place across millions of miles of space, and the camera feels more comfortable pulled back much farther than allowed in Homeworld. Since most of the solar systems are round and flat like a plate, it gives the game a more grounded feel when dealing with 3D space. We rarely had difficulty with height differences, which could be confusing at times in Homeworld.

The rest of the interface is the real jewel for SuperXStudios. There are four see-through windows on the edges of the screen, and each one can be laid flat, to take up minimal amounts of screen space, or locked in place as needed. Going back and forth is as easy as a mouse click. These four windows control almost all the functions in the game -- Mission goals, unit make-up, build menus, etc. There are other, smaller interface choices that we like as well, such as assigning ships to units right in the build screen. It's only one step to put ships into a group, but having that done right in the build screen is a nice touch.

The view of a solar system pulled all the way back

Gameplay is what you've come to expect in an RTS game. The station gathers resources from the surrounding space using utility pods. Ships are built from the resources. Missions are all story-based; you're given goals right from the start. Finish the goals and the mission ends and the story progresses. Sure, there are surprises along the way, but what needs to be accomplished is clearly detailed. Mission levels were fairly quick; we never felt like we needed to take time to harvest out the entire map in order to complete a level.

Eventually Far Gate will get a US publisher; it's too good not to eventually find a home. Sales will furnish funds for SuperXStudios to hire more people, work on more projects and shine as an example of what four guys with a lot of heart can create.