Homeworld is a real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Studios on September 28, 1999, for Windows.

The survivors journey with their spacecraft-constructing mothership to reclaim their ancient homeworld of Hiigara from the Taiidan, encountering a variety of pirates, mercenaries, traders, and rebels along the way.

In each of the game's levels, the player gathers resources, builds a fleet, and uses it to destroy enemy ships and accomplish mission objectives.

Critics praised the graphics, unique gameplay elements, and multiplayer system, though opinions were divided on the plot and high difficulty.

As a ship is damaged by weapons its health bar depletes, visual effects such as fire and smoke are added, and it can eventually explode.

In multiplayer mode, the mothership is capable of slow movement, and all research options permitted by the map are available via a technology tree, rather than dependent on a plot point.

[8] Together, they spent the next century developing and building a giant mothership that would carry 600,000 people to Hiigara, with neuroscientist Karan S'jet neurally wired into the ship as Fleet Command to replace an unsustainably large crew.

[9] The game opens with the maiden voyage of the mothership, testing the hyperspace drive which brings the fleet to a new destination by faster than light travel.

[10] A captured enemy captain claims that the Kharak genocide was the consequence of their violation of a 4,000-year-old treaty between the interstellar Taiidan Empire and the Kushan, which forbade the latter from developing hyperspace technology.

Along the way, they fight other descendants of their Hiigaran ancestors who have started worshiping a nebula which conceals them as a holy place, and who do not allow outsiders to leave due to fear of discovery.

[13] As their journey continues, the Kushan fleet gives sanctuary to the rebel imperial captain Elson, who informs them that the destruction of Kharak has sparked a civil war in the Taiidan Empire.

[16] The Galactic Council arrives shortly thereafter and confirms the Kushan's claim to Hiigara, a lush world in contrast to the desert planet of Kharak.

[19][21] Cirulis and Dembo, credited jointly as "Marcus Skyler", were selected by the publisher, Sierra Studios, partway through development to expand the story concept of Relic and Williams.

[23] In a February 1999 interview, Garden said the testers had found it much harder to play than it was for the developers, leading to the addition of features like short briefings at the beginning of levels to explain new concepts.

[29] The working title for the game was Spaghetti Ball, chosen for Garden's early vision of the battles as a mass of tangled flight paths as ships maneuvered around each other, contained within a larger sphere of available space.

[29] The sound design, audio production, and music were contracted to composer Paul Ruskay and Studio X Labs, which he founded in February 1999 after starting on Homeworld in October 1998.

[35][36] Homeworld was highly regarded by critics upon release and is listed by review aggregator Metacritic as the highest-rated computer game of 1999 and the third-highest on any platform for the year.

[3][4][38] Multiple reviewers, such as Vincent Lopez of IGN, also praised the detail and variety of the spaceships, and Jason Samuel of GamePro noted that Relic was able to use their graphics engine to create the intricate cutscenes rather than relying on prerecorded videos.

[3][6][38] The gameplay advances were also highly praised by critics: Lopez wrote that "Relic not only tackled space, but may have just changed strategy games forever.

[4][39][38][40] Homeworld's single-player plot received more mixed reviews; Lopez wrote it would keep players "rapt with attention", Samuel summarized it as a "superb story", and Levine said that it was "the first computer game to capture the grandeur and epic feel of the Star Wars movies".

[6][38][39] The Eurogamer review, however, considered it only "(mostly) engaging", and Keefer said that "although the story line is fluid and intriguing", for each mission "the overall theme is the same: Kill the enemy", while Ryan described a "meager single-player game".

Taking place 15 years after the events of Homeworld, the story centers on Kiith Somtaaw—a Hiigaran clan—and its struggles to protect Hiigara from a parasitic entity known as the Beast.

The game, set a century after the original Homeworld, pits the Hiigarans against a powerful, nomadic raider race called the Vaygr.

A prequel to the series, it is set on the planet of Kharak instead of in space, and features a war between Kushan clans during the discovery of the buried spaceship from Homeworld.

He also noted that neither game had code in a releasable or playable state when purchased, and they ended up recreating many of the original development tools with the assistance of the Homeworld mod community.

[62] The stand-alone expansion Homeworld: Cataclysm was not announced for a remake, despite the outspoken interest of Gearbox, as they were unable to find the original source code.

[78] Released digitally on February 25, 2015, for Windows computers by Gearbox and on August 6, 2015, for OS X by Aspyr Media, the collection includes the original and remastered versions of the two games.

[32] It also initially removed some functionality not present in Homeworld 2, such as the fuel system, ballistic projectile modeling, and tactical ship formations; some of these were restored in a 2016 patch.

[83] The remastered version was warmly received by critics; reviewers such as IGN's Dan Stapleton and Game Informer's Daniel Tack praised the story as still "fantastic" and "emotional", while Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot wrote that the gameplay was still entertaining 16 years later, and Tom Senior of PC Gamer applauded Gearbox's visual updates.