The game features a single-player campaign that is similar to the previous installment, combining space exploration, alien dialogue, and ship-to-ship combat.

Accolade hired Legend Entertainment to create this sequel after the series creators Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford decided to pursue other projects.

[9] Where the first two games allowed two players to play at the same keyboard,[9] Star Control 3 includes multiplayer modes for network, modem, and serial connections.

The Captain eventually traces the origins of the hyperspace collapse to the galactic core and assembles an alliance of ten alien races to investigate the unexplored quadrant.

In the distant Kessari Quadrant, the Captain clashes with the Hegemonic Crux, a power bloc of several alien races led by the Ploxis Plutocrats.

The Captain's investigation also reveals an apocalyptic threat, the imminent return of interdimensional beings called the Eternal Ones, who appear once an eon to consume all sentient energy.

The Captain temporarily restores a single Precursor to their full intelligence, who explains that the hyperspace collapse is connected to interdimensional fatigue caused by the Eternal Ones.

They persuade the Owa race to stop dumping their antimatter waste on Rainbow Worlds, which was preventing them from performing their function of mitigating interdimensional fatigue.

[6] After the success of Star Control II, Accolade offered Ford and Reiche the same budget to produce a third game, which they turned down to pursue other projects.

[13] As Ford and Reiche had retained the rights to their characters and stories from the first two games,[14] they licensed their content to Accolade so that the publisher could create Star Control 3 without their involvement.

[11] Legend's writers included veterans from acclaimed adventure game developer Infocom,[2] with Lindner and Greenberg leading the writing team for Star Control 3.

[16] To guide the project, the staff at Legend assembled a "bible" about Star Control based on the series' manuals and scripts, with the fan community providing corrections and additions.

[18] Legend also consulted with Ford and Reiche to answer open questions from Star Control II, such as the true fate of the Precursors and the relationship between Earth and the Arilou.

[11] Legend also compiled a detailed binder of letters, faxes, and e-mails, with fan suggestions for the next Star Control game, which they incorporated into their plans.

[16] A major target of fan criticism was the tedium of the planetary resource gathering from Star Control II,[11][16] as well as complaints about returning to Earth to refuel.

[5] The team decided to replace planet landing with a colony management system,[17] an allusion to the strategy elements from the first Star Control game.

[3] The team eventually completed animations for 24 alien characters (12 new and 12 returning), which required extensive personnel to engineer, program, film, and convert to digital video.

[2] This array of camera angles and lighting effects proved to be a challenge but ultimately ran smoothly on an i486 processor,[11] as found in personal computers of the day.

[19][20] Audio producer Kathleen Bober auditioned talent from other games, as well as soap operas and documentaries, until they arrived at performances that felt accurate to the alien characters.

[5] The designers also chose a MIDI soundtrack instead of the previous sample-based module format, as this would make it easier to port the game to consoles (which ultimately never happened).

[2] In late 1997, MacSoft announced that they would re-publish several Accolade games for Mac OS,[25] leading to the re-release of Star Control 3 in April 1998.

[30] It debuted on PC Data's computer game sales charts in the eleventh place in September 1996,[22] and climbed to tenth position the following month.

[40] Tim Soete of GameSpot celebrated Star Control 3 for its integration of action, adventure, strategy, and exploration, calling it one of the best games of 1996.

[7] Writing for PC Gamer, Michael Wolf felt that Star Control 3 blended elements from previous games "with mixed results".

Overall, PC Gamer awarded the game an "Editor's Choice" with a 90% rating, stating that it "has some pretty big shoes to fill, and it does so beautifully".

[42] Next Generation criticized the port as "obsolete" and rated it lower than the original release, saying that Star Control 3 falls short of other space simulation games on Mac OS.

[17] Historian Rusel DeMaria also explained that fans did not consider Star Control 3 as good as its predecessor, noting that they were developed by different teams.