It can be tough helping to shape an industry, especially the ever-demanding field of computer gaming.

But Alex Garden had a dream and a clear idea of what he wanted: To develop games that break the mold and take gaming to the next level.

And, at age 24, the CEO of Relic Entertainment has accomplished just that with the release of Homeworld, the new real-time strategy game that has the game industry buzzing about the stunning graphics and groundbreaking 3D camera views. He has made such an impact that Computer Gaming World magazine has called him "the gaming industry's next Sid Meier."

"If I had known what was going to be involved in getting this project going, I may not have gotten started," he said. "My naivete saved me."

Garden's newest creation actually began in May 1997 when he was a programmer with Electronic Arts. He was a good friend with Chris Taylor, the lead designer of another highly successful RTS, Total Annihilation, developed for Cavedog Entertainment.

Taylor ("my mentor," Garden calls him) put him in touch with John Mavor at Cavedog, who in turn introduced him to Scott Lynch at Sierra Studios. Garden pitched his idea of a space-based game and intrigued Lynch enough to get Sierra to give them a budget for the project.

"We had three months to develop something we could show," he said. "We started with four people, and at the end of three months, we had a head-to-head version of the game. It was very crude, but it worked."

Next came the presentation to Sierra's board, a room filled with many big names in the gaming field. "We were the first presentation of the day, which wasn't good because everyone was tired. We set everything up and prayed it wouldn't crash."

It didn't, but it took awhile to get the board's interest. "I made my presentation and everyone was yawning and saying 'that's neat,' but when I finally said 'and you can rotate the camera angle,' everyone sat up and said 'What?' "

From there, Garden said, the sell was easy. He demonstrated the revolutionary look of the true 3D environment Homeworld is set in and showed the head-to-head game in action. "By the end of the meeting, everyone was cheering." As he walked out, it was clear Sierra wanted to be a part of Homeworld.

In explaining his view of the 3D environment, Garden says it is basically two 2D aspects put together for a 3D effect. One 2D element is the camera angles, while the other is the game itself.

"If I asked you what view Homeworld was, you would say 3D," he said, "but it is obviously 2D since it is viewed on a flat screen. Once I got those concepts straight, the rest was fairly easy. The goal was to get a cinematic "Star-Wars" feel to it."

But even as groundbreaking as the game looks and plays, Garden said he still wasn't satisfied. "Just as we were going final, we decided to do some more work, and then a little more. I knew the game was good, but it was never done completely to our standards."

He said that two patches were even released before the game was. "As the CDs were being printed, QA said they found a problem that needed to be fixed and that happened twice," he said.

Despite that, the game has gotten accolades from just about every gaming magazine or online site that has reviewed it. And feedback on the message boards at Relic has been almost all positive, Garden said.

"We get a lot of posts 'I like your game, but...,' and we value the fan input. We are releasing a patch at the end of the month that will deal with some of the issues that have come up on the boards," he said.

Among the things included in the latest patch:

• Network support so people can set up their own Homeworld dedicated servers
• Measures to help stop cheating during online games
• Various minor bug fixes

Essential Links
Journey to Homeworld on Strategy Planet
Strategy Planet, home of strategy games.
Relic Entertainment Website
Homeworld Demo at FilePlanet
More Strategy Demos