An upcoming 3D space combat game where you command capital ships in epic space battles.

Star Villains and Space Heroes is a space combat game geared towards epic space battles between huge capital ships, using Newtonian physics, simple FPS style controls and a third person camera.

This is a game about big ships. We love space fighters too, but we wanted to create a world where you could step into the shoes of a space captain, not just a space pilot. As you move your mouse to aim weapons, and hit keys to fly your ship, you can imagine your space-captain persona frantically yelling out orders over the sounds of explosions and alarms, your embattled crew racing to carry out your every word.

Click the headers to take a look at some of the important features of the game.

▼ Newtonian Physics

There's no friction in space, and space has three dimensions. If you start heading in one direction, you'll head that way unless acted upon by another force (usually your engines). It takes a minute to get used to, but once you do, you'll find all sorts of clever maneuvers and strafing runs to keep you occupied.

We've gone to great lengths to ensure that such battles are still fun, and perhaps a little less... realistic. You can use engine abilities to change course, and weapons have distinct ranges of effectiveness to keep battles from becoming too frustrating.

▼ Five Distinct Factions

We're planning five distinct factions: the humans of EMPOL, the robotic AIAD, the Solonar Empire, the digital Integrated Group and the isolationist Cygnathean Hegemony. Each of these factions has their own extensive backstory, unique ship designs and particular style of play. There's sure to be something for everyone.

You can learn more about the universe we're building, including faction briefs and a detailed starmap, over on the Universe page.

▼ Dozens of Ship Types

We plan on including a great variety of ships - likely more than ten for each faction. These range from small scout ships with a fwe turrets to large dreadnaughts bristling with weaponry.

If you want to take a look at the different vessels we've revealed - so far - you can head over to the Ships page.

▼ Space Terrain and Environments

One neat feature we've been working on is space environments which feature terrain-like objects to interact with. And that means more than *just* asteroids. Though hey, let's be honest, there are asteroids too. You can fly through sprawling orbital complexes, through planetary rings, or inside vast engineering megastructures which encompass the entire battlefield.

There's more interaction that just crashing into things too - some exotic phenomena might repair your ship, break missile locks or even trigger an ancient doomsday device!

▼ Tactical Views

Space combat in capital ships is quite complex. Luckily, a captain has tools at his or her disposal to interact with the world and help in combat.

Pressing the middle mouse button lets you cycle through several view modes that an experienced player will find very helpful.

The Tactical View lets you zoom in on distant targets to improve your aim or engage targets that are far away.
Electronic Warfare View lets you see a schematic view of the battlefield, view projectiles, look at trajectories and rapidly assess threats.
Fleet View shows you what your allies are doing, and lets you give them orders and destinations.
Carrier View lets you command your fighter squadrons in great detail. If you're a carrier commander, you may spend a lot of time here!

▼ AI Fleets

A true admiral doesn't just command one starship - and a fleet of ships is better than a lone wolf. In skirmish, multiplayer or single player, it pays to have some allies.

We are including many AI commands that will let the player control allied ships. Designate targets, give protection orders, or just let the ships' captains choose what to do, it's your choice.

▼ Lots of Ways to Play

We're planning a number of different ways for you to play Star Villains and Space Heroes.

Drop into a fully customizable skirmish battle, selection your ship, allies, enemies and battleground. Fight it out with many gametypes, like Fleet Battle, Survival, Convoy Defence and more!

Play with your friends (and enemies) online in multiplayer matches.

Select a faction and take on the Star Villains and Space Heroes single player campaign. Level up your crew, kit out your ship and play a mix of freeform and scripted missions.

Release Information

We've already released an alpha version which shows off a prototype of our game. you can download it at IndieDB for Windows and Linux.

The full game will take some time to complete, so we are planning to have an incremental release schedule. This means that we'll soon be releasing an initial public beta version, with more of the game's features to follow in three subsequent updates. Our plans are as follows:

Skirmish

Multiplayer

Content

Campaign

Skirmish mode

Two factions of ships: EMPOL and AIAD

Several detailed maps

Multiplayer Skirmish

The Solonar Empire and more ships for EMPOL and AIAD

Carriers!

More skirmish game modes and maps

The Integrated Group and Cygnathean Hegemony factions

Even more game modes and maps

Pick a faction and play out missions and storylines in the Star Villains and Space Heroes universe

This schedule isn't set in stone, and we may make some changes, and there will likely be small releases between the large patches. Stay tuned for more information!