SPACEWARS STORY
The companion novel will provide an insight into the Space Wars universe, as well as an intimate perspective on people within their empires. As a foundation and backstory for the future campaigns, the history, goals and motivations behind these races are expressed in this 400+ page novel. It follows several characters within this universe…
FREE PEOPLES OF SOL
A young son of a well-renowned pirate captain finds his own life in the Helix, reluctantly pushed to follow in his late father’s footsteps. In a world where it is difficult to distinguish friends from enemies, he uncovers his father’s hidden agenda: Discovering the dark secrets to how the Sol Imperial Worlds’ leadership came to power.
SOL IMPERIAL WORLDS
A brash, overconfident graduate out of Naval Academy, she learns the harsh realities of command quickly with near fatal encounters with the Genari and Hive. Hardened by the life and death choices she has to make with every encounter, innate compassion and empathy becomes more difficult with every loss. With a mix of luck and tactical skill, she attracts the attention of top brass, and ends up entangled in not only a war with Genari, but the forces within the Sol Imperium itself.
GENARI UNITED EMPIRE
An orphan of the Empire, trained to fight in the Year Games, ends up becoming a formidable Marine. Adopted by one of the Matriarchs to revive her line, he is groomed to become a captain of his own ship. A natural born leader, his innate strategic skill and success in combat propels him to the highest ranks of command. The path up the ranks is not without its own difficulties however, as he has contend with the infighting between Matriarchs and the prejudice of being one who was not born of the line.
MA’ALAKETH CONFEDERATION
A high ranking commander with a large powerbase is decieved by his superiors, losing his flagship on a peace mission. Reinventing his role in the Ma'Alaketh technocratic society, he makes it his mission to learn more about the two warring races, and becomes the first to make direct contact with the two empires. It is only then that he comes to realize that peace may be impossible between Sol and Genari, and his surperiors may have a hand in it all.
THE HIVE
A spore shot out into space in the middle of a Genari assault on its homeworld finds a way to escape the massacre. Learning the life of an organic in space alone, it manages to survive encounters with the hostile Genari warships, and eventually grows to become a formidable entity. As it matures, it finds links with other minds in the Hive, eventually working together to remove the metallic infestations that have dominated their once placid region of space.
GET A SNEAK PEEK
Read an 8-page excerpt from the the beginning of Chapter 2 of the novel.
CHAPTERS WRITTEN / IN PROGRESS
ABOUT THE CREATOR: Robert Simyar
Robert founded the Star Trek and chess clubs in his high school and college, and became a gamemaster in the clubs for the Star Fleet Battles board game, as well as Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator. He then started working on his own board game system, and continued to run tournaments for the board game through college. He also worked on making text adventure games on the Atari ST as well as Apple IIc computers, and graphic artwork for the Atari ST magazine.
His obsession with starships and space battles led him to work on a completely new universe, with a storyline and game system developed over the years. Starting in 1998, he started the Heroes of Might and Magic Tournament of Honor, which was the largest tournament site for players of Heroes II through VI to compete for rankings and awards. He learned to build websites that way, as well as manage players.
With his love of games like Heroes of Might and Magic, the space battles and visuals of Homeworld, and seeing the success of indie games like Subset Games' FTL (which he loves to play), he decided to create a game that is sorely missing in the strategy game universe. With the financial success of his other website business, he was finally able to afford to finally create the game he wanted. Also an avid collector of starship models, he wanted to see his ship creations come to life. Space Wars: Interstellar Empires is a labor of love, and he would be happy to see it come to light, whether it is profitable or not. He hopes this game will fun for fans of turn-based strategy and ship battles like himself. He now works with Desert Owl Games to help develop and completely finances Space Wars out of his pocket.
ABOUT DESERT OWL GAMES
The Desert Owl Team are the developers of turn based strategy games like Pox Nora, and were the ideal group to help build Space Wars with a smaller, indie budget. With their location in Tucson, Arizona, they are close to Robert's hometown of Phoenix. Better than outsourcing a game like this, the more intimate interaction of Developer/Producer helps keep this game built on the right path with the right vision. As of this writing, the game has been in development for the past 18 months, and is currently in Alpha.