Inspired by classic RTS games like Homeworld, Supreme Commander, and Command and Conquer Red Alert, Stellar Warfare is an indie game with a stunning look to it. Created primarily by a single developer and featuring hundreds of ships, weapons, and modules to customize your fleet, it’s certainly one to watch. In its latest update, Tense Games delivers balance changes and a new feature designed to help players with less time on their hands.
Stellar Warfare is the passion project of solo developer Thomas van den Essenburg of Tense Games, who first started work on the space game in 2018. He states that his intent was to create “a Homeworld-like game but with base building and ship customization,” with other big RTS games such as Supreme Commander influencing certain structures and systems. There’s a short campaign along with single-player wave defense, base assault, and skirmish modes, as well as the ability to play skirmish and battle royale multiplayer matches.
Taking place after a galaxy-wide event known as The Light, a civil war has broken out that rapidly shattered long-established alliances and turned friends into foes. You gather resources, build out your base, and then design your ships from a range of custom parts before recruiting them in-game to partake in grand, cinematic space battles. With more than 40 buildings, 60 ship frames, 50 weapons, and 25 modules, there’s ample variety on offer.
The new Stellar Warfare update includes a range of balance changes. The Type-D, Hive, and Stinger ships now all have slightly more health, and many weapons have had their damage upgraded, while the Mirror Optics module now gives you more range than before but at the cost of a greater impact on your speed.
The big addition, however, is a new “happy hour” feature. Three times each day, you’ll get up to triple the usual loot drops for an hour, which Tense Games notes “should help those of you who don’t have a lot of time to play to have specific moments in which this is a little easier.” The loot consists of blueprints for ship frames, weapons, and modules, which unlock extra ways to upgrade your fleet, meaning you’ll want to grab as many as you can.
Stellar Warfare’s creator says he considers the current state of the game to be very playable, with at least 10 hours of gameplay. However, he still wants to add more campaign missions, further hone the enemy AI, and introduce extra quality-of-life features.
“By current estimates I believe that in roughly six months we should be able to put the ‘done’ stamp on this game,” he says, “but even then development will not stop and we will keep adding things based on either what we deem the highest priority, or simply fun factor.”
Stellar Warfare is out now on Steam in early access, priced at $19.99 / £16.75. You can head here to take a look for yourself.
Alternatively, try another of the best indie games out in 2024, or perhaps one of the best strategy games on PC right now.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.