The Homeworld Map is perhaps my best known project on the internet. Known to many Homeworld fans, the Homeworld map was an attempt to chart the universe depicted in the Homeworld series of computer games created by Relic Entertainment.

The genesis of this effort came from my recruitment in the original Point-Defense Modification for the Homeworld 2 engine. Among other tasks I wanted to create the map so that the rest of the team could reference. Using some guidelines that the creative team had came up with, I created a prototype version of what would become the Homeworld map. While I did use a few reference and concept images to guide this effort, it was nowhere near as developed as future maps would be.

The epic of the Homeworld saga spans the edge of their galaxy to the Galactic core, where the Homeworld of the ancient exiles lies. Though the games only give us the names of five races (with development documentation giving us a couple more), this is not enough to populate the universe with. Beginning even here, I had to create new races and people to expand the universe. I did my best to draw from mythology, ancient history, and Biblical stories to populate this universe (as the original Homeworld has done). With the exception of some purists, these changes were largely accepted by the community.

In Janurary of 2007 I decided that I wanted to create an independent map of the Homeworld univse in vector artwork, having just learned how adobe Illustrator worked. As I recall, this was essentially re-tracing my Point-Defense Mod version of the map but beginning to make some editorial changes. Work on the map spanned about a year.

Eventually the results of this work was compiled into the first version of the Homeworld map: Version 1:

In spite of how popular the Homeworld map became in the community, I knew it was inaccurate. This, combined with wanting to make an effort not based on the Point-Defense Mod original, lead me to start on version 2.

At the base of this effort was a map of Galaxy M51. At least one piece of Homeworld development artwork used M51 as a basis for their drawing, and I decided to do the same for a second attempt. I also drew from every concept artwork I could at the time to create the most accurate effort possible based on all sources.

Unfortunately, it was pointed out on the relicnews forums by user BmB that the Homeworld galaxy is not exactly the same as the Whirpool galaxy. There were enough differences in the second version and what other sources were describing that this effort had to come to a stop.