Men of Stars is an experimental series of science fiction RPG demo projects created to push the technological boundaries of GEM3. Each project features its own visual style and gameplay characteristics, allowing the Best Way team to test engine capabilities and explore new creative directions, including new game genres and gameplay systems that could be built on the engine.

The name Men of Stars was a playful internal working title chosen to reflect the project’s science fiction direction, derived as a light variation of Men of War.

By choosing a sci-fi theme and a space setting, we gained creative freedom to expand the engine’s capabilities. We experimented with large scale modular space stations, complex architectural structures, and highly detailed environments, creating an ideal foundation for testing different combat systems and gameplay mechanics.

We developed construction tools for building massive modular structures and transformable robots, built and refined AI systems, and implemented a graph editor for creating materials, branching dialogues, and behavior scenarios for different unit types, including humans, animals, robots, and vehicles. We also tested systems for simulating living world behavior and experimented with different unit control options and camera control modes.

A major focus of the work was the implementation and testing of an improved lighting system, new special effects, and realistic sound propagation models for indoor and outdoor environments. The only real limitation in building game locations was imagination and the production time required for models and effects.

Ultimately, Men of Stars became a key technological platform that laid the foundation for our team’s later large scale projects, including Nuclear Union and Project 5.