Forget everything you know about Star Wars games. The ones that used control pads, mice or keyboards. Because Fleet Commander, a student project, might just blow them all out the airlock.


It's been developed by Arthur Nishimoto, a student at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Initially designed in 2009 as a simple space strategy game, it soon evolved into a multiplayer project for the TacTile touch-screen display. Which, thanks to the fact it's not a commercial product, could use Star Wars ships and sound effects.

You can see a 2010 version of the game running here. While it looks good, it's the enormous version running in the video up top that will really get you excited, as it's like seeing a childhood dream of the perfect video game come to life.


The point here is supposed to be how a touch-screen input can be faster, more intuitive and more enjoyable than something as "abstract" as a mouse and/or keyboard. The point I'm getting is that stuff like this coming from students and fans makes Lucasarts look like a pack of schmucks for the way the license has been treated in recent years.