Space Empires: Starfury is an action

Action game

Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...

 video game developed by Malfador Machinations

Malfador Machinations

Malfador Machinations is a small game company based in Santa Rosa, California. They are best known for their Space Empires series.-Brief history:...

 and published by Shrapnel Games

Shrapnel Games

Shrapnel Games is an independent American video game publisher that specializes in the strategy and role playing genres, particularly turn-based strategy games. It was founded in 1999 by Tim Brooks in Cary, North Carolina...

 on October 2, 2003.

Gameplay

In a departure from previous Space Empires games, players control a single spaceship as opposed to a fleet. Gameplay involves travelling between planets, accepting missions and upgrading the spaceship with new weapons. The game features three dimensional graphics, but movement is restricted to two dimensions.

Development

Space Empires: Starfury is the first game developed by Malfador Machinations to use three dimensional graphics. The game was initially planned as the combat engine for Space Empires V

Space Empires V

Space Empires V is a 4X turn based strategy game that was released in 2006. It was developed by Malfador Machinations and published by Strategy First. The game retains many races and technologies from its predecessor, Space Empires IV .-Gameplay:While Space Empires V retains much of its...

, but it was decided that it was not "deep" enough for that purpose. Instead, the game evolved into a single-ship game based in the Space Empires universe.