We still know almost nothing concrete about the 2018 Star Wars game from Uncharted creator Amy Hennig and Dead Space developer Visceral Games. But that doesn’t stop fans from being excited, and certainly doesn’t stop Hennig from feeding that excitement from time to time. Most recently, she again delved into the thought process going in to making the new title.
Speaking at PAX West (via DualShockers) Hennig outlined some of the steps her team is taking: “So we’re working really close, and I’ve been blessed to be working really close, with the Lucasfilm story group and Doug Chang, who is their Art Director and Senior Creative Director over there, and that whole team, to say ‘What is authentic Star Wars and how do we make more?’ Because our project is an original story.”
Continuing on, “A lot of projects are in the works, and the question is ‘Is this authentic Star Wars?’ right? And to understand what that is, and to have people there at LucasFilm that have helped us define what that is.
“Authentic Star Wars can mean that we get the AT-ST right, right? And of course we have to do that too, but it’s all about the new stuff, the new characters, the new story, the new locations, the new creatures, the new tech. All of this stuff that has to sit authentically alongside the Star Wars that we’re so familiar with.”
The challenge goes far beyond just fitting the new material into the universe however. “When we embarked on this, I did the same that I did before we made Uncharted, which is that I broke down in anal-retentive details what it means to be pulp-action adventure, particularly on Indiana Jones, of course…
“When I broke it down, of course the genre is action-adventure, so it shows a lot of similarities, but there are a few things that jumped out that were really different about Star Wars. So I thought that some of the rules I had used making Uncharted no longer applied.
“In Uncharted or in Indiana Jones you actually kinda stick with Indie the whole time. There are times you cut away, but it’s always something that informs you on what he is doing, like Marion in the tent. You don’t cut away to the bad guys, for instance.”
Star Wars stories operate differently. “In Star Wars you’re always cutting away to the bad guys, and seeing what they’re doing: ‘Meanwhile, back at the villain ranch…’”
Unlike a film, games have to express these aspects in an interactive way, something Hennig isn’t shying away from. “One of the challenges from a game design perspective is that this opens things up to the privileged observer problem. When we watch a film, we’re the privileged observer, right? We’re not the protagonist. Their struggle is illuminated by the things we can see that they don’t, right? Suspense and all that kind of stuff. How do you do that in a game where you’re supposed to identify with the protagonist and cut away the things that they don’t know?
“Our goal in this game is to tell an authentic Star Wars story in an interactive context. That carries with it a whole lot of rules and baggage, that we have to kind of deconstruct, and reconstruct and honor.”
Much of what Hennig had to say echoes remarks she made about the upcoming game at Comic Con this year. Seeing as it still doesn’t have a title or an exact release date, keep checking back right here on Gamespresso for everything on the 2018 game.