Amy Hennig gives some hints on Visceral’s Star Wars game
Creative director Amy Hennig recently discussed Visceral’s action-adventure Star Wars title at a PAX West panel in Seattle.
Information on the game is still pretty tight, given that it doesn’t release until 2018. Hennig mentioned she would have to “parse [her]self carefully” as to not spoil anything. Still, we were able to learn a bit more about the project.
As reported by DualShockers, Hennig said that it has been a challenge for the team to create an “authentic Star Wars” experience:
So we’re working really close, and I’ve been blessed to be working really close with the Lucasfilm story group and Doug Chiang, 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.
Hennig noted that “guides” were required in crafting something authentic to Star Wars and hinted that AT-ST’s might make appearance in the game, alongside of “the new stuff, the new characters, the new story, the new locations, the new creatures, the new tech.”
The game has similarities to the Uncharted series Hennig previously worked on. However, she said “there are a few things that jumped out that were really different about Star Wars.”
A big difference, according to Hennig, is that in pulp adventures like Uncharted, or it’s main inspiration Indiana Jones, stick with main protagonist. In Star Wars, though, “you’re always cutting away to the bad guys, and seeing what they’re doing.”
In this vein, and touching on what Hennig said at Star Wars Celebration in July, she reiterated that Visceral’s Star Wars game will be focused on an ensemble cast:
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.
That was one example, but the other main example was that the side characters in Indiana Jones and that type of films are just that. They’re kind of along for the ride, but if you think to that compared to Han and Leia, and the other characters in Rebels, and the other characters in Rogue one, you can see that these are all ensemble stories. So if our game wasn’t an ensemble game, and we weren’t telling an ensemble story, then it wouldn’t pass the litmus test on whether it feels like Star Wars.
She further noted that “[h]aving a lone wolf protagonist wouldn’t feel right.”
She also mentioned that it has been difficult to craft an interactive narrative where the protagonists are underdogs:
Especially in a Star Wars story, they’re going to always be outgunned, outmatched, outmanned, right? They have to work together and they have to be cleverer than their enemies. Therefore, how do you turn that into gameplay? How do you take that idea and then deconstruct it as mechanics, sequences, then play to that core principle? That’s the challenge of making these kinds of things.
Not too much new stuff, but exciting nonetheless! I’m definitely eager to start roaming the Star Wars universe in a third-person action-adventure. The images we’ve seen so far, like the ones above from EA Play, definitely look promising.
The Star Wars Game Outpost will be following this project in the months and years ahead. Be sure to check out our Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date!
(H/T Gamespot)
