Star Wars 1313 composer talks what could’ve been
We’ll probably never get to play Star Wars 1313.
Set in the underworld of Coruscant, Disney cancelled the action-adventure game in 2013 after purchasing LucasFilm. Now, it merely lives on via YouTube videos. Despite its cancellation, the game’s composer, Jesse Harlin recently chatted with PC Gamer about 1313.
“That was a real crushing blow for a lot of reasons. 1313 was really shaping up to be something special,” he said. “The team loved what we were doing and we were experimenting a lot.”
The Coruscant underworld allowed for that extra experimentation.
“It’s funny because it’s becoming this sort of mythical game,” he added. “We were making a game about being inside Coruscant where people hadn’t seen before. I was getting to do a lot of stuff with the music that I hadn’t had an opportunity to do before too—I was creating music for street performers who would play in back alleys, there were Star Wars dance clubs that you couldn’t even go into but I was having to think: what does an alien dance club sound like?”
Harlin noted that it was difficult to say goodbye to Star Wars 1313 after it was cancelled.
“That was really hard,” he said. “I didn’t know for a fact that the game was cancelled until the day the company shut down. While we had a bad feeling the company was going to close, we didn’t have any advanced actual confirmed warning. In fact it was the opposite.”
There was also piece of music in the game inspired by Massive Attack after the lead designer on the game suggested the idea.
“The Massive Attack-meets-Star Wars song is sadly totally resigned to the history books,” Harlin said. “I don’t have a copy of it, it’s sitting somewhere on an archive in Disney. I remember spending time trying to figure out how to write this forlorn trip-hop love song. It was interesting.”
For those unaware, Massive Attack is a British trip hop/electronica band that gained popularity in the 1990s.
Harlin also worked on Republic Commando, which he put in 15 hour days for, Star Wars: The Old Republic (including music for its latest expansion) as well as Battlefront II.
The 1313 bits were part of a larger article on Mafia 3, which comes out in two days. If you’re looking forward to that game, the article is certainly worth a read.
It’s really unfortunate Star Wars 1313 never got made because it looks like it would be awesome. It was also rumored to be set around Boba Fett during his early career as a bounty hunter. While Star Wars Bounty Hunter
However, hopefully Visceral’s upcoming game will manage to successfully capture Star Wars in an action-adventure setting (even if it doesn’t include Boba Fett). The short teasers we’ve had on the game certainly look promising. The fact that Uncharted-veteran Amy Hennig helms the game is also a plus.
If a Boba Fett game ever gets made, what do you hope to see it in? Share your thoughts in the comments below, or give us a shout on Twitter or Facebook.
(Boba Fett image source. 1313 image source.)
