Few game companies can boast a history as rich and impressive as LucasArts, the official interactive arm of the George Lucas empire. Modern gamers are familiar with their IP-centric portfolio, including in-house games like The Force Unleashed and Clone Wars, and their externally licensed titles like LEGO Indiana Jones and Knights of the Old Republic. You'd be hard-pressed to find an adult gamer, as well, who doesn't still hold a fondness for LucasArts' wildly original adventure games of the 1990s. The company has published quite a few high-profile titles in its lifetime, and whether you love or hate the course they have taken, few would argue that LucasArts has not made a significant impact on the gaming industry over the last 26 years.
As a company that has delivered so many unique titles, inimitable personalities, and unforgettable moments to gamers everywhere, LucasArts is an institution with countless stories to tell -- tales of the strange occurrences and shifting landscapes that made the company who it was back then, and who it is today. Thankfully, for gaming history buffs everywhere, those stories have finally been collected on paper, complete with inside looks at the artwork, design documents, and personal commentaries of the creators themselves. Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts will be published this month, telling the company's complete tale from Ballblazer to Force Unleashed.
The book was written by Rob Smith, current editor of PlayStation: The Official Magazine, and games industry correspondent for over 15 years. Over the course of his career, Smith has had the luxury of seeing both sides of the story, experiencing the ups and downs of LucasArts -- both as a gamer, experiencing the games from the outside, and as a journalist, meeting the individuals who made these games possible. Last week, Smith's publisher treated fans and press to a celebration of the book's impending release, allowing eager readers to pick up early copies of the book, and socialize with Smith and several of the LucasArts old guard, surrounded by original concept art and even a 1983 Star Wars arcade cabinet.
We caught up with Rob Smith, who was kind enough to speak to us about his personal history with LucasArts, his own memories of their games, and what readers might expect to learn from Rogue Leaders.
GameCyte: Why now? What made you feel it was the right time to tell this story?
Rob Smith: We actually started this, looking towards LucasArts' 25th anniversary, which was actually last year. A project this size just takes a long time, so we couldn't really hang it on the 25th anniversary. But, for an independent company to have 25 years of history in this games industry -- there were just so many different pieces of the story to tell. There were just a lot of stories that we could tell right now.
GC: Tell us a bit about your personal history with LucasArts, if you would.
RS: Well, my history starts as a gamer. I played the games back in the day, when I first started playing video games, which was around '82, '83, but on the ZX Spectrum in England, so we got sort of different ports of them.
But then, once I started in the industry, obviously, LucasArts was such a powerhouse, and every game that came out was one that, from the journalistic standpoint, you wanted to get the first story on it, and you were pitching for the exclusive. I remember, I actually worked for a different magazine, when they walked in with PC Gamer with Dark Forces on the cover, and dropped it down, and it was just like, "Yep -- we want that story." That was the perception of all the games that they had, and that history, from gamer through professional career, working with the company, gave me a sort of background of both sides of it. It gave me an ability to, I suppose, understand what it was that a gamer might like to read about the company.
GC: Well, as a gamer, which one was your first, and which one was your favorite?
RS: *long breath* Whoo, yeah. I've had a really tough time remembering which one was the first, because I believe the first was PHM Pegasus. I didn't realize, because I was into the flight sims and some of those... I didn't quite go back to Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus!, but I played Labyrinth, and I didn't realize at the time, because I was just playing them, that they were all connected by the same company.
My favorite was just so hard, because the one that I've gone to, as my favorite, I suppose, is the one that I remember having the most thrilled excitement about, and that was Jedi Knight. You know, I loved Dark Forces, but Jedi Knight just took that and took it to a place that we hadn't seen before. Playing multiplayer, and using the lightsaber, and all these things for the first time, was just absolutely phenomenal. I just remember that excitement, because I actually did the first review in PC Games Magazine, and just to get that story was fantastic.
GC: As an industry journalist, which one did you have the most fun covering?
RS: My history with them was also funny, because when I finally became EIC of PC Gamer in 2000, my first cover for PC Gamer was Star Wars: Obi-Wan. I had John Alvin -- who passed away recently, actually -- he was the very famous Star Wars poster artist, who did a lot of the iconic art, and I commissioned him to do a painting for the cover. And I was so proud of that -- and then then game got canceled on PC.
GC: Ouch.
RS: *laughs* Came out on Xbox, but just the fact that it got cancelled was tragic.
GC: Well, on the note of cancellations and tragedies... among dedicated adventure gamers, there's a perception that, right around 1998 or so [just after Grim Fandango], that LucasArts started taking a turn for the worse. What can you tell us about that period, if you were still very close to the company?
RS: Yeah. Really, the interesting part is that personalities change, and the economies of what you want to be change. It was around that time, as well, that they were getting into the Star Wars games. This company didn't do a Star Wars game for ten years, and yet it was so known for that franchise, and for Indy. So I think there were a lot of different pieces of the story, with different people, unsure of where this independent company should go. I mean, this company was potentially up for sale at one point.
The company [didn't know], was gaming going to take off in the way that everybody thought it would? You know, a game comes out like Rebel Assault, and it doesn't only sell games, it sells PCs and CD-ROM drives, because it was the first real sort of showcase that you could put in the PC, and say, "This is the multimedia future." And so, between all those pieces, when if you've got a powerhouse franchise, you've certainly got the keys to the kingdom -- what do you do? Well, you throw an awful lot of stuff at that, and some of it hit... and some of it didn't.
GC: *laughs* Well, then there was a period, earlier this decade, where it looked like LucasArts was going to attempt to recover some of those roots, with relaunches of Full Throttle and Sam & Max, and then suddenly, without warning, those disappeared as well.
RS: I think that there's an element of capturing the magic, and... we cover it in the book, Full Throttle II's near-release. We've got all the concept art from that, because these games were a long way down the road. But, decisions were made, and I'm sure there's a lot of people on the development side that were saying, "This was going to be funny, it was going to be great," and there's a lot of commentary about the fact that it was a good game. Good games don't necessarily sell.
That is the tragedy of the business. There are so many examples of good games, and you can even take something like -- a game that I love -- Grim Fandango. Phenomenal game, and everybody who has played it, loves it; raves about it. They talk about it to this day. From a commercial standpoint? Really not a big success. Not any kind of success.
That, fundamentally, when the industry itself is changing, when technology is changing, when consoles are taking over... LucasArts was very slow to get onto the console bandwagon. And when it did, it just wanted to put the popular franchises out, with the Star Wars logo, and you end up with Masters of Teräs Käsi or something.
GC: *laughs*
RS: So that isn't a way to build your company brand, or your IP brand, and it makes you less able to really experiment with those cutting-edge design ideas.
GC: That brings us to LucasArts today, where they're starting to put out titles like Fracture and The Force Unleashed. Where do you think this is going to take them next?
RS: Well, I don't think that Fracture was particularly well-received. My personal opinion -- it's not great. But it's an externally developed game, and there's been a mix of how LucasArts has managed its internal and external development. Certainly, from the internal side, you look at Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and from a gamer's standpoint, I think there's a little bit of disappointment, but the story was phenomenal. It sold incredibly well; it proved there's a real market there for content around the Star Wars universe, if it can be delivered in the right way. George Lucas has said that the interactive part is that future.
I really think that they went through a lot of hard work to manage the technology and process internally, to allow them to get to a point where they're shipping a game. That, in itself, is a painful experience, and there were casualties along the way. What we see, heretofore, forward... I know that they have interesting IP developments, they have Lucas, himself, committed to an interactive element to his company, and they've still got the powerhouse franchises.
GC: What do you think of their ability to continue licensing out their IPs, through, say, the LEGO games?
RS: They've proven that it's a terrific opportunity. There was a period where, the philosophy was "Let's give our IP to the best developers in that space, and see what they do." We ended up with Sony Online, who had EverQuest at the time, they were the MMO people; they get Galaxies. You've got BioWare as the best RPG company; they get Knights of the Old Republic. Raven got the shooter [Jedi Outcast]. They've done that before, with externals, and that was one decision in one time frame -- there's a lot of details to that, that are lost in the sands of company history.
But they also need to be able to develop internally, and they've gone through, "Well, should we do this?" because the technology expense is so much, and they're creating their own pieces, but the assets they have as a broader company? They've got ILM! There are no better effects people on the planet than ILM. If you can tap into that resource, to deliver it on the technology that we have today, and what's coming, perhaps, in the next generation, that's got to take you to some pretty exciting interactive gaming moments.
GC: Looking back at the entire journey of LucasArts, as you've seen it, from the beginning to where it is now, which period best sums it up for you?
RS: Well, there was the middle period of the SCUMM adventures. I think, if you were to compare it to comics, that it was probably the golden age. Anything there -- Secret of Monkey Island, and Sam & Max, and Day of the Tentacle, all came out of a group that was just ticking on a beat that was a unique spirit at its time. It hasn't -- it can't be recaptured again. Nobody's going to recapture that again. They were small teams that could work with passion, develop on a cheaper budget, put out different versions, and be successful. Today's gaming industry is very, very different. There are high points and low points across the entire spectrum.
There are people who have worked at the company, very well respected developers and designers, like Hal Barwood, who worked on the Indiana Jones games, but also had RTX Red Rock on his résumé. Not a lot of people liked that, but in the book, I said, we can't just ignore it. There's interesting stories about how he got to where he was, and Hal's got interesting commentary on his perception of what the game was at the time, because it's not a game that scored very well. It wasn't a success, but there's still an interesting background to it.
GC: To you, who were the defining personalities that made LucasArts who it was?
RS: I think the people that most would point to... obviously, Tim Schafer; you can't talk about LucasArts and the glory days from a gamer's standpoint without referencing Tim. Ron Gilbert, obviously, because he sort of brought Tim along. But there's also Noah Falstein, and Hal, who were working on game designs during that same time. Larry Holland -- he was external, on the Totally Games team, doing the flight sims, but then he did a little thing called X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and they were just incredible.
There's certainly a period right there where it really was sort of, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, and really, through Jedi Knight, it was a real golden age.
GC: There are a lot of people with a fondness for that golden age, who would love to see LucasArts, say, re-release those games on other platforms. Say, through maybe Xbox LIVE, or Steam, or any of those. Do you think there would be a market for that?
RS: I don't think there's any doubt there'd be a market for it. I think there are a lot of other business reasons, legal reasons, why that might not be possible. I don't think anybody would say -- if you could play Secret of Monkey Island, today, on Xbox LIVE, would you?
You know, it's a different experience when you're playing with a controller, doing that kind of thing. Would it work quite so well? They don't necessarily translate that well to modern controls, because they were built for a different time and place. I think that the great part of them is that the humor and the gameplay mechanics are, I would almost say, timeless. You can still play Monkey Island and laugh at the dialogue; it's just funny. And it's as funny today as it was then.
There's a market, and I think that there's proof of a market by doing a book about the market and the games for that market, but it's a tough sell.
GC: When you were writing this book, what was the part you enjoyed writing about the most?
RS: Largely, it was about some of the games that didn't come out. Some of the stories there, about what they worked on... things like Habitat, which is just a fascinating story:
Basically, they had Chip Morningstar and a couple of other guys, who created, basically, the concept of an MMO. They called it Habitat, and put it out on the Commodore 64, for the 300 baud modem. Elements like the word "avatar" for your in-game personality, were coined in the design document for Habitat. That was done at LucasArts!
It never came out in the US, for all kinds of business reasons, and bandwidth reasons, and the market, but the fact that that was the kind of creativity that was being fostered, just said a lot for the smart people that were working there at the time.
GC: Can we expect more books from you? Not necessarily on LucasArts -- on any topic.
RS: I think there's a lot of interesting stories to tell. The game industry's gotten to a mature point, where there is the possibility to give narrative to its history. That's what we're trying to capture. The book's a narrative history of LucasArts, with the personalities involved.
There are other companies out there that do that, other sorts of franchises that have that kind of legacy. By getting that behind-the-scenes thing, and presenting it in the way that I think we were able to do with this book, I think there's a good chance.
We would like to thank Mr. Smith for his time and his candor in answering our questions. Rogue Leaders is being published by Chronicle Books, and is expected to be on bookshelves in Mid-December.
[...] was released in December 08, I somehow missed it! Rob Smith, the editor of PlayStation magazine, writes the history of LucasArts and fills it with amazing (previously unseen!) production artwork an.... I have some strong attachments to LucasArts, despite their 10 year dive into obscurity. The years [...]
Few game companies can boast a history as rich and impressive as LucasArts, the official interactive arm of the George Lucas empire. Modern gamers are familiar with their IP-centric portfolio, including in-house games like The Force Unleashed and Clone Wars, and their externally licensed titles like LEGO Indiana Jones and Knights of the Old Republic. You'd be hard-pressed to find an adult gamer, as well, who doesn't still hold a fondness for LucasArts' wildly original adventure games of the 1990s. The company has published quite a few high-profile titles in its lifetime, and whether you love or hate the course they have taken, few would argue that LucasArts has not made a significant impact on the gaming industry over the last 26 years.
GameCyte: Why now? What made you feel it was the right time to tell this story?
GC: *laughs* Well, then there was a period, earlier this decade, where it looked like LucasArts was going to attempt to recover some of those roots, with relaunches of Full Throttle and Sam & Max, and then suddenly, without warning, those disappeared as well.
GC: Looking back at the entire journey of LucasArts, as you've seen it, from the beginning to where it is now, which period best sums it up for you?
GC: When you were writing this book, what was the part you enjoyed writing about the most?
0 Comments For This Post
1 Trackbacks For This Post
March 19th, 2009 at 7:05 am
[...] was released in December 08, I somehow missed it! Rob Smith, the editor of PlayStation magazine, writes the history of LucasArts and fills it with amazing (previously unseen!) production artwork an.... I have some strong attachments to LucasArts, despite their 10 year dive into obscurity. The years [...]
Leave a Reply