A long time ago, in a world of video games far, far away, Star Wars games were awesome. Whether LucasArts was was producing excellent space combat sims like X-Wing and its sequel or solid first-person shooters like Dark Forces, LucasArts could apparently do no wrong.

Then…everything sucked.

Some of this can be attributed to LucasArts farming out games to 3rd-party developers. Some of this is a total lack of quality control (remember Rebellion? Ooopha). Some if it can be related to a lack of focus and mismanagement. However you want to slice it, Star Wars games are a ghost of their former glory.

Is there hope for the future? Well, Bioware making an MMO is a great first step as Bioware is one of the few 3rd-party developers to “get” Star Wars.

For further illumination on the issues involved in developing a Stars Wars games, Developer magazine visited LucasArts and spoke with the people in charge.

“Rather than being timid in anyway, very early on we really shot for the moon and then let those in charge tell us what we can’t do,” says producer Cameron Suey, who is part of the group expanding The Force Unleashed with new DLC and a special Sith Edition release.

“We went for everything we could think of and said ‘pull us back’, which I think was a huge advantage for the development of The Force Unleashed, because thematically it was all about things gamers have never seen before. We actually started with pre-visualisation animations, and took that straight to licensing and to George and asked if we could go with what we had. It was actually surprising they said yes, because we really had gone big with Force Powers and such. However, we’d followed the concept of the big Force Powers shown in the original 2D Clone Wars TV series. What we were doing wasn’t completely unprecedented, and it was probably respect to other new elements of the canon that had helped us so much.”

It’s a process that the licensing department seems open to, and the spirit of daring to push what the Star Wars universe can play host to is by no means exclusive to the Force Unleashed team.

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There are a ton of books available that proclaim to offer the inside story of George Lucas and his company LucasFilm, but none are better than Droidmaker, written by Michael Rubin. This mammoth 518-page tome details the creation of Pixar, LucasFilm’s CGI revolution, the creation of its videogame empire and tons of technical aspects that make for fascinating reading.

All of this is now available for free, as the author has decided to unleash his work for one and all.

More details at can be found here.

Download the book here:

Act 1: Intro plus Chapters 1-6 [1.8MB]
Act 2: Chapters 7-17 [3.7MB]
Act 3: Chapters 18-26, Index [4.3MB]

With news that LucasArts will soon be bringing a revamped edition of The Secret to Monkey Island to XBLA behind us, Ron Gilbert, the mastermind who created the original classic, has posted a mammoth recollection of his work on the game. This is a fascinating, in-depth look at the making of the game, complete with relevant screenshots and typically humorous Ron Gilbert memories.

Ron Gilbert & Monkey Island Memories

Once upon a time, LucasArts made great games. Their name was synonymous with quality. They made great flight-sims like Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, used the Star Wars brand to brilliant effect in X-Wing Vs. TIE-Fighter, and created the best adventure games ever in Secret of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and so on. Then, they went to shit and have been wallowing in digital fecal matter ever since.

A glimpse into the past will soon be evident for those too young to remember those wonderful days of LucasArts dominance, as The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, is making its way to XBLA. Details are scant, but it is known the new edition will feature HD graphics, full voice-overs and some kind of revamped hint system for those of you not brilliant enough to handle insult sword-fighting.

More importantly, where is X-Wing Vs. TIE-Fighter: Multiplayer Edition? That’s what I’m talking about.

Source: Joystiq