Star Wars: The Old Republic Preview
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The other studio co-director, Gordon Walton, explains that BioWare could easily have ended up making an MMO other than this one. "We had many options, and we knocked it down to two or three several times, but everything came back to Knights of the Old Republic. It was the right universe. We just had to make the deal, so we did."
Once that deal had been struck there was the formidable task of creating a studio of over a hundred people, which would then produce the content required to fill out a massive, multiplayer world. "BioWare Austin came in to existence in early 2006... We started the game working with only a few people. We're now a very, very large studio," says Walton. "Some of the staff came from SOE, but the early seeds were all BioWare. James (Ohlen) has some considerable experience, he was the lead designer on Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights and KotOR. We knew who the high level core creative team was going be. But the key hire that wasn't settled on day one was Ohlen, because we didn't know who we would get."
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This philosophy is what has made ToR's combat system so excitingly diverse. BioWare have developed different game mechanics for every character class. The Jedi and Sith are melee-focused magic users, while smuggler and trooper classes will use cover to keep out of trouble, and fight with blasters. The bounty-hunter, the only other class so far revealed, can use the kinds of tools we seldom see in MMOs: a jetpack and a flamethrower. Walton explains that this was intentional: "You have to do that if you want players to have different experiences while playing together."
Each of the classes has their own separate game mechanic, and each needs to be catered for within the layout of the levels. As I trundle down a Star Destroyer corridor as a Sith, I notice abandoned equipment lockers and crevices at the side of the room. "Hmm. Are they for the smuggler class to hide behind?" "Yes. It's causing a real headache for our level designers."
