Star Wars Gameplay Video Q&A
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Q: Is it realistic to expect that players will be able to do all that in-game once your engine is finished? Also, with all the crazy things you've already shown that a Jedi can do, how can you create over-the-top action sequences and still please Star Wars diehards that truly care how accurate you are as to what a Jedi can and can't do?
A: Once everyone -- including George Lucas -- signed off on the concept of the Force unleashed, we had that "oh crap" moment I mentioned earlier when we realized that we had to actually go off and build a game based around it.
Fortunately, at LucasArts, we strongly believe that game design should drive technology and not the other way around. In order to realize our core concept of the Force unleashed, we've been working closely with Industrial Light & Magic. Now that we're right down the hall from the most important visual-effects house in movie history, we're not only working with some of their best engineers, but we're also using the same toolset to make our game that was used to produce the special effects for movies like Pirates of the Caribbean 2.
Beyond ILM, we've also been developing and integrating some truly bleeding-edge technologies that will ensure that no matter how many times you play the game, you'll never see the same thing twice.
We're working with Pixelux Entertainment to integrate Digital Molecular Matter into our engine. DMM simulates the ways in which materials behave in the real world based on real-world physics. We can make wood splinter and crack, glass shatter, and metal dent, all very authentically. And again, the experience is different every time based on how you interact with an object -- hitting a piece of plywood with a softball is very different than hitting it with an R2 unit, and we can simulate that in real time.
We're also working with NaturalMotion on the "euphoria" biomechanical AI system mentioned earlier. Euphoria gives our characters a central nervous system that results in very realistic reactions and interactions with the environment. We can even impart characters with a sense of self-preservation. Stormtroopers thrown from a building will try to protect themselves from the fall, or grab hold of something to keep from plummeting to their deaths. All of this is simulation-based, so it's different every time.
Again, game design drives technology. In the video, you see things like shattering glass, stormtroopers reaching for their weapons when suspended in mid-air, junk being ripped apart... All of this can be achieved using the technology being developed at LucasArts with partners like Pixelux Entertainment and NaturalMotion.
In terms of being "accurate" with the use of the Force, we're committed to creating powers that are logical and believable extensions of the Force as seen in the films, and provide tremendous gameplay opportunities. As a diehard Star Wars fan myself, I know that one of the big questions fans have when they see the video is "Why is that Jedi using Force lightning?" It's a legitimate question, but we think it'll make a lot more sense to everyone once they know a bit more about the story. I think we've got a story that will please everyone from the most hardcore to the most casual of Star Wars fans. But we're not talking about that just yet.
