Articles

New Star Wars RTS in Development 10 Nov, 2004 / Comments: 16

By jp-30


In a new interview with LucasArts president Jim Ward, he reveals that a new Star Wars RTS game is in the works.
As a result, we will have new live-action and animated TV shows over the next few years, and I think there's a bright future there for games based on these new properties as well as original "Star Wars" games like a new real-time strategy PC game that Petroglyph is developing for next year. This game will take the (real-time strategy) genre in a new direction and will balance gameplay between the hard-core gamers who buy these games and the broader audience that's familiar with the "Star Wars" brand.
The Insanely Great status of the game is yet to be confirmed.

Source: Reuters

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16 Comments

  • Samandmax221 on 24 Nov, 2004, 19:02…
    You'de be the only one who loved force commander
  • Samandmax221 on 24 Nov, 2004, 19:02…
    You'de be the only one who loved force commander
  • jp-30 on 25 Nov, 2004, 15:23…
    You'd be surprised. It got a slagging it the press because it played poorly on most PCs at the time of release - but played on newer PCs with everything ramped up, it plays extremely well.

    The other issue was the innovative floating camera which freaked out your traditonal RTS fanboys. If you took the time to learn to use it (a scroll wheel mouse helped), it was amazing. Couple that with the clever 'conmmand points' which eliminated ridiculous resource gathering (shooting nerfs and hacking trees to build stormtrooper armies anyobe?) and you have a game that in infinitely more Star Warsey than, say, Galactic Battlegrounds.
  • KrK on 10 Nov, 2004, 22:27…
    Excuse me if i don't get excited at yet ANOTHER Star Wars game. Hoo-fecking-ray. LucasArts really need to work on some different properties other than SW.
  • jp-30 on 10 Nov, 2004, 22:39…
    Not gonna happen for the forseeable future, so you might as well get used to it. From the same article the above was sourced from;

    "I think we can get back on track by taking advantage of the opportunities we have within this company. The Lucas family of companies are unique in the industry. We have a firm base in the theatrical business, the home entertainment business, the television business, the visual effects business, the sound effects business and the interactive gaming business.

    This is what everyone else is trying to emulate. George figured this out 20 years ago. However, we haven't been that great at optimizing the opportunity. I want LucasArts to utilize these companies to deliver great games. The recent launch of "Star Wars: Battlefront" was an example of how we can successfully leverage LucasArts games with other divisions."

    What do you want from LucasArts anyway? Great adventure games in the mold of the classic SCUMM games from days gone past? Look to former employees in Telltale Games and Autumn Moon Entertainment.

    Original Action Adventure? Try Tom Schafer's Psychonauts and probably whatever Ron Gilbert's cooking up.

    Face it, the people who made the old LucasArts original games are no longer at LucasArts, but luckily for us a good number are off working on new projects for new companies.


  • KrK on 11 Nov, 2004, 22:46…
    I am used to the fact we probably won't be seeing any adventure games from LucasArts for a long time. I'm not saying that the SW games they produce are actually bad, mostly they're not. I just think it's a shame that a once great company has turned into a developer/publisher that produces games of only one style.

    As for what I want from LucasArts, I want them to go back to being the innovators for the adventure game genre. And not cancelling titles towards the end of their development would be nice too ;)

    But it will be interesting to see what Ron Gilbert comes up with, and Telltale. FunCom (Longest Journey) should be worth watching as well to see how Dreamfall turns out, and Pendulo Studios (Runaway) could be interesting too.
  • jp-30 on 12 Nov, 2004, 16:53…
    Just wondering, did you buy "Armed & Dangerous"?
  • Scummbuddy on 12 Nov, 2004, 19:55…
    Althogh KrK only mentioned not wanting them to cancel games near the end of their development, I'm sure he also meant not rushing games out the door like Armed and D, and RTX Red
  • Scummbuddy on 10 Nov, 2004, 23:25…
    i didnt notice the end quotes, so i was heavily amazed that they were so bold as to say, go look somewhere else for adventure games. hah.
  • jp-30 on 11 Nov, 2004, 00:06…
    Ha. I'm too lazy to try and put markup in my messages. I guess I should have itelicised the quote or something. :-P
  • jp-30 on 10 Nov, 2004, 15:26…
    It would appear that Petroglyph is made up largely of ex-Westwood employees. Westwood of course developed the revolutionary Dune & Command & Conquor RTS games, so 'insanely great' is a distinct possibility I guess...
  • Jake on 10 Nov, 2004, 20:47…
    Westwood? Maybe it's the Kyrandia team! Maybe its an adventure game! Maybe it's Ron Gilbert's Monkey Island 3 developed by the makers of the Kyrandia series!
  • cappuchok on 22 Nov, 2004, 07:34…
    It IS the Kyrandia team, or at least large parts of it. Mike Legg, lead programmer on Kyrandia, is also one of the founders of Petroglyph. But the article (and Petroglyph's website) distinctly says the game in development is an RTS, which means it'll be in the mold of Emperor (Dune III) or the C&C series.
    Anyway, as commented in the parent, with Petroglyph developing it, I won't be surprised if it really will be "insanely great".
  • jp-30 on 10 Nov, 2004, 21:16…
    Hooray!
  • netmonkey on 10 Nov, 2004, 15:17…
    I hope the game is not developed in-house by LucasFilm Games because it'll be just like all of their previous RTSs: Shitacular.
  • jp-30 on 10 Nov, 2004, 15:27…
    Uhh. "new real-time strategy PC game that Petroglyph is developing for next year".

    And I loved Force Commander. So there.