Oh LucasArts, will you never stop running yourself into the ground? Confirming the rumors posted on Kotaku earlier today, a representative for LA told Industry Gamers that “LucasArts is reorganizing its teams to better address the needs of the internal studio.” They haven’t said how many, but the rumour reports say it is as much as 30%.
LucasArts lays off part of their team
On September - 1 - 2010
The force is strong in these new Force Unleashed 2 screenshots
On June - 7 - 2010
Like Star Wars? Like dual-wielding lightsabers? Want the most over the top, bombastic display of the Force that you’ve ever seen in your life? Then you’ll be looking forward to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2.
And we have plenty of screenshots of the game in action under the cut.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is due for release on October 26th, for 360 and PS3.
President of LucasArts resigns
On May - 7 - 2010
Darrell Rodriguez, president of LucasArts, announced today that he was resigning his position, along with other executives at the company. They have stated that this will not effect the development teams, or any of the publishing business. The reason for his departure is still unknown.
Rodriguez has often been hailed among fans as the reason for the company’s positive turn in the last few years. They went from churning out plenty of mediocre Star Wars titles to focusing on one or two more quality titles, like The Force Unleashed and The Old Republic. They also started to take advantage of their back catalouge, not only releasing the old adventure games for steam, but also making the Special Editions of the Monkey Island games, and at the same time licensing out the IP to Telltale for Tales of Monkey Island.
That’s why it’s sad for me, at least, to see him resigning. However, no matter how many fans he gained, it could still be that this new direction didn’t make enough cash, something that often leads to higher-ups resigning.
via Kotaku.
The Old Republic gets spin-off novel
On April - 30 - 2010
BioWare’s upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic seems to have too much backstory to be held within a single game.
The E3 trailer for The Old Republic featured the sith crashing a transport vessel into a Jedi temple, causing a massive brawl to break out between the Sith and Jedi. Darth Malgus, the Sith lord behind the attack is getting his own spin-off novel.
Darth Malgus backstory will be fleshed out in Deceived, written by Dungeons & Dragons novelist Paul S. Kemp, backed up by creative consulation from BioWare and LucasArts.
The man certainly looks menacing, and will have a big role in The Old Republic according to BioWare. Fans take note.
Rumour: Monkey Island 2 Special Edition on the way
On March - 7 - 2010
Avast, ya scurvvy landlubber! Be ye a fan of t’ scallywags at LucasArts, ye be knowin’ them as the buccaneers who pillaged an’ looted yer coin purse with their adventurin’ games!
Landlubbers got t’ experience being a mighty poirate in t’ enhanced version of Monkey Island in 2009, an’ those greedy buggers from LucasArts arrr lookin’ to loot and pillage again, wit’ t’ sequel!
Treasure maps close to those brigands at t’ isle of Kotaku claim a refurbished Money Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge be on t’ horizon for t’ good ships Xbox 360, PS3, iPhone an’ PC.
Arrrrr! Time to hoist t’ main sales and prepare for plunder me hearties!
LucasArts targeting The Old Republic for spring 2011 release
On January - 12 - 2010
LucasArts has confirmed via a recent statement that they are currently aiming to have the BioWare developed / E.A. published Star Wars MMORPG The Old Republic on store shelves by “Spring” 2011.
“While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars: The Old Republic,” said the statement. “We’ve got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game”
Time to start getting excited, people
The History of Adventure Games Part 3: The Revival
On December - 11 - 2009
Once upon a time, adventure games were the proverbial kings of PC gaming, entertaining gamers everywhere with a heavy focus on well-written stories and trong, realistic characters. Adventure games had their best run during the late 80′s and early 90′s, before suddenly dying out. So what happened to the adventure games, and where are they now?
In this three part series we’ll be taking a look at the history of adventure games and possible try to predict a future for them as well.
In our third installment we take a look at the revival of adventure games, their current state and their various spin-off genres.
Review: Lucidity (Xbox 360)
On November - 24 - 2009
If you’re a gamer and Star Wars fan, you’ve more than likely heard of LucasArts, the videogame developer side of Lucasfilm. Most of us associate LucasArts with the point-and-click adventure game craze of the 80′s and 90′s, when the company wasn’t just milking the Star Wars franchise for all it was forth. And for a time, it was good. But then adventure games sort of just stopped, their market value having fallen once full 3D and the Quake era had begun. LucasArts decided to make Star Wars games instead, which has obviously payed off despite some quality issues on certain games.
So imagine my jubilations when I saw an interview with LucasArts president Darrel Rodriguez on GTTV, who promised to bring LucasArts back to their old style of game developing. Star Wars was still their bread and butter, obviously, but he wanted the company to branch out and bring more quality games onto the market. The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition had just been released on Steam and Xbox Live Arcade, and more LucasArts adventure games was coming to Steam. LucasArts shut down for a week in order to generate new ideas and concepts. One of these concepts was Lucidity, which they decided to make into a full game.
The History of Adventure Games Part 2: The Fall
On November - 24 - 2009
Once upon a time, adventure games were the proverbial kings of PC gaming, entertaining gamers everywhere with a heavy focus on well-written stories and strong, realistic characters. Adventure games had their best run during the late 80′s and early 90′s, before suddenly dying out. So what happened to the adventure games, and where are they now?
In this three part series, we’ll be taking a look at the history of the adventure game and possibly try to predict a future for them as well.
In this second instalment we take a look at the decline and near eradication of adventure games
Byssan Lull: The music of Lucidity
On October - 11 - 2009
If you’re a gamer willing to open yourself to new and inventive ideas, consider downloading Lucidity from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The main menu introduces you to a hauntingly beautiful rendition of a well-known Swedish lullaby, Byssan Lull, whose origin is steeped in mystery.
Lucidity’s composer, Jesse Harlin wrote an interesting piece recently on how this Swedish lullaby came to be chosen for the game, as well as his opportunity to work with Swedish singer Lisa Eriksson.
The LucasArts composer provided a partial translation of the lyrics on the website which are used as a starting point for the subtitles included in the video below.
The History of Adventure Games Part 1: The Rise
On October - 6 - 2009
Once upon a time, adventure games were the proverbial kings of PC gaming, entertaining gamers everywhere with a heavy focus on well-written stories and strong, realistic characters. Adventure games had their best run during the late 80′s and early 90′s, before suddenly dying out.
So what happened to the adventure games, and where are they now?
In this three part series, we’ll be taking a look at the history of the adventure game and possibly try to predict a future for them as well. We begin, obviously, with the early development and subsequent rise of adventure games.
EARLY & HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN...
Almost every kind of fiction is based off of something else, and the adventure games were no different. In the mid 70′s, before gaming was an actual term and computer hardware would cover an entire room, the first seeds of the adventure game genre were sown by way of Interactive Fiction.
LucasArts’ new title is Lucidity
On September - 11 - 2009
Yesterday we reported on LucasArts announcing a new original title on GTTV. That new title is called Lucidity
Head of LucasArts Darrel Rodriguez said the company wants to go back to their roots, and while Star Wars is their main bread and butter, they’re more open to experimentation. LucasArts shut down for a week and tried to get back to their old style of creativity and game development. Out of that came Lucidity.
Lucidity tells the story of Sophie and is described as a puzzle platformer. The main character is basically like the Lemmings of old, continously walking through the levels. As Sophie moves through the dreamscape levels the player places different pieces like stairs, platforms and trampolines to help her move along. Plot wise it’s been described as Little Red Riding Hood if Red decided to walk through Alice’s Wonderland.
According to project lead David Nottingham the inspiration for the game came from childrens books, creating a 2D title with a flat paper texture effect and multilayered backgrounds.
Lucidity comes to XBLA and PC sometime in December.
LucasArts to announce new game
On September - 10 - 2009
Today on GameTrailers TV, LucasArts will be announcing a new game. It might be a Star Wars title, though that’s only my assumption.
GTTV host Geoff Keighley confirmed this in a twitter post, which was then doubly confirmed by LucasArts:
“LucasArts will announce a brand-new original game on this week’s GTTV – with first footage. More details soon.”
LucasArts are notorious for sticking mainly to the Star Wars franchise for years, but hopefully we’ll be getting something new this time.
The Old Republic has “40 novels worth of content”
On July - 10 - 2009
Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to be a big game, if ever there was an understatement. According to new information released today, the game will have “ten times more lines than Knights of the Old Republic” and “40+ novels worth of content”.
That’s a lot of words.
- - The Old Republic will have ten times more lines than Knights of the Old Republic
- - On any given day, there can be a dozen people working on voice-over — not including actors
- - By the time the game ships, they will have recorded 1,000 four-hour VO sessions.
- - The game’s entire script has 40+ novels worth of content
- - The’re working with hundreds of actors in five cities: New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto.
And LucasArts Games’ surprise announcement is…
On July - 6 - 2009
According to the latest update on LucasArts’s twitter page, which had been promised a big announcement today for the last few days…
“So lets see who will be happy: LucasArts has partnered with Steam. Digital adventurey goodness.”
We can only hope that this mean LucasArts entire back catalogue of adventure games will end up appearing on the service. These are very joyous days indeed!
