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Interview: Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 Associate Producer
Written by Aaron Yip Monday, 30 August 2010 17:05
Ian Pang, a homegrown game developer from LucasArts and part of the development team behind the upcoming Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2, was back in town recently. We took the opportunity to have a quick chat with him on the game's progress, and some of the lessons learnt since the original game. Hit the jump for the full interview.
1) Hi Ian, it's good to hear from you again. Great to hear that a fellow countryman is part of a AAA title's development. Could you please give us a history of how you landed the Associate Producer role in LucasArts for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, and what the role entails?
Hey Aaron, great to hear from you likewise.
I was really fortunate actually. A position opened up on the team in California just after I had finished a project at our Singapore studio and I jumped on the opportunity of a lifetime to work on such an awesome franchise. The role encompasses a broad spectrum of jobs but my main task was to produce Bosses and Game Systems. I had to ensure that our designs supported the franchise's key pillars and also map out our resources so that we could execute on the design we had come up with.
You'll also be glad to hear that the LucasArts Singapore studio was also involved in The Force Unleashed II and helped contribute to its success.
2) The original game was a huge sales success for LucasArts and scored favorably amongst reviewers. What lessons did the team get out of the first game that was put into the sequel?
"Muscle memory" from making The Force Unleashed really benefited the team and a majority of the team from the first game is working on The Force Unleashed II.
3) How involved was George Lucas in the development of the first game? And how so again in the sequel?
George is a filmmaker at heart and is the chairman of the board for all Lucasfilm companies. We work very closely with Lucasfilm Licensing who is always encouraging us to expand within the SW universe.
4) The protagonist of the first game, Starkiller, was killed off in the last game, and now he's back again in the sequel. What were the factors weighed in between choosing to resurrect Starkiller versus creating a new character? The SW:TFU community seemed divided over it.
Starkiller's really popular with our fans actually, so it made a lot of sense to bring him back in the sequel. We just felt strongly that there was a lot more stories to share in terms of Starkiller.
5) One of my personal characters in the Force Unleashed was Juno Eclipse, and I'm pretty sure we'll see more of her in the sequel. But given that her appearance and role in Force Unleashed was a little light, will she make a bigger impact in Force Unleashed 2?
I would be spoiling it for the fans if I revealed too much but what I can say is that Juno Eclipse was Starkiller's love interest in the first game and Starkiller is constantly haunted by memories of her in this game.
6)Ensuring that the plot fits into the Star Wars universe canon mustn't be easy. Were there any bloopers in the first game that got the team to say "oh boy they got us with that one"?
Well, most people on the team are Star Wars fans so any potential bloopers get surfaced really quickly. Plus, we've got canon experts from Lucasfilm Licensing who've got our backs.
7) One of the key moments of Force Unleashed was where Starkiller brought down a Star Destroyer through sheer force (pun intended). Many thought it was a little dodgy though. Will we see more of such over the top actions?
We unveiled one of our new gameplay elements at E3 this year where Starkiller breaks out of a cloning tower on Kamino and dives down at a ferocious speed, taking out obstacles, Storm Troopers and TIE Fighters along the way in "over the top" style.
Our fans have been buzzing with excitement since and we're looking forward to revealing more of these moments at a later date.
8) A key gripe with the original was the intense, and repetitive, pace of the game. How are you planning to mix that up with Force Unleashed 2?
The Force Unleashed II has a good mix of combat, navigation, puzzles and "unleashed" set pieces that will keep players on the edge of their seats throughout the game. We really focused on pacing to make sure players have time to appreciate the intense combat and unleashed moments.
9) The team must have received many fans' feedbacks from Force Unleashed. Was there anything out of it that was put right in Force Unleashed 2?
One of our key objectives was to give our fans an improved experience over the first game so we gathered a lot of feedback from fans and media regarding the first game and took deliberate steps to address them in this game.
Camera and targeting issues were on the top of our list so we really refined those systems and play-tested them extensively while we iterated on them.
10) During this time were there any games that had influenced your thinking towards Force Unleashed 2?
Not in particular, we drew most of our inspiration from the vast Star Wars universe.
11) Let's side track a bit. What are your views on 3D, the Kinect and Move? Were there any considerations on the team's part to include any of this technology into Force Unleashed 2's gameplay?
As a company, we are really excited to see how these technologies evolve. Internally, we have a team dedicated to following these technologies. We have no announcements at this time with regards to including any of these technologies into The Force Unleashed II.
12) Do you have anything else to say to our readers?
The game releases October 26th 2010 in the US. Hope you guys and gals have as much fun playing the game as we've had making it :)