When
we last left our planets, we saw how terrain artists
John Roy, Jeff Dobson, and William Kier (with the
help of the exceptional artists Andrew Collins, Chris
Douglas, Rob Cuenca, and Devin LaFontaine, who create
flora, buildings and structures) gave each planet
geographic character. The team's brushstrokes produce
planets with soaring mountain peaks, deep oceans,
thick forests, and more.
Now, the planets move to the world building team who
will sow unique, intriguing, and exciting adventures
throughout.
But
the world building team hasn't been sitting idle,
waiting for the terrain artists to finish with each
planet so they can begin work. On the contrary, there's
a step even before the terrain is created that requires
the knowledge and planning of the world builders.
Bib
Fortuna's Lollipops
The
world building team is made up of three members. Cinco
Barnes leads the team with a wealth of experience
in game design. He has a seemingly boundless reserve
of energy, and a drive to pull players into the Star
Wars universe with the best thought-out and engaging
adventures possible.
Jeff
Freeman is a quiet but seriously dedicated
designer who, when you coax him into talking about
design, leaves the listener with no questions about
his expertise-Jeff has been designing games for many
years.
Todd
Bailey is the newest member of the team, and comes
from a strong gaming background that began in the
trenches of customer service and testing on several
Wing Commander titles. Todd worked his way up to writing
and running adventures for players on Ultima Online.
He was soon working as c0-lead designer alongside
SWGs own lead systems designer, Anthony
Castoro.
The
world building team begins by creating a planet map.
Much of a planet's geography is generated through
intricate algorithms, but there are areas that are
carefully designed from the very beginning. These
are sometimes based on Star Wars continuity,
while others are created and placed by the team members
themselves for future adventure locations.
"The
geography," reveals Cinco, "is designed
to provide interesting choices for players as they
travel through the world. Will you take your speeder
through the bog, dodging tree branches and deadly
steam vents? Or, will you hike through the jagged
quartz forest at risk of being sliced apart or taking
a lethal spill?"
There's
a large amount of preparation behind this phase of
development, which includes a lot of research and
movie watching.
Sounds
like a hard job, doesn't it? Don't be fooled; it can
mean long hours, and it requires attention to the
minutest of details. Remaining true to the continuity
is a full time job, as Haden
Blackman can attest, and is a responsibility
every member of the Star Wars Galaxies team
shares.
Todd
Bailey can attest to that, too. "One of the things
I do is take all the information that's available
about a planet, from, say, the Expanded Universe,
and from the movies, and write up a document that
covers everything that needs to be there. For example,
I went through the movies, the comic books, and the
novels and found all I could about Jabba's palace,
Mos Espa, Mos Eisley, the cantina, and all the characters
that appear and live on Tatooine--Momaw Nadon, Wuher
the bartender, Bib Fortuna, et cetera. Then I wrote
up a document on Tatooine."
Such
a detailed cataloging ensures that nothing is missed,
and so, as Todd says, "we don't do anything really
dumb, like have Bib Fortuna standing on the street
handing out lollipops."
If
there's so much focus on remaining true to what has
gone before in Star Wars, is there any room
for creativity in the planet map phase?
Definitely.
Though there's lots of information on places like
Tatooine or Naboo, there are just as many-if not more-places
in the galaxy that have very little documentation.
"On
some planets we can take more liberties than others,"
says Todd. "We're not going to make Tatooine
a jungle, because it's in the movies. Everyone's seen
it. When you come to planets that no one's ever seen,
then you have a little more freedom to say, 'Hey,
this lake is nice, let's do something with that.'
And then you get planets where the only mentions are
one-line descriptions in a book somewhere and you
get to go, 'Ok, let's go nuts with this.'"
As
soon as the planet map has been handed off to the
World Art team, quest development begins. No rest
for the weary in game development.
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