Monday, October 27, 2008
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Making Star Wars Look Like Star Wars Is More Difficult Than It Looks
I09: "What makes Star Wars look like Star Wars? That's one of the questions that The Old Republic's lead designer, Jeff Dobson has to face repeatedly in the course of working on the upcoming MMO set in George Lucas' playground and, as he told us, he still can't really come up with a comprehensive answer. He knows what's right when he sees it, but when something is wrong, he can't always put his finger on why it's wrong. So is there a Star Wars aesthetic? And if so, what is it?"
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6 comments:
The two color suggestion is interesting. I will have to try to recognize this the next time i see star wars. One thing though that is funny to me and why I bet they can't figure it out is becasue the production design for Star Wars was not originally created for Star Wars. Alejandro Jodorwosky, Mick Jagger, Pink Floyd, Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, and many others were working on a script for Dune back in the 70s. It was with the same prodcution company as Star Wars, Twentieth Century Fox. Ultimately Twentieth Century Fox decided the script was too french so they threw out the project. Strangely enough the renderings and drawings of the complex production design for Dune ended up in two later Twentieth Century Fox productions, Star Wars and Alien.
I'm really glad that they said that Star Wars was only episodes 4-6. The new movies are nothing like the old ones and just don't do them justice. They would have been better with a smaller budget. But I'm really glad that they are looking to what the essence of the older movies are, dirty, worn, used. The idea of using two colors to separate place is an interesting one that seems like it could really work well.
To have that the game should run on all kinds of machines as one of your design goals is interesting. It shows just how diverse the world of gaming has become and how many designers are responding to it.
This concept totally applies to all designers across the board. In theatre for example what looks, sounds, and feels right for the world of the play. The fact that all the elements of the star wars universe are overseen by a team that all rely on each other allows for a very tight and unified design. As an avid star wars fan myself I think the original star wars movies really represent the feel of star wars. The element of sleekness and newness that is mentioned as ANTI-star wars is exactly what sucks about the newest 3 movies. I really wish the team for episodes 1-3 had the integrity to maintain the look and feel of an antique future world instead of going all out with glitz and glamor.
The original Star Wars movies definitely had a defining feel to them that the newer movies did not quite grasp. I am happy to hear about the efforts of this design team to make this game "feel" right. This job must take a lot of time--there are many details that need to be perfected.
The overall contrast between the new and old Star Wars can hardly be compared. There was not only differences in the designers themselves but the design budget etc. The movies were also produced during different times when technology was not that advanced compared to now.
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