GamerZines: Why was the comicbook-esque art style chosen for Star Wars: The Old Republic? As it has become quite controversial?
Mike Harnisch, Senior Environment Artist: I think that when we decided we were coming to the MMO space, we wanted a few things: longevity, scalability and beauty. We want longevity, so we didn’t go realistic. We’re going to be playing this game for the next 10 years, so we want to make sure that what people are going to experience eight years from now is going to look good – that it won’t look wrong.
Also, we wanted to make sure that all of our fans could play the game and from our testing standpoint that was a tough choice, because we needed to be very smart in the way we built things. We can have it run on lower machines, but then also look gorgeous and beautiful to reward those that have better machines. So you have to make sacrifices there, and I felt like we made the right choice. We have a lot of very credible technical artists. We’ve created tools, shader tricks and other things throughout the process that we’ve had to go back and reverse engineer. The game has gotten progressively more beautiful because of that and we have some really cool room lighting tricks which grant the game a more concept art feel.
GZ: When you sit down and design a planet how important is accessibility in that?
MH: First we’re serving story and then we’re serving design. What I mean by that is before I started designing Alderaan, I talked with Daniel Erickson and asked, “What is the story of Alderaan?” Daniel sat down and explained there’s a civil war with two houses – House Organa and House Thull – who are being courted by the Imperials. When I sat with Daniel he said this is kind of the calm before the storm, so I had my ideas. There was one which we didn’t go with, but I mentioned why don’t we go with an eerie green vibe like the eye of the hurricane and I gave my pitch. It was something we decided not to implement because we had similar ideas for other planets, but everything is driven by story.
Working for BioWare, that’s ingrained in your conscious from day one. So we start with that and then design-wise we ask, ‘How is this going to be fun? How should this terrain be? Will the animations look right’? As far as the fans go we wanted to make it look like Star Wars. I really like the planet Balmorra which has these incredible rock spires, but then it has these really cool metal buttresses, so it feels like here’s where the man come in, or where Star Wars comes in, to handle this planet and set up shop. It feels different to if you’re playing another MMO which doesn’t have those sci-fi elements.
GZ: Each planet has its own unique look and feel. It’s almost has a tourist vibe to it?
MH: Oh yeah, and that’s definitely intentional. We really wanted to offer that experience, and that’s probably one of the reasons why everyone should play through as both Empire and Republic at least once, as they’ll get to experience those single-faction planets like Hutta and Dro. It’s great that we have 19 planets, because even if you just play it through once you’ll still see a lot. We definitely had all that stuff in mind when we built the galaxy.
GZ: That is a massive string to TOR’s bow as the last 10 years for Star Wars fans haven’t been pretty. You could almost say it’s a franchise on a downward spiral?
MH: For me it’s just about playing an intriguing emotional story, there really are moments where you’re taken aback. [/i]
When your master gets slain or whatever else happens, you really feel something. It doesn’t even matter that it’s Star Wars, as you’re part of an epic story which contains heroism and love. When you chuck Star Wars on top of that, which inspires a warm and happy feeling for our generation, I think it just makes that experience even more visceral and emotional. The Star Wars aspect of it is almost like the icing on the cake. We didn’t just want to make a Star Wars game, we wanted to create something of substance. We wanted to take that to as many people as we could and by taking an IP which is beloved around the world really helps.
To read more of this exclusive interview, be sure to check out this month’s issue of MMOZine.
Tags: Star Wars The Old Republic
TERA, Guild Wars 2, Dust 514 and Defiance previews plus a review for Tribes: Ascend and an exclusive interview for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
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