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Special Gaming Section possible PC specification. Nevertheless, all things being equal, Lusinchi believes an MMO that can run on more machines will be more successful than one that can run only on a few nuclear-powered, top-end computers. "One of the greatest things we got from the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic console game was the setting," explains Lusinchi. "It's great to know that, yes, we can in fact create a game thousands of years before the events of the movies, and yes, it is okay to make everything—from clothing to ship design— oddly evocative of the stuff from the movies." Of course, there are quite a lot of design ideas the artists are evolving from Knights of the Old Republic, such as the light-side and dark-side progression, as well as from other BioWare games, like Mass Effect's conversa- tion wheel. At a high level, console games and MMOs have different processes, and there is a great contrast in workflow. So having the background in building critically ac- claimed and commercially successful origi- add it to the game in the first place? What do they want to express with this planet? How will it be different from the previous ones? What will it bring to the players? What's the story? Once these are roughly established, the team leads come together and go into their different groups to work on the specifics and their specialties. The so-called secret sauce, maintains Lusinchi, is in how that all comes together and becomes something as great as some of the iconic Star Wars planets, like Hoth, have turned out. "To create a character class, it is important to distinguish the role-playing aspect of the class—its story, essentially—and the gameplay role it fulfills," explains Lusinchi. "Each one of our classes in Star Wars: The Old Republic has an intricate and extensive story, so this is not something we can create on a whim. We tried to imagine what class would please the players the most, and at the same time, have the most interesting stories. Once we pick the classes, we think about how they'll play in the game and how we can integrate their story Star Wars Forever BioWare has worked closely with George Lucas' teams to bring relevant aspects from the Star Wars film universe to the game, in- cluding the iconic music. And, not surpris- ing, LucasArts had to approve everything that went into the game—from the graphics to the sound. No question, maintains Lusin- chi, the game developer's existing relation- ship with LucasArts on past games results in a smooth workflow in so far as approvals were concerned. "Fortunately, we have a good relationship with them, and BioWare has experience in set- ting a good workflow with IP holders, so the entire review process is more or less transpar- ent to most people working on Star Wars: The Old Republic," notes Lusinchi. As technology improves, including the in- ternal game engine BioWare employs, new challenges are bound to occur, and they have. "As we got closer to shipping the game, our engineers were trying to squeeze more and more performances out of the game engine, and as they were doing so, they The environments in the new MMORPG are rich, varied, and extend to 19 different planets. nal and licensed RPGs was a good launch- ing point. "With this MMO game, our technology groups tend to be more isolated and fo- cused on their area of expertise," says Lusin- chi. "This allows them to perfect the sys- tems they are working on, so they can test and then implement them into the game once they are ready. Meanwhile, we tend to keep all the creative types together. There's a lot of collaboration and constant commu- nication that's needed to ensure quality and continuity. They're completely opposite ap- proaches, but it works." To create each of the game's 19 planets, such as Tatooine, in The Old Republic, the process starts with finding the answers to important questions like: Why does the team want to and their progression from the Origin Worlds all the way to our end game. After all that is done, we play, we play again, and then we play some more." Since The Old Republic allows players to pilot a wide variety of spaceships through the galaxy, bringing those vehicles to life was an integral part of the gameplay. The process to bring these spaceships to life, which was mostly a visual endeavor, rests in the hands of the artists. They started with concepts of the exteriors and interiors for each class and then built 3D models of each craft. However, be- cause there are a lot of Star Wars and science- fiction fans in the office, including Lusinchi, the artists had to deal with plethora of opin- ions, tips, and suggestions from everyone on the team. were coming up with a clearer understand- ing of exactly what the creative folks could get away with," explains Lusinchi. "So, during that phase, we got new rules on just how many creatures, or visual effects, or, well, anything really, we could have in any given area. The key was to be ready to be adaptable." For fans who have been waiting years for BioWare to make Knights of the Old Republic III, this MMO game will deliver that experi- ence, as well as parts IV, V, VI, VII, and more. The always expanding game world should keep players busy for years to come. n Use your smart- phone to access related videos. John Gaudiosi is an East Coast writer who has been covering video games for nearly 20 years. February/March 2012 29 St ar W ar s