LucasArts
Encyclopedia
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American
video game developer
and publisher
. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure game
s, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s. Today, it publishes games primarily based on the Star Wars
and Indiana Jones franchises.
as the video game development group of Lucasfilm
Limited, the film production company of George Lucas
. Lucas wanted his company to branch out into other areas of entertainment, so he cooperated with Atari
to produce video games.
The first results of this collaboration were unique action games like Ballblazer
in 1984, and Rescue on Fractalus!. Beta versions of both games were leaked to pirate bulletin boards exactly one week after Atari had received unprotected copies for a marketing review, and were in wide circulation months before the original release date. In 1984, they were released for the Atari 5200
under the Lucasfilm Games label. Versions for home computer
s were not released until 1985, by publisher Epyx
. Lucasfilm's next two games were Koronis Rift
and The Eidolon
. Their first games were only developed by Lucasfilm, and a publisher would distribute the games. Atari published their games for Atari systems, Activision
and Epyx would do their computer publishing. Maniac Mansion
was one of the first games to be published and developed by Lucasfilm Games.
In 1990
, in a reorganization of the Lucas companies, the Games Division of Lucasfilm became part of the newly created LucasArts Entertainment Company, together with Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound
. Later ILM and Skywalker Sound were consolidated in Lucas Digital Ltd. and LucasArts became the official name of the former Games Division. In 1993, LucasArts decided to base a game on the Star Wars
franchise.
The original Lucasfilm Games logo was based upon the existing Lucasfilm movie logo. There were a number of variations on it.
The long-lived LucasArts logo, affectionately known as the "Gold Guy", was introduced in 1991 and consisted of a crude gold-colored figure resembling a petroglyph
, standing on a purple letter "L" inscribed with the company name. The figure had its hands up in the air, as if a sun were rising from behind him. It was also said to resemble an eye, with the rays of the sun as eyelashes. The logo was revised in late 2005, losing the letter "L" pedestal and introducing a more rounded version of the gold-colored figure. In the games, the figure sometimes does an action like throw a lightsaber
or cast Force Lightning.
The logo is possibly a reference to the ending of George Lucas' first film, THX 1138
, in which the silhouette of the main character stands with his arms raised during sunset.
In 1998, LucasArts approached the Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment
, citing that their logo was copied from the top portion of the LucasArts logo and threatening legal action. Remedy was by that time already in the process of redesigning their logo, so they complied by taking the old logo offline from their website and introducing a new logo a little later.
Déjà Vu inspired the 1987 title Maniac Mansion
which introduced SCUMM
, the scripting language behind most of the company's later adventure offerings. The adventures released in the following years, such as Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
(1988), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
(1989), LOOM (1990) and especially the critically acclaimed The Secret of Monkey Island
(1990), helped Lucasfilm Games build a reputation as one of the leading developers in the genre. It was often referred to as one of the two big names in the field, competing with Sierra On-line
as a developer of high quality adventures. The first half of the 1990s was the heyday for the company's adventure fame, with classic titles such as Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
(1991), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
(1992) and the Maniac Mansion sequel Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (1993).
In the latter half of the decade, the popularity of adventure games faded and the costs associated with game development increased as high-resolution art and CD quality audio became standard fare. The PC market wanted titles that would show off expensive new graphics cards to best effect, a change replicated in the home console market as the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation
, Sega Saturn
and Nintendo 64
dictated the nature of the majority of games produced for those platforms. The adventure genre—two-dimensional, focused on story, script and puzzle solving—was no longer popular with the masses of new gamers.
LucasArts still managed to release moderately commercially successful titles: The Curse of Monkey Island
(1997) was the last LucasArts adventure game to retain traditional two-dimensional graphics and point-and-click
interface. Grim Fandango
(1998) was LucasArts' first attempt to convert 2D adventure to a 3D environment. The game interface suffered most from this conversion, with control of the protagonist becoming unwieldy and less intuitive than with the traditional mouse interface. However, the highly stylised visuals, superb voice acting and sophisticated writing more than made up for this flaw, earning Grim Fandango many plaudits, including GameSpot's Game of the Year award.
Escape from Monkey Island
(2000), the fourth installment to the Monkey Island series, featured the same control scheme as Grim Fandango and was generally well received. It is to date the last adventure game the company has released. A sequel to Full Throttle and a new Sam & Max
game were in development but these projects were cancelled, in 2003 and 2004 respectively, before the games were finished. When the rights to the Sam and Max franchise expired in 2005, the creator of Sam and Max, Steve Purcell
, took ownership. He then licensed Sam and Max to Telltale Games
to be developed into an episodic game
. Telltale Games is made up primarily of former LucasArts employees who had worked on the Sam and Max sequel and were let go after the project was canceled.
LucasArts halted adventure game development for the next five years, focusing instead on their Star Wars games. They remained silent and did not re-release their old games on digital distribution
platforms, as other studios were doing at the time. However, in 2002, the company pledged that at least fifty percent of its releases would have nothing to do with Star Wars. It was not until 2009
that LucasArts returned to the genre. On June 1, 2009, they announced both The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, a remake
of the original game with updated graphics, music and voice work, and Tales of Monkey Island
, a new episodic installment in the Monkey Island series developed by Telltale Games
.
Then, on July 6, they announced that they would be re-releasing a number of their classic games, including Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
and LOOM, on Steam. The re-releases were, for the first time, native versions built for Microsoft Windows
. This was the first time in many years that the studio had offered any support for its classic adventure titles.
The release of the unofficial SCUMM virtual machine
, ScummVM
, has led to something of a resurgence for LucasArts adventure games among present-day gamers. Using ScummVM, legacy adventure titles can easily be run on modern computers and even more unusual platforms such as video game consoles, mobile phones and PDA
s.
s, the first of which were the naval simulations PHM Pegasus
in 1986 and Strike Fleet
in 1987. These two titles were published by Electronic Arts
for a variety of computer platforms, including PC, Commodore 64
and Apple II
.
In 1988, Battlehawks 1942
launched a trilogy of World War II
air combat simulations, giving the player a chance to fly as an American or Japanese pilot in the Pacific Theater
. Battlehawks 1942 was followed by Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain (1989), recreating the battle between the Luftwaffe
and RAF
for Britain's air supremacy. The trilogy ended with Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
in 1991, in which the player could choose to fly on either the American or German side. The trilogy was lauded for its historical accuracy and detailed supplementary material—Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, for instance, was accompanied by a 224-page historical manual.
The World War II trilogy was created by a team led by Lawrence Holland
, a game designer who later founded Totally Games
. Totally Games would continue to develop games almost exclusively to LucasArts, the most noted outcome of the symbiosis being the X-Wing series
. They were also responsible for LucasArts' 2003 return to the aerial battles of World War II with Secret Weapons Over Normandy
, a title released on PlayStation 2
, Xbox
and PC.
, Indiana Jones
), they did not use the most promising Lucasfilm license until the early 1990s: Star Wars action games began appearing on the Nintendo consoles, but were developed by other companies for LucasArts. The first in-house development was the space combat simulator X-Wing
, developed by Larry Holland's independent team, which went on to spawn a successful series
.
The CD-ROM-only Star Wars game Rebel Assault
became one of the biggest successes of the company and was considered a killer app for CD-ROM drives in the early 1990s.
From 2005 to 2007, LucasArts published the three games in the Lego Star Wars series.
's Doom the PC gaming market shifted towards production of three-dimensional first person shooter
s. LucasArts contributed to this trend with the 1995 release of Star Wars: Dark Forces
, a first person shooter that successfully transplanted the Doom formula to a Star Wars setting. The Dark Forces Strategy guide claims that development was well underway before Doom was released and that the game was pushed back once Doom hit shelves so that it could be polished. The game was well received and spawned a new franchise: the Jedi Knight games. This began with the sequel to Dark Forces, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II released in 1997; this game reflected the changing face of PC gaming, being one of the first games to appreciably benefit when used in conjunction with a dedicated 3D graphics card like 3dfx
's Voodoo range. The game received an expansion pack
, Mysteries of the Sith, in 1998 and a full sequel in 2002 with Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
. 2003's Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
can be seen as a spin-off from the series, but was less well received by reviewers, who complained that the franchise was becoming formulaic.
Apart from Star Wars-themed 3D shooters, LucasArts also created the western-themed game Outlaws in 1997 and Armed and Dangerous
(in collaboration with Planet Moon Studios
) in 2003.
In 2002, LucasArts recognized that the over-reliance on Star Wars was reducing the quality of its output, and announced that future releases would be at least 50% non-Star Wars-related. However, many of the original titles were either unsuccessful or even cancelled before release and currently LucasArts has again mainly Star Wars titles in production.
2003 saw the fruitful collaboration of LucasArts and BioWare
on the exceptionally well reviewed role-playing game
, Knights of the Old Republic
. Combining a three-dimensional environment with the type of storytelling and writing that made LucasArts' early adventure games so memorable, this game was seen as breathing new life into the Star Wars franchise. Its 2004 sequel Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
continued in the same vein, attempting to adopt a similar template as the original, uniting voice acting with an unfolding story which picked up where the last game left off. However, LucasArts was criticized for forcing the developer Obsidian Entertainment
to release the sequel too early, resulting in a significant amount of unfinished content being cut from the game and what many consider to be a disappointing and convoluted storyline with an incomplete ending. Also the rush release of this game to the PC platform caused many bugs and crashes. This still has not been fixed by patches.
In 2003 LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise also branched out in a new direction—the world of the MMORPG
, with the creation of Star Wars Galaxies
. After a successful launch, the first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, was released in 2004. The new expansion featured the addition of real-time space combat. This was continued in Rage of the Wookies, an additional expansion which added an additional planet for users to explore. Also, a new expansion, Trials of Obi-Wan was released on November 1, 2005 consisting of several new missions focusing on the Episode 3 planet, Mustafar. While Star Wars Galaxies still retains a devoted following, it has also alienated many players. Although it is currently the most popular class in the game, Star Wars Galaxies has chosen to ignore the timeline established in the original films, during which the game is set, and has allowed players to play as Jedi characters. The game has also undergone several major redesigns, which have been received with decidedly mixed reactions by players. Perhaps in one of the most telling examples of problems with the game, smugglers are actually still unable to smuggle, over three years after the game launched. Improvements into the game are still undergoing with the publish plan giving all the combat and non-combat professions diversity in skill tree boxes similar to the well-known MMO World of Warcraft.
, primarily from its Star Wars titles – significantly less than the grosses from the year's top single titles such as Halo
. Ward produced a five-year investment plan to refit the company. Previous Star Wars games had been produced by external developers such as Raven Software
, Bioware and Obsidian; Ward now prioritized making LucasArts' internal game development work effectively and adapt to the evolving games industry. Star Wars: Battlefront
, Star Wars: Republic Commando
, and Star Wars: Episode III
survived cuts that closed down other in-development games and reduced staff from about 450 to 190 employees.
In 2004, LucasArts released Star Wars: Battlefront
, based on the same formula as the popular Battlefield series
of games. It ended up becoming the best-selling Star Wars game of all time to that point, aided by a marketing tie-in with the original trilogy DVD release. Its sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront II
, was released November 1, 2005 and features new locales such as Episode III planets Mustafar, Mygeeto, etc., in addition to space combat, playable Jedi, and new special units like Bothan spies and Imperial officers. In this same year, the second "Knights of the Old Republic" game was in production. LucasArts told Obsidian Entertainment
that the project needed to be finished by that year's holiday season. Obsidian was forced to cut huge amounts of content from the game, resulting in a broken, unfinished KotOR II.
In May 2005, LucasArts released Revenge of the Sith
, a third person action game based on the film. Also in 2005, LucasArts released Star Wars: Republic Commando
, and one of their few non-Star Wars games, Mercenaries
, developed by Pandemic Studios
.
On February 16, 2006, LucasArts released Star Wars: Empire at War
, a real-time strategy
game developed by Petroglyph. September 12, 2006 saw the release of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the sequel to the popular Lego Star Wars: The Video Game
. Lego Star Wars II follows the same basic format as the first game, but, as the name indicates, covers the original Star Wars trilogy. On September 16, 2008, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
was released to mixed reviews, though quickly became the best-selling Star Wars game of all time.
In a 2006 GameSpot interview, Monkey Island co-creator Ron Gilbert
claimed that the true secret of Monkey Island has yet to be revealed, and that he wished to make a fifth Monkey Island game to conclude the series. On June 1, 2009, LucasArts announced a re-imagining of the Secret of Monkey Island titled The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. This release includes updates graphics, sound and music, and full voice acting. In addition, Telltale Games
also announced a new episodic game in the Monkey Island franchise titled "Tales of Monkey Island". The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition was released on July 15, 2009 to generally positive reviews
In May 2007, LucasArts announced Fracture
and stated that "new intellectual properties serve a vital role to the growth of LucasArts". Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
was labelled the number one new IP in 2005 and Thrillville
the number one new children's IP in 2006. Fracture was released on 7 October 2008 to average reviews. Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
was released on January 11, 2007 to critical and commercial success which led to a sequel, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
. Thrillville was released on November 21, 2006.
Free Radical Design
announced that they lost the rights to develop Star Wars: Battlefront III
in October, prior to them going into administration. It had been in development for two years.
LucasArts scaled down the internal development studio. The game scored fairly low on gaming sites such IGN
, Gamespot
and GameTrailers
. After release, minor adjustment in staffing resulted in even more layoffs.
They also published Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes for all current systems. The game is a tie-in to The Clone Wars
television series and was released on October 6, 2009, receiving generally negative reviews.
The company began experiencing turnovers in layoffs in 2010. Darrell Rodriguez, who came from Electronic Arts, left in May after just two years on the job. He was replaced in June by Paul Meegan, formerly of Gears of War developer Epic Games. In July 2010, Haden Blackman, who served as creative director on the original Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, LucasArts' most successful internally produced title of recent years, and the sequel, unexpectedly left. However, the company scored a surprise coup in August when Clint Hocking, a high-profile game director from Ubisoft, announced that he would be joining LucasArts. In September 2010, a third of the employees at LucasArts were fired.
's coverage of the 2006 E3 Convention, a LucasArts executive was asked about the return of popular franchises such as Monkey Island. The executive responded that the company was currently focusing on new franchises, and that LucasArts may return to the "classic franchises" in 2015, though it was unclear as to whether the date was put forwards as an actual projection, or hyperbole.
The successor to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
in the form of the MMORPG
Star Wars: The Old Republic
was announced on October 21, 2008, at an invitation-only press event. currently under development by BioWare.
On April 26, 2011 LucasArts announced that they've acquired the license from Epic Games
to develop a number of future titles using the Unreal Engine 3
for a number of platforms.
In addition, two untitled games are currently in development: an open-world RPG, a FPS, and an aerial combat game.
series, each containing three to six games plus a selection of demo
s of recent and upcoming games. The second and fourth volumes of LucasArts Archives were Star Wars-themed. Later games published under the LucasArts Archives brand were budget-priced reissues of individual games.
In 1996, LucasArts released Afterlife
, a sim game in which the player builds their own Heaven
and Hell
, with several jokes and puns (such as a prison in Hell called San Quentin
Tarantino
). In 2002, LucasArts released a compilation CD filled with music from their past games. The album is titled The Best of LucasArts Original Soundtracks and features music from The Monkey Island Series, Grim Fandango, Outlaws, and The Dig
.
A video game titled Traxion
was announced. Traxion was a rhythm game
which was under development for the PlayStation Portable
by British developer Kuju Entertainment
, scheduled to be released in Q4 2006 by LucasArts, but was instead cancelled in January 2007. The game was to feature a number of minigame
s, and would support imported songs from the player's own mp3
library as well as the game's bundled collection.
and Peter McConnell
while working at LucasArts. The iMUSE system is patent
ed by LucasArts, and was added to the SCUMM
game engine in 1991. The first game to use iMUSE was Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
and it has been used in all LucasArts adventure games
since. It has also been used for some non-adventure LucasArts titles, including Star Wars: X-Wing
(DOS version), Star Wars: TIE Fighter
(DOS version), and Star Wars: Dark Forces
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
video game developer
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
and publisher
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure game
Graphic adventure game
A graphic adventure game is a form of adventure game. They are distinct from text adventures. Whereas a player must actively observe using commands such as "look" in a text-based adventure, graphic adventures revolutionized gameplay by making use of natural human perception...
s, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s. Today, it publishes games primarily based on the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
and Indiana Jones franchises.
Company history
The company was founded in May 19821982 in video gaming
-Events:* December 27 - Starcade, a video game television game show, debuts on TBS in the United States.-Notable releases:*October 13 - Mystique releases the Custer's Revenge adult video game for the Atari 2600 home console....
as the video game development group of Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman and CEO, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....
Limited, the film production company of George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
. Lucas wanted his company to branch out into other areas of entertainment, so he cooperated with Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
to produce video games.
The first results of this collaboration were unique action games like Ballblazer
Ballblazer
Ballblazer is a 1984 computer game created by Lucasfilm Games . It was originally released for the Atari 8-bit systems, such as the Atari 800 and the Atari 5200. It was also ported to other popular platforms of the day, such as the Apple II, ZX Spectrum , Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Atari 7800, and...
in 1984, and Rescue on Fractalus!. Beta versions of both games were leaked to pirate bulletin boards exactly one week after Atari had received unprotected copies for a marketing review, and were in wide circulation months before the original release date. In 1984, they were released for the Atari 5200
Atari 5200
The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, commonly known as the Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari Inc. as a higher end complementary console for the popular Atari 2600...
under the Lucasfilm Games label. Versions for home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
s were not released until 1985, by publisher Epyx
Epyx
Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before renaming the company to match in 1983...
. Lucasfilm's next two games were Koronis Rift
Koronis Rift
Koronis Rift is a December 1985 computer game from Lucasfilm Games. It was produced and designed by Noah Falstein.The game was supplied on a flippy disk. One side had the Atari version, the other side had the Commodore 64 version...
and The Eidolon
The Eidolon
The Eidolon was one of two games that were part of Lucasfilm Games' second wave in December of 1985. The other was Koronis Rift. Both took advantage of the fractal technology developed for Rescue on Fractalus!, further enhancing it...
. Their first games were only developed by Lucasfilm, and a publisher would distribute the games. Atari published their games for Atari systems, Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
and Epyx would do their computer publishing. Maniac Mansion
Maniac Mansion
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It was Lucasfilm's first published video game, and it was initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II. A comedy horror parody of B movies, it follows teenager Dave Miller as he ventures...
was one of the first games to be published and developed by Lucasfilm Games.
In 1990
1990 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*Bonk's Adventure is released for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and is the first US appearance of Bonk, the mascot of the TurboGrafx-16.*February 12 — Nintendo releases the NES game Super Mario Bros. 3 in North America...
, in a reorganization of the Lucas companies, the Games Division of Lucasfilm became part of the newly created LucasArts Entertainment Company, together with Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Sound is the sound effects, sound editing, sound design, sound mixing and music recording division of George Lucas' Lucas Digital motion picture group. Its main facilities are located in Lucas Valley, near Nicasio, California...
. Later ILM and Skywalker Sound were consolidated in Lucas Digital Ltd. and LucasArts became the official name of the former Games Division. In 1993, LucasArts decided to base a game on the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
franchise.
Logo
The long-lived LucasArts logo, affectionately known as the "Gold Guy", was introduced in 1991 and consisted of a crude gold-colored figure resembling a petroglyph
Petroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
, standing on a purple letter "L" inscribed with the company name. The figure had its hands up in the air, as if a sun were rising from behind him. It was also said to resemble an eye, with the rays of the sun as eyelashes. The logo was revised in late 2005, losing the letter "L" pedestal and introducing a more rounded version of the gold-colored figure. In the games, the figure sometimes does an action like throw a lightsaber
Lightsaber
A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close...
or cast Force Lightning.
The logo is possibly a reference to the ending of George Lucas' first film, THX 1138
THX 1138
THX 1138 is a 1971 science fiction film directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. The film is based on a screenplay by Lucas and Walter Murch...
, in which the silhouette of the main character stands with his arms raised during sunset.
Remedy Entertainment
Remedy Entertainment is a Finnish computer game developer founded in 1995 and based in Espoo, Finland. The company is best known for its Max Payne and Alan Wake series of video games.-History:...
, citing that their logo was copied from the top portion of the LucasArts logo and threatening legal action. Remedy was by that time already in the process of redesigning their logo, so they complied by taking the old logo offline from their website and introducing a new logo a little later.
Adventure games
The first adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games was Labyrinth (1986), based on the Lucasfilm movie of the same name. ICOM'sICOM Simulations
ICOM Simulations was a software company based in Wheeling, Illinois. It is best known for creating the MacVenture series of adventure games including Shadowgate.Following the foundation in 1983 a number of game titles for the Panasonic JR-200 were produced...
Déjà Vu inspired the 1987 title Maniac Mansion
Maniac Mansion
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It was Lucasfilm's first published video game, and it was initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II. A comedy horror parody of B movies, it follows teenager Dave Miller as he ventures...
which introduced SCUMM
SCUMM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion is a scripting language developed at LucasArts to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion....
, the scripting language behind most of the company's later adventure offerings. The adventures released in the following years, such as Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a graphical adventure game, originally released in October 1988 , published by LucasArts . It was the second game to use the SCUMM engine, after Maniac Mansion...
(1988), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1989 , published by Lucasfilm Games . It was the third game to use the SCUMM engine.-Plot:The plot closely follows, and expands upon, the film of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade...
(1989), LOOM (1990) and especially the critically acclaimed The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island is a graphic adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by the same company after its name was changed to LucasArts. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series...
(1990), helped Lucasfilm Games build a reputation as one of the leading developers in the genre. It was often referred to as one of the two big names in the field, competing with Sierra On-line
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
as a developer of high quality adventures. The first half of the 1990s was the heyday for the company's adventure fame, with classic titles such as Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the Monkey Island series, following The Secret of Monkey Island, and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound...
(1991), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a point-and-click adventure game by LucasArts originally released in 1992. Almost a year later, it was reissued on CD-ROM as an enhanced "talkie" edition with full voice acting and digitized sound effects...
(1992) and the Maniac Mansion sequel Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (1993).
In the latter half of the decade, the popularity of adventure games faded and the costs associated with game development increased as high-resolution art and CD quality audio became standard fare. The PC market wanted titles that would show off expensive new graphics cards to best effect, a change replicated in the home console market as the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
, Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
and Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
dictated the nature of the majority of games produced for those platforms. The adventure genre—two-dimensional, focused on story, script and puzzle solving—was no longer popular with the masses of new gamers.
LucasArts still managed to release moderately commercially successful titles: The Curse of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts, and the third game in the Monkey Island series. It was released in and followed the successful games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge...
(1997) was the last LucasArts adventure game to retain traditional two-dimensional graphics and point-and-click
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
interface. Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango is a personal computer game in the graphic adventure genre released by LucasArts in 1998 and primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered, static backgrounds...
(1998) was LucasArts' first attempt to convert 2D adventure to a 3D environment. The game interface suffered most from this conversion, with control of the protagonist becoming unwieldy and less intuitive than with the traditional mouse interface. However, the highly stylised visuals, superb voice acting and sophisticated writing more than made up for this flaw, earning Grim Fandango many plaudits, including GameSpot's Game of the Year award.
Escape from Monkey Island
Escape from Monkey Island
Escape from Monkey Island is a computer adventure game developed and released by LucasArts in 2000. It is the fourth game in the Monkey Island series....
(2000), the fourth installment to the Monkey Island series, featured the same control scheme as Grim Fandango and was generally well received. It is to date the last adventure game the company has released. A sequel to Full Throttle and a new Sam & Max
Sam & Max
Sam & Max is a media franchise focusing on the fictional characters of Sam and Max, the Freelance Police. The characters, who occupy a universe that parodies American popular culture, were created by Steve Purcell in his youth, and later debuted in a 1987 comic book series...
game were in development but these projects were cancelled, in 2003 and 2004 respectively, before the games were finished. When the rights to the Sam and Max franchise expired in 2005, the creator of Sam and Max, Steve Purcell
Steve Purcell
Steve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007...
, took ownership. He then licensed Sam and Max to Telltale Games
Telltale Games
Telltale Games is a leading independent digital first publisher and game developer founded in June 2004 as Telltale, Incorporated. Based in San Rafael, California, the studio includes designers formerly employed by LucasArts...
to be developed into an episodic game
Sam & Max Save the World
Sam & Max Save the World is a graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games. The game was originally released as Sam & Max: Season One before being renamed in early 2009. Save the World was developed in episodic fashion, comprising six episodes that were released for Microsoft Windows...
. Telltale Games is made up primarily of former LucasArts employees who had worked on the Sam and Max sequel and were let go after the project was canceled.
LucasArts halted adventure game development for the next five years, focusing instead on their Star Wars games. They remained silent and did not re-release their old games on digital distribution
Digital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
platforms, as other studios were doing at the time. However, in 2002, the company pledged that at least fifty percent of its releases would have nothing to do with Star Wars. It was not until 2009
2009 in video gaming
The year 2009 saw the release of many video games, including several sequels.-Events:-Scheduled releases:List of games scheduled for release in 2009 in North America....
that LucasArts returned to the genre. On June 1, 2009, they announced both The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, a remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the original game with updated graphics, music and voice work, and Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island is a 2009 graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games and LucasArts. It is the fifth game in the Monkey Island series, released nearly a decade after the previous installment, Escape from Monkey Island. Developed for Windows and the Wii console, the game was...
, a new episodic installment in the Monkey Island series developed by Telltale Games
Telltale Games
Telltale Games is a leading independent digital first publisher and game developer founded in June 2004 as Telltale, Incorporated. Based in San Rafael, California, the studio includes designers formerly employed by LucasArts...
.
Then, on July 6, they announced that they would be re-releasing a number of their classic games, including Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a point-and-click adventure game by LucasArts originally released in 1992. Almost a year later, it was reissued on CD-ROM as an enhanced "talkie" edition with full voice acting and digitized sound effects...
and LOOM, on Steam. The re-releases were, for the first time, native versions built for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. This was the first time in many years that the studio had offered any support for its classic adventure titles.
The release of the unofficial SCUMM virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
, ScummVM
ScummVM
ScummVM is a collection of game engine recreations. Originally designed to play LucasArts adventure games that use the SCUMM system , it now also supports a variety of non-SCUMM games by companies like Revolution Software and Adventure Soft. It was originally written by Ludvig Strigeus...
, has led to something of a resurgence for LucasArts adventure games among present-day gamers. Using ScummVM, legacy adventure titles can easily be run on modern computers and even more unusual platforms such as video game consoles, mobile phones and PDA
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
s.
Military simulations
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Lucasfilm Games developed a series of military vehicle simulation gameVehicle simulation game
Vehicle simulation games are a genre of video games which attempt to provide the player with a realistic interpretation of operating various kinds of vehicles. This includes automobiles, aircraft, watercraft, spacecraft, military vehicles, and a variety of other vehicles...
s, the first of which were the naval simulations PHM Pegasus
PHM Pegasus
PHM Pegasus is a ship simulation and action game released for the Commodore 64, Apple II, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. The game was developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by Electronic Arts...
in 1986 and Strike Fleet
Strike Fleet
Strike Fleet is a 1987 computer game developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for the Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and DOS...
in 1987. These two titles were published by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
for a variety of computer platforms, including PC, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
.
In 1988, Battlehawks 1942
Battlehawks 1942
- External links :*****...
launched a trilogy of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
air combat simulations, giving the player a chance to fly as an American or Japanese pilot in the Pacific Theater
Pacific Theater of Operations
The Pacific Theater of Operations was the World War II area of military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, a geographic scope that reflected the operational and administrative command structures of the American forces during that period...
. Battlehawks 1942 was followed by Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain (1989), recreating the battle between the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
and RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
for Britain's air supremacy. The trilogy ended with Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe is a World War II air-combat flight simulation video game released in August 1991 and expanded in 1992 by LucasFilm Games. It is a MS-DOS game for IBM PC compatibles....
in 1991, in which the player could choose to fly on either the American or German side. The trilogy was lauded for its historical accuracy and detailed supplementary material—Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, for instance, was accompanied by a 224-page historical manual.
The World War II trilogy was created by a team led by Lawrence Holland
Lawrence Holland
Lawrence Holland is an American game designer, and president of Totally Games. He is most famous for the Star Wars: X-Wing computer game series published by LucasArts.-Early life:...
, a game designer who later founded Totally Games
Totally Games
Totally Games is an electronic game developer located in Marin County, California. Their titles included X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X Wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance , a series of World War II Flight Simulator series, the most recent being Secret Weapons Over Normandy, and Bridge Commander based...
. Totally Games would continue to develop games almost exclusively to LucasArts, the most noted outcome of the symbiosis being the X-Wing series
Star Wars: X-Wing (series)
Star Wars: X-Wing is a series of space combat simulation video games set in the Star Wars universe that attempts to simulate the fictional experience of starfighter combat, while remaining faithful to the movies. The player took the role of a pilot of the Rebel Alliance, and, in later games, the...
. They were also responsible for LucasArts' 2003 return to the aerial battles of World War II with Secret Weapons Over Normandy
Secret Weapons Over Normandy
Secret Weapons Over Normandy or is a World War II-based arcade flight simulation video game released on November 18, 2003. Published by LucasArts and developed by Totally Games, the game is composed of 15 objective-based missions set in 1940s European, North African, and the Pacific theatres of war...
, a title released on PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and PC.
First Star Wars games
Even though LucasArts had created games based on other Lucasfilm properties before (LabyrinthLabyrinth (film)
Labyrinth is a 1986 British/American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, and designed by Brian Froud. Henson collaborated on the screenwriting with children's author Dennis Lee, Terry Jones from Monty Python, and Elaine May .The film stars David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin...
, Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
), they did not use the most promising Lucasfilm license until the early 1990s: Star Wars action games began appearing on the Nintendo consoles, but were developed by other companies for LucasArts. The first in-house development was the space combat simulator X-Wing
Star Wars: X-Wing
Star Wars: X-Wing is the first LucasArts DOS computer game set in the Star Wars universe, as well as the lead title in the X-Wing computer game series. It simulates the experience of combat in the A-wing, X-wing, and Y-wing starfighters of the Rebel Alliance...
, developed by Larry Holland's independent team, which went on to spawn a successful series
Star Wars: X-Wing (series)
Star Wars: X-Wing is a series of space combat simulation video games set in the Star Wars universe that attempts to simulate the fictional experience of starfighter combat, while remaining faithful to the movies. The player took the role of a pilot of the Rebel Alliance, and, in later games, the...
.
The CD-ROM-only Star Wars game Rebel Assault
Star Wars: Rebel Assault
Star Wars: Rebel Assault was the first CD ROM-only game published by LucasArts, set in the Star Wars universe. It was released for the PC followed by subsequent releases on the Sega CD, Mac and 3DO platforms.-Summary:...
became one of the biggest successes of the company and was considered a killer app for CD-ROM drives in the early 1990s.
From 2005 to 2007, LucasArts published the three games in the Lego Star Wars series.
First-person shooters
After the unprecedented success of id SoftwareId Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
's Doom the PC gaming market shifted towards production of three-dimensional first person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
s. LucasArts contributed to this trend with the 1995 release of Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts. It was released in 1995 for DOS and Apple Macintosh, and in 1996 for the PlayStation. The storyline within the Dark Forces is set in the Star Wars fictional universe and follows the character Kyle...
, a first person shooter that successfully transplanted the Doom formula to a Star Wars setting. The Dark Forces Strategy guide claims that development was well underway before Doom was released and that the game was pushed back once Doom hit shelves so that it could be polished. The game was well received and spawned a new franchise: the Jedi Knight games. This began with the sequel to Dark Forces, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II released in 1997; this game reflected the changing face of PC gaming, being one of the first games to appreciably benefit when used in conjunction with a dedicated 3D graphics card like 3dfx
3dfx
3dfx Interactive was a company that specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics processing units and, later, graphics cards. It was a pioneer in the field for several years in the late 1990s until 2000 when it underwent one of the most high-profile demises in the history of the PC industry...
's Voodoo range. The game received an expansion pack
Expansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
, Mysteries of the Sith, in 1998 and a full sequel in 2002 with Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, often abbreviated JK2 or JO, is a first- and third-person action game developed by Raven Software and published by LucasArts and Activision. The PC version was released in March and the Mac OS X, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube versions were released in November...
. 2003's Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is a first and third-person shooter action game set in the Star Wars universe. It was developed by Raven Software and published, distributed and marketed by LucasArts in North America and by Activision in the rest of the world. Jedi Academy was released in...
can be seen as a spin-off from the series, but was less well received by reviewers, who complained that the franchise was becoming formulaic.
Apart from Star Wars-themed 3D shooters, LucasArts also created the western-themed game Outlaws in 1997 and Armed and Dangerous
Armed and Dangerous (video game)
Armed and Dangerous, often shortened to AnD, is a video game created by Planet Moon Studios and released by LucasArts. It is a third-person Action/Adventure Comedy shooter which parodies both other games and several other media such as The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Monty Python and the Holy...
(in collaboration with Planet Moon Studios
Planet Moon Studios
Planet Moon Studios is a game development studio based in San Francisco, California founded by ex-Shiny Entertainment developers Nick Bruty and Bob Stevenson in 1997...
) in 2003.
In the New Millennium
As the quantity of Star Wars games increased, many critics felt the quality began to drop; this was especially noted with the titles released since the cinematic release of The Phantom Menace.In 2002, LucasArts recognized that the over-reliance on Star Wars was reducing the quality of its output, and announced that future releases would be at least 50% non-Star Wars-related. However, many of the original titles were either unsuccessful or even cancelled before release and currently LucasArts has again mainly Star Wars titles in production.
2003 saw the fruitful collaboration of LucasArts and BioWare
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by American company Electronic Arts...
on the exceptionally well reviewed role-playing game
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
, Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts. It was released for the Xbox on July 15, 2003, for Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2003, and on September 7, 2004 for Mac OS X. The Xbox version is playable on Xbox 360 with its...
. Combining a three-dimensional environment with the type of storytelling and writing that made LucasArts' early adventure games so memorable, this game was seen as breathing new life into the Star Wars franchise. Its 2004 sequel Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is a role playing video game released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows. The Xbox version of this sequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released on December 6, 2004, while the Windows version was released on February 8, 2005...
continued in the same vein, attempting to adopt a similar template as the original, uniting voice acting with an unfolding story which picked up where the last game left off. However, LucasArts was criticized for forcing the developer Obsidian Entertainment
Obsidian Entertainment
Obsidian Entertainment is an American video game developer founded in 2003 after the disestablishment of Interplay Productions' Black Isle Studios, for PC and console systems...
to release the sequel too early, resulting in a significant amount of unfinished content being cut from the game and what many consider to be a disappointing and convoluted storyline with an incomplete ending. Also the rush release of this game to the PC platform caused many bugs and crashes. This still has not been fixed by patches.
In 2003 LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise also branched out in a new direction—the world of the MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
, with the creation of Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Galaxies is a Star Wars themed MMORPG for Microsoft Windows developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts.-History:...
. After a successful launch, the first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, was released in 2004. The new expansion featured the addition of real-time space combat. This was continued in Rage of the Wookies, an additional expansion which added an additional planet for users to explore. Also, a new expansion, Trials of Obi-Wan was released on November 1, 2005 consisting of several new missions focusing on the Episode 3 planet, Mustafar. While Star Wars Galaxies still retains a devoted following, it has also alienated many players. Although it is currently the most popular class in the game, Star Wars Galaxies has chosen to ignore the timeline established in the original films, during which the game is set, and has allowed players to play as Jedi characters. The game has also undergone several major redesigns, which have been received with decidedly mixed reactions by players. Perhaps in one of the most telling examples of problems with the game, smugglers are actually still unable to smuggle, over three years after the game launched. Improvements into the game are still undergoing with the publish plan giving all the combat and non-combat professions diversity in skill tree boxes similar to the well-known MMO World of Warcraft.
Restructuring under Jim Ward
In April 2004, Jim Ward, VP of marketing, online and global distributions at Lucasfilm, was appointed president of LucasArts. Ward performed a top-to-bottom audit of LucasArts infrastructure, describing the company's state as "quite a mess." In 2003, LucasArts had reportedly grossed just over $100 million according to NPDNPD Group
The NPD Group, Inc. is a leading North American market research company. The NPD Group consistently ranks among the top 25 market research companies in the independent Honomichl Top 50 report, which the media and the research industry acknowledge as a credible source of information on the market...
, primarily from its Star Wars titles – significantly less than the grosses from the year's top single titles such as Halo
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved, frequently referred to as Halo: CE, or Halo 1, is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The first game of the Halo franchise, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system, and is...
. Ward produced a five-year investment plan to refit the company. Previous Star Wars games had been produced by external developers such as Raven Software
Raven Software
Raven Software is an American video game developer. The company was founded in 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them...
, Bioware and Obsidian; Ward now prioritized making LucasArts' internal game development work effectively and adapt to the evolving games industry. Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Battlefront is a first and third-person video game based on battles in the Star Wars film series. It was developed by Pandemic Studios and LucasArts and released on September 20, 2004 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, the same day as the release of the Star Wars...
, Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Republic Commando is a first-person shooter Star Wars video game, released in the US on March 1, 2005. It was developed and published by LucasArts for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox platforms. The game uses Epic Games' Unreal Engine...
, and Star Wars: Episode III
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (video game)
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith is the official LucasArts 2005 video game based on the movie of the same name. It centers around Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker as the Clone Wars come to an end. It was released on May 5, 2005, for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance and...
survived cuts that closed down other in-development games and reduced staff from about 450 to 190 employees.
In 2004, LucasArts released Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Battlefront is a first and third-person video game based on battles in the Star Wars film series. It was developed by Pandemic Studios and LucasArts and released on September 20, 2004 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, the same day as the release of the Star Wars...
, based on the same formula as the popular Battlefield series
Battlefield (video game series)
The Battlefield franchise is a series of computer and console games that started with the Windows/Mac game Battlefield 1942. The series is developed by the Swedish company EA Digital Illusions CE, and published by Electronic Arts. The games feature a greater focus on large maps, teamwork and...
of games. It ended up becoming the best-selling Star Wars game of all time to that point, aided by a marketing tie-in with the original trilogy DVD release. Its sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront II
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Star Wars: Battlefront II is a first/third-person shooter video game developed by Pandemic Studios, and published by LucasArts. The game is the sequel to the successful Star Wars: Battlefront and features new vehicles, characters, game mechanics, maps, and missions...
, was released November 1, 2005 and features new locales such as Episode III planets Mustafar, Mygeeto, etc., in addition to space combat, playable Jedi, and new special units like Bothan spies and Imperial officers. In this same year, the second "Knights of the Old Republic" game was in production. LucasArts told Obsidian Entertainment
Obsidian Entertainment
Obsidian Entertainment is an American video game developer founded in 2003 after the disestablishment of Interplay Productions' Black Isle Studios, for PC and console systems...
that the project needed to be finished by that year's holiday season. Obsidian was forced to cut huge amounts of content from the game, resulting in a broken, unfinished KotOR II.
In May 2005, LucasArts released Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (video game)
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith is the official LucasArts 2005 video game based on the movie of the same name. It centers around Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker as the Clone Wars come to an end. It was released on May 5, 2005, for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance and...
, a third person action game based on the film. Also in 2005, LucasArts released Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Republic Commando is a first-person shooter Star Wars video game, released in the US on March 1, 2005. It was developed and published by LucasArts for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox platforms. The game uses Epic Games' Unreal Engine...
, and one of their few non-Star Wars games, Mercenaries
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is a third-person shooter video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published on January 11, 2005 by LucasArts for PlayStation 2 and Xbox...
, developed by Pandemic Studios
Pandemic Studios
Pandemic Studios was founded as an independent developer in 1998, it became an Electronic Arts-owned developer from 2007 to 2009, when it was officially closed. It was an Australian and American video game developer with offices in Brisbane, Australia and Los Angeles, California...
.
On February 16, 2006, LucasArts released Star Wars: Empire at War
Star Wars: Empire at War
Star Wars: Empire at War is a 2006 real-time strategy game developed by Petroglyph Games and published by LucasArts. Set between Episode III and Episode IV, it focuses on the fledgling struggle between the Empire and the Rebels. It uses Petroglyph's game engine Alamo. The most recent patch was...
, a real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
game developed by Petroglyph. September 12, 2006 saw the release of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the sequel to the popular Lego Star Wars: The Video Game
LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
Lego Star Wars: The Video Game is a video game based on the Star Wars themed toy line by the Lego Group and the first game in TT Games' Lego videogame franchise. It takes place during the prequel trilogy , with a bonus segment from A New Hope...
. Lego Star Wars II follows the same basic format as the first game, but, as the name indicates, covers the original Star Wars trilogy. On September 16, 2008, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a multimedia project developed by LucasArts along with Dark Horse Comics, Lego, Hasbro, and Del Rey Books...
was released to mixed reviews, though quickly became the best-selling Star Wars game of all time.
In a 2006 GameSpot interview, Monkey Island co-creator Ron Gilbert
Ron Gilbert
Ron Gilbert is an American computer game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Gilbert was also co-founder of Humongous Entertainment and its sister company Cavedog...
claimed that the true secret of Monkey Island has yet to be revealed, and that he wished to make a fifth Monkey Island game to conclude the series. On June 1, 2009, LucasArts announced a re-imagining of the Secret of Monkey Island titled The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. This release includes updates graphics, sound and music, and full voice acting. In addition, Telltale Games
Telltale Games
Telltale Games is a leading independent digital first publisher and game developer founded in June 2004 as Telltale, Incorporated. Based in San Rafael, California, the studio includes designers formerly employed by LucasArts...
also announced a new episodic game in the Monkey Island franchise titled "Tales of Monkey Island". The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition was released on July 15, 2009 to generally positive reviews
In May 2007, LucasArts announced Fracture
Fracture (video game)
Fracture is a third-person shooter video game developed by Day 1 Studios for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released on October 7, 2008 in North America and on October 10, 2008 in Europe.-Story:...
and stated that "new intellectual properties serve a vital role to the growth of LucasArts". Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is a third-person shooter video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published on January 11, 2005 by LucasArts for PlayStation 2 and Xbox...
was labelled the number one new IP in 2005 and Thrillville
Thrillville
Thrillville is a simulation and strategy video game that depicts theme park management, very similar to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, which Frontier Developments also created. Thrillville is currently available for PlayStation 2, PSP and Xbox.-Plot:...
the number one new children's IP in 2006. Fracture was released on 7 October 2008 to average reviews. Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is a third-person shooter video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published on January 11, 2005 by LucasArts for PlayStation 2 and Xbox...
was released on January 11, 2007 to critical and commercial success which led to a sequel, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, often abbreviated as Mercs 2, is a video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to 2005's Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, and it was released in the United States on August 31, 2008 and in Europe on September 5,...
. Thrillville was released on November 21, 2006.
Free Radical Design
Free Radical Design
Crytek UK, formerly known as Free Radical Design, is a video game developer based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, probably best known for Second Sight and the TimeSplitters series. After going into financial administration, it was announced on February 4 2009 that the studio had been acquired by...
announced that they lost the rights to develop Star Wars: Battlefront III
Star Wars: Battlefront III
Star Wars: Battlefront III was to have been the third video game in the Star Wars: Battlefront series. Although Lucasarts has never officially announced or commented on the game, it was initially developed by Free Radical Design...
in October, prior to them going into administration. It had been in development for two years.
Development under Rodriguez and beyond
Jim Ward left the company early February 2008, for personal reasons. He was replaced by Howard Roffman as interim president, with Darrell Rodriguez taking Roffman's place in April 2008. Rodriguez served a short period before resigning, with a Lucasfilm board of Directors and a games industry veteran: Jerry Bowerman filling in during the transition. About a month prior to release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed IIStar Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is LucasArts' sequel to 2008's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game. A trailer announcing the game was shown December 12, 2009, at the Spike Video Game Awards. The game was released across multiple platforms in October 2010, along with a collectors edition of...
LucasArts scaled down the internal development studio. The game scored fairly low on gaming sites such IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, Gamespot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
and GameTrailers
GameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
. After release, minor adjustment in staffing resulted in even more layoffs.
They also published Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes for all current systems. The game is a tie-in to The Clone Wars
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series)
-Production:At April 2005's Star Wars Celebration III, Lucas stated that "we are working on a 3-D continuation of the pilot series that was on the Cartoon Network; we probably won't start that project for another year." In July 2005, pre-production had begun on the series, according to Steve...
television series and was released on October 6, 2009, receiving generally negative reviews.
The company began experiencing turnovers in layoffs in 2010. Darrell Rodriguez, who came from Electronic Arts, left in May after just two years on the job. He was replaced in June by Paul Meegan, formerly of Gears of War developer Epic Games. In July 2010, Haden Blackman, who served as creative director on the original Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, LucasArts' most successful internally produced title of recent years, and the sequel, unexpectedly left. However, the company scored a surprise coup in August when Clint Hocking, a high-profile game director from Ubisoft, announced that he would be joining LucasArts. In September 2010, a third of the employees at LucasArts were fired.
Future
During television network G4G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
's coverage of the 2006 E3 Convention, a LucasArts executive was asked about the return of popular franchises such as Monkey Island. The executive responded that the company was currently focusing on new franchises, and that LucasArts may return to the "classic franchises" in 2015, though it was unclear as to whether the date was put forwards as an actual projection, or hyperbole.
The successor to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is a role playing video game released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows. The Xbox version of this sequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was released on December 6, 2004, while the Windows version was released on February 8, 2005...
in the form of the MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Star Wars: The Old Republic, abbreviated as TOR or SWTOR, is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game based in the Star Wars universe. Currently in development by BioWare Austin and a supplemental team at BioWare Edmonton, the game was first announced on October 21, 2008, at an...
was announced on October 21, 2008, at an invitation-only press event. currently under development by BioWare.
On April 26, 2011 LucasArts announced that they've acquired the license from Epic Games
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
to develop a number of future titles using the Unreal Engine 3
Unreal Engine 3
Unreal Engine 3 is a computer game engine developed by Epic Games. It is the third generation of Unreal Engine, designed for DirectX 9/10/11 personal computers , the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation Vita, the Wii U, Android and OpenGL-based operating systems such as iOS and Mac OS X...
for a number of platforms.
In addition, two untitled games are currently in development: an open-world RPG, a FPS, and an aerial combat game.
Other releases
From 1995 to 1998, LucasArts released an annual compilation of games, the LucasArts ArchivesLucasArts Archives
The LucasArts Archives are a series of CD-ROM personal computer game re-releases and compilations from publisher LucasArts.-List of LucasArts Archives:* The LucasArts Archives Vol...
series, each containing three to six games plus a selection of demo
Game demo
A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full version....
s of recent and upcoming games. The second and fourth volumes of LucasArts Archives were Star Wars-themed. Later games published under the LucasArts Archives brand were budget-priced reissues of individual games.
In 1996, LucasArts released Afterlife
Afterlife (computer game)
Afterlife is a god game released by LucasArts in 1996 that places the player in the role of a semi-omnipotent being known as a Demiurge, with the job of creating a functional Heaven and Hell to reward or punish the citizens of the local planet. In order to do so, the player must keep tabs on these...
, a sim game in which the player builds their own Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
and Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, with several jokes and puns (such as a prison in Hell called San Quentin
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men in unincorporated San Quentin, Marin County, California, United States. Opened in July 1852, it is the oldest prison in the state. California's only death row for male inmates, the largest...
Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
). In 2002, LucasArts released a compilation CD filled with music from their past games. The album is titled The Best of LucasArts Original Soundtracks and features music from The Monkey Island Series, Grim Fandango, Outlaws, and The Dig
The Dig
The Dig is a graphical adventure game developed by LucasArts and released in 1995, and a game based on an idea for an Amazing Stories episode by Steven Spielberg...
.
A video game titled Traxion
Traxion (video game)
Traxion was a rhythm game for the PlayStation Portable by British developer Kuju Entertainment. It was scheduled to be released in Q4 2006 by LucasArts, but was cancelled in January 2007. The game was to feature a number of minigames, and would support imported songs from the player's own library...
was announced. Traxion was a rhythm game
Rhythm game
Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press buttons in a sequence dictated on the screen...
which was under development for the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
by British developer Kuju Entertainment
Kuju Entertainment
Kuju Entertainment is an English computer and video game corporation consisting of three studios, two of which are located in the UK: Zoë Mode , Headstrong Games , and one in the Czech Republic: Vatra games...
, scheduled to be released in Q4 2006 by LucasArts, but was instead cancelled in January 2007. The game was to feature a number of minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
s, and would support imported songs from the player's own mp3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
library as well as the game's bundled collection.
iMUSE
iMUSE (Interactive MUsic Streaming Engine) is an interactive music system used in a number of LucasArts video games. It synchronizes music with the visual action in the game, and transitions from one musical theme to another. iMUSE was developed in the early 1990s by composers Michael LandMichael Land
Michael Z. Land is an American video game composer and musician best known for his scores for various games produced by LucasArts.-Early life and career:Michael Land was born in the North Shore area north of Boston, Massachusetts...
and Peter McConnell
Peter McConnell
Peter N. McConnell , also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game music composer who worked for LucasArts for nearly ten years. He studied music as an undergraduate at Harvard University in 80s under Timothy Vincent Clarke, Curt Cacioppo and Ivan Tcherepnin...
while working at LucasArts. The iMUSE system is patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed by LucasArts, and was added to the SCUMM
SCUMM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion is a scripting language developed at LucasArts to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion....
game engine in 1991. The first game to use iMUSE was Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the Monkey Island series, following The Secret of Monkey Island, and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound...
and it has been used in all LucasArts adventure games
LucasArts adventure games
From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often irreverent or slapstick humour, with a few exceptions...
since. It has also been used for some non-adventure LucasArts titles, including Star Wars: X-Wing
Star Wars: X-Wing
Star Wars: X-Wing is the first LucasArts DOS computer game set in the Star Wars universe, as well as the lead title in the X-Wing computer game series. It simulates the experience of combat in the A-wing, X-wing, and Y-wing starfighters of the Rebel Alliance...
(DOS version), Star Wars: TIE Fighter
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
Star Wars: TIE Fighter, a 1994 space flight simulator/space combat computer game, is the sequel to Star Wars: X-Wing, and the first game of the series that puts the player on the side of the Galactic Empire....
(DOS version), and Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts. It was released in 1995 for DOS and Apple Macintosh, and in 1996 for the PlayStation. The storyline within the Dark Forces is set in the Star Wars fictional universe and follows the character Kyle...
.
See also
- List of LucasArts games
- List of Star Wars video games
- LucasArts adventure gamesLucasArts adventure gamesFrom the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often irreverent or slapstick humour, with a few exceptions...
- SCUMMSCUMMScript Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion is a scripting language developed at LucasArts to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion....
- GrimEGrimEGrimE is an adventure game engine, created by Bret Mogilefsky at LucasArts using the free software scripting language Lua. It was first used for Grim Fandango. Partly based on the Sith engine, GrimE was the successor to SCUMM, preserving some of that engine's features...
- SITHSith (engine)The Sith engine is a game engine developed by LucasArts.The game Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II is based on this engine, and its expansion, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, is based on a slightly updated version....
- INSANEINSANE (engine)INSANE is a proprietary INteractive Streaming ANimation Engine developed at LucasArts, primarily by programmer/game designer Vincent Lee...
- 1982 in video gaming1982 in video gaming-Events:* December 27 - Starcade, a video game television game show, debuts on TBS in the United States.-Notable releases:*October 13 - Mystique releases the Custer's Revenge adult video game for the Atari 2600 home console....
External links
- Official LucasArts website
- The Workshop - Official LucasArts Blog
- The International House of Mojo fan-site
- LucasArts on MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...