Earth and Beyond Online gets Star Wars designer

Westwood Studios has announced that Academy Award winner Doug Chiang, the design director for Star Wars: Episode I and Star Wars: Episode II, will work with the Earth and Beyond Online team as a consultant and provide concept art for the player spaceships in the game. Earth and Beyond is Westwood's first online role-playing game.

"We are absolutely thrilled to have an artist of Doug's caliber working on our project," said Craig Alexander, online vice president and executive producer of Earth and Beyond Online. "Doug has done amazing work on the Star Wars movies and we can't wait to show the world what he has in store for Earth and Beyond Online."

Chiang has worked on a variety of popular films, including Back to the Future II, Death Becomes Her, Terminator 2, Forrest Gump, and Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. He is currently finishing work on Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.

"Working on Earth and Beyond Online is great fun and presents some interesting challenges," Chiang said. "Each of the three Earth and Beyond Online cultures needs to have a distinct style and personality to their ships. The warrior Progen have dangerous-looking, well-armed fighters that need to look intimidating, while the scientific Jenqui are more partial to graceful curves and fluid lines. Meanwhile, the Terran tradesman have large cargo holds for holding loot, but being enthusiastic capitalists at heart, still like to travel in style. I'm having a great time experimenting with these personalities and designs."

Earth and Beyond Online is scheduled for release this summer. For more information, take a look at our previous coverage of the game.