For a seasoned gamer, walking along the main corridor at the nondescript headquarters of San Rafael, CA-based LucasArts Entertainment Company is quite the trip down memory lane. Framed images hang on the stainless steel and wood paneled walls illuminated by glitzy silver halogen lamps. There's a Storm Trooper print here and a shot of Indiana Jones in his fedora there. Even more interesting is the green tentacle portrait, the image of a guy called Guybrush who really wants to be a pirate, and a painting of a dog in a navy-blue suit with his pint-sized vanilla-white rabbit friend.
It's a wonderful juxtaposition: some of the greatest characters in the history of Hollywood right along side many of the most beloved computer game characters of all time.
It only happens at LucasArts.
Tim Schafer's Day of the Tentacle, released in 1992, is a classic LucasArts adventure.
Whether it's one of the evil pets from Day of the Tentacle, the swashbuckling hero-to-boot Guybrush Threepwood on Monkey Island, or a K-9 and a hare in Sam and Max, LucasArts is one of gaming's most cherished organizations. The company is recognized by both consumers and competitors alike as being one of only a few publishers that continually pushes the art of game design forward, not just with technology, but with its characters, stories, and art. In a medium where all too often the shell of a game is empty, where the center is lost in the vapor of technical pizzazz, LucasArts stands apart. Its designers know how to entertain. They know how to innovate. They know how to make games.
How does LucasArts do it? What is the atmosphere that lets its designers not only exploit mega-licenses such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but at the same time develop rich, completely original games that enrapture players across the globe? How do they navigate the bounds of current computer technology to create their interactive worlds? And most importantly, how do they avoid being stuck in the rut of cookie-cutter game design to which so many other companies fall prey?
