The Star Wars Game Company
But having a design-driven game company with outstanding employees and savvy business management doesn't fully explain LucasArts' success. You also must take its licensed properties - most notably Star Wars and Indiana Jones - into account. Unique in the gaming industry, LucasArts has demonstrated time and again that it can create games that are true to the spirit of the films that inspired them.
Indy and Sophia in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
As Peter Molyneux put it, "The use, rather than the abuse of LucasFilm movie characters is something I admire about LucasArts. The Indy series was one of the only adventure series I ever completed because it was so damn good." Across the industry, LucasArts is respected for working within the limits of the movie licenses, while at the same time creating unique stories in the universe, not just trying to cash in on a movie's plot.
"George Lucas was a bit worried about his material being presented in 16 colors with 'jaggies' all over the place" says Barwood.
But what many people forget is that LucasArts survived on its own without doing a licensed movie property for nearly a decade. The first was 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. "It wasn't an entirely benign decision," recalls Barwood about the lack of licensed properties from the get-go. "Part of it was because the state of appearance of computer games in the late '80s was such that George [Lucas] was a bit worried about his material being presented in 16 colors with 'jaggies' all over the place."
However, that changed with the Indiana Jones game. "That did well and it gave George confidence, even though it was 16 colors. But it was Larry's X-Wing game that really broke the dam - everyone realized that the presentation systems had improved to a point where you could do Star Wars games and be proud of [them]."
Holland's X-Wing broke the mold for licensed games.
Holland had talked with Steve Arnold - who ran LucasArts back in late '80s - about doing a Star Wars flight simulator, but he didn't actually end up doing one until X-Wing in 1992. Since then, numerous Star Wars products have been released, including hugely successful games such as Rebel Assault, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, and Tie Fighter, not to mention the forthcoming Force Commander and Holland's latest space-simulator, X-Wing: Alliance.
Holland remembers creating X-Wing for the PC.
"I think that we are largely perceived as the 'Star Wars' game company," says Barwood. "It doesn't worry me though - let's face it; it's a secret of our prosperity. I get to go to work every day because we make money on those games."
