Part 1: The Myth Returns
Enclosed by four plain white walls, a lone chair sat in the middle of a vacuous room deep inside the Northern California campus of LucasArts Entertainment. Almost two years ago, this room was a secret, off-limits to all but a select few. Those who were granted access were quickly ushered into the room, asked to sit down, handed a stack of white paper, and locked inside.
"I sat there for three hours reading it," says Dean Sharpe, president of software developer Big Ape Productions, recalling his first opportunity to immerse himself in the mysterious document. As he turned each page, Sharpe's imagination was stirred by words that described far-off locales such as the misty swamps of Naboo and the bustling metropolis of Coruscant. He imagined characters like a mop-headed nine-year-old named Anakin Skywalker and a brash young Jedi named Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Young Anakin Skywalker stars in Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
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An exclusive image of the Podrace sequence in Episode I.
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To Sharpe, it seemed unimportant that he was essentially in a cage. Then and there, the words he read ignited his imagination as he visualized what George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace would look like when fully realized as a motion picture... and as a game.
Whether you're one of the costume-wearing, lightsaber-waving fans of George Lucas' timeless myth or merely a curious bystander, there's no denying that the May 19th release of the Star Wars prequel is an important milestone for entertainment, regardless of the medium. Rabid fans who have waited impatiently for more than a decade will finally discover the origin of Darth Vader, meet the parents of Luke and Leia Skywalker, and begin to unravel how Emperor Palpatine claimed his throne.
Just ask anyone inside LucasArts, where there are people who "know more about Star Wars than I thought possible," according to Grim Fandango designer Tim Schafer. Hang around LucasArts for a day, and you'll hear tales of an artist who got his start selling 25-cent C-3P0 drawings in the fourth grade. Or there's the guy who showed up on LucasArts' doorstep when he was 21 with a portfolio of thousands of Star Wars drawings he'd done since the age of seven. Stories like these are par for the course at the interactive arm of George Lucas' empire, a safe haven for those with a Star Wars fetish, and a place where the myth grows larger and deeper. Ever since the release of The Empire Strikes Back on the Atari 2600 - with its wiggling AT-ATs and their jaggy snow-white pixels - LucasArts has been building games in the Star Wars universe and winning fans, including Lucas himself.
"George Lucas does see games as being a great medium to get all the richness of Star Wars across to people."
- LucasArts president Jack Sorensen
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"George does see games - much more so than toys and books - as being a great medium to get all the [richness of Star Wars] across to people," explains Jack Sorensen, the president of LucasArts. In light of that fact, you would expect great things from the games that will accompany the release of the new Star Wars movie. Expect, but not now, because outside of little white rooms like the one Dean Sharpe found himself locked in, no one in the world has a clue as to what LucasArts was going to do with the characters and stories of Episode I.
Until now.
Next: Augmenting the Menace
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