Star Wars Bounty Hunter is a bit of a departure for LucasArts. Rather than putting you in the role of a hero fighting for the forces of good, the game will put you in the shoes of everybody's favorite mercenary, Jango Fett. Well, the father of everybody's favorite mercenary, at least. Jango's sense of right and wrong is pretty flexible, and he usually swings in whatever direction benefits his bank account the most. We had a chance to talk to Jon Knoles, the director of this forthcoming GameCube and PlayStation 2 game, to find out how Bounty Hunter is coming together.

GameSpot: How long has the game been in development?

The daddy of Star Wars bounty hunters (literally) is coming to the PlayStation 2 and GameCube.

Jon Knoles: We were asked to make an Episode II-based game featuring Jango Fett in November 2000. We presented the game design proposal in March of 2001, and actual development began soon thereafter.

GS: How do you approach a game focused on Jango Fett? What were the key gameplay elements you felt the game had to have?

JK: First and foremost was the importance of developing Jango Fett as the ideal action-based video game character. That is, he must be exciting to watch and fun to play, and his controls must be exceptionally well tuned. Second was building Jango's character, which means developing a story that fleshes out Jango Fett more fully than he was presented in the film Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, while at the same time remaining true to the spirit of his character as seen in the movie. It was also important to not bog down the game with a leaden script or slow-moving story. We wanted to have the story propel the action forward, not slow things down. Working a fine balance between back story, narrative, and action-packed gameplay was our goal.

GS: Can you give us an idea of how Jango's moves will work in the game?

JK: Jango Fett was developed to be an extension of the player's will, the ideal vessel through which the player could live out the fantasy of being the galaxy's most dangerous bounty hunter. In order to accomplish this, we needed Jango to be totally familiar with his environment. His movement and animation blending system was designed to automatically react to ledges, platforms, ladders, beams, and other world objects. For visual flair, Jango's animations are very stylized, fast, and exaggerated, making him exciting to watch. It also was crucial that he is never unable to use his weapons or devices and that in every situation he is a ruthless badass. He grabs and hoists himself up to platforms fluidly, and he can use his blasters and even toss a thermal grenade while hanging from a ledge. He can fly with his jetpack without ever having to pick up fuel. He can target multiple enemies with his blasters, and at times it seems like Jango has a mind of his own, blasting away at things behind him, beside him, and above him, but all the while we make players feel like they are totally in control.

For example, when running around in the game, Jango's movements are camera-relative. That is, if you push up on the control stick, he'll move away from the camera. If you pull down on the stick, he'll turn toward the camera and move toward you. Push right or left and he'll turn and run in that direction. This is a very familiar and comfortable control mechanic that's used in some of my favorite third-person games. It also allows you to marvel at how cool Jango looks from multiple angles, whereas a character-relative, or "camera on a stick" control scheme would limit your view to Jango's rear end, which might serve another famous video game character well, but...

As Jango is sneaking, walking, crouching, or running around, players can choose to fire his weapons. If they do, the weapons will fire straight out in front of Jango. However, if an enemy character is in front of Jango, he'll auto-aim on that target. If two enemies appear, he will auto-target both of them when using his dual blasters. Jango will now maintain his auto aim on these characters within a certain range even if they move out of the initial target-acquiring range. In some cases, he'll even cross his arms to track multiple enemies who cross his path. Jango's accuracy will depend on his proximity to them and the speed that Jango and his enemies are moving relative to each other. Pressing the fire button will alternate shots from his two pistols.

Sometimes, all the sneaking, walking, and running in the world won't be able to help Jango.

At any time, the player can choose to "lock on" to a target within a fairly wide range. This is done by pressing and holding a shoulder button. Once a target has been locked on to, Jango's movements will cease to be camera-relative and will instead become relative to the locked target. This means that when the player moves to the left or right Jango will "strafe" or circle around the locked-on enemy. If you pull back on the control stick, Jango will backpedal away from the enemy. Evasive moves such as dives, rolls, and somersaulting leaps are all performed in relation to the locked-on enemy. Even Jango's movement with the jetpack is now relative to the locked-on target. For example, Jango can lock on to an enemy and use his jetpack to fly up and circle around the target, all while maintaining his lock. And check this out: with his free hand, he will still be blasting away at other auto-targeted enemies! This often leads to Jango perform some visually dynamic shooting. It's a trip to watch. Or, as I like to do, you can fly around a locked-on enemy and fire a rocket from your jetpack right into him.

The flamethrower built into Jango's wrist gauntlet is a bit different. Jango must stand still when using it, and if you hold down the fire button, you can use the control stick to sweep his arm around in a complete circle--again, all camera-relative--a little like in Robotron or Smash TV.

Finally, Jango can manually aim with any of his weapons. For all weapons except the sniper rifle, which uses a scope, we use a slightly over-the-head view when Jango is in manual aim mode. We felt this was important to maintain the third-person game experience.