By now, everyone has heard of Star Wars. George Lucas' incredibly popular sci-fi universe, which began as a trilogy of motion pictures, has since given rise to a gigantic financial empire founded on memorable characters, an imaginative mythos, and a whole bunch of T-shirts. But the Star Wars universe has also become home to some fantastic computer and video games, including BioWare's recent Xbox role-playing game Knights of the Old Republic. The open-ended game lets you create a character who can explore the Star Wars universe with a party of colorful characters and who eventually acquires Jedi powers that belong to either the light or dark side of the Force, the mystical energy upon which every Jedi draws.

These Tusken Raiders are no match for my PC-exclusive armor!

The Xbox game was received extremely well because of its great variety, depth, interesting characters, and intriguing character development system. Developer BioWare and publisher LucasArts are now getting ready to bring the game to the PC. The PC version of Knights of the Old Republic will include new features, like high resolution textures and exclusive items not found in the Xbox version (you can find the exclusive first images of these items in our screenshot gallery to the right), as well as numerous miscellaneous enhancements, like tweaks to the interface. For more details on the PC version of the game, as well as the developer's thoughts on RPGs in general, we sat down with project director Casey Hudson and co-executive producer Greg Zeschuk of BioWare.

GameSpot: Thanks for taking the time for this interview. Could you give us a progress report on the PC version of Knights of the Old Republic? What parts of the game is the team working on now?

Casey Hudson: We're very close to being finished with development on the PC version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Since we've developed the Xbox and PC versions in parallel, we were in a good position to finish the PC version once the Xbox version was done. It's given us some extra time to make improvements to the game and to focus on implementing a solid PC interface.

GS: How would you describe the experience of working with the Star Wars license? Was it difficult to incorporate Dungeons & Dragons-style rules into the universe?

Greg Zeschuk: Working with the Star Wars license was a great experience. We really enjoyed the feedback on our vision of the universe four thousand years prior to the [events that take place in the] movies. Our goal was to make sure that the content we created for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was reminiscent of the movies but unique enough to set it apart as a definite precursor. Overall, we were really happy with the results. We felt like we had enough freedom to truly create something wonderful.

GS: Now that Knights of the Old Republic has finally shipped for the Xbox, what aspect of the game would you say you're most proud of?

CH: One of the biggest achievements was the combat system, which was also a huge risk for us. We wanted to create something that combined the strategic aspects of our Baldur's Gate series and Neverwinter Nights but which presented it through fast, cinematic 3D action. That required us to make something that hadn't really been done before, so we were relieved to see how much fun people had with it. It was great to finally get the last of our interface changes completed and suddenly realize that the combat system we had built was extremely compelling.

GS: Obviously, a lot went into the development of Knights of the Old Republic--writing a lengthy story, developing a branching gameplay structure, and working with a licensed property, to name just a few. What was the most challenging aspect of developing the game?

Jedi are able to kill people with their minds, but it's good to carry a double-bladed lightsaber just in case.

GZ: I think the most challenging aspect of building the game was honing the interface for a very detailed combat system while keeping it simple enough to maintain the fun factor. We are sticklers for quality interfaces at BioWare. The challenge we always face is to deliver a very in-depth gameplay experience while keeping the interface nonobtrusive. An additional challenge was to make sure the interface was carefully designed for the PC platform. In coplatform development we always focus on naturalizing the experience for each platform. The result is that each version is really great, and there are no compromises. For the PC version, we have been focusing on interface design right up to the completion phase, and we think we've outdone ourselves in delivering a really well-balanced experience.

GS: It was unfortunate, but Knights of the Old Republic for the Xbox experienced significant delays before it was released. What contributed to these delays? Were there technical issues, design problems, or was there simply not enough time to create content?

GZ: At BioWare we focus on quality. Our goal is to always deliver a top-notch gameplay experience, and sometimes it can be very difficult to excel in all areas. We keep working on tackling each individual issue until we feel we've accomplished something special. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a great example of this approach. We've been really blown away by the response the Xbox version has received, and we believe we're positioned to deliver an amazing PC game.