IGN's TSL Interivew: Part 1

[Tyrell]

Our (TFN) network partner IGN has the first part of an interview posted, which asks some very overarching questions of Mike Gallo, Chris Avellone, and Chris Parker.

 

Jonric: In overview, what's the story about this time? How much of it and the backstory had been planned or written before Obsidian started on the project? And who's principally responsible for these aspects?

Chris Avellone: The Sith Lords takes place five years after the end of the first game; much of the backstory of what happened will depend on choices the player makes in the first portion of The Sith Lords, which describes the events that followed after the end of the original KOTOR. I don't want to give any spoilers right now, but there's no one answer for what happened - it all depends on what happened in KOTOR 1.

 

The story is a classic tale of good vs. evil, humanity vs. the Force, punctuated by a lot of blaster fire. Not much of the backstory was in place before Obsidian started the project - there were some early drafts that were tossed out, and the current version was all created from scratch by Obsidian. LucasArts did have a number of story elements that they wanted to see (and didn't want to see in the game) that we have adhered to: the player must start as a Jedi, the Sith must be a prominent force in the game, don't play head games with the character with memories or future sight, and a few others here and there that would be spoiling things if we mentioned them.

 

Those mandates aside, I'm primarily responsible for the whole story, some of the locations, the companions, and then chopping up everything else into bits and dividing it amongst the design team: Ferret Baudoin (Black Isle, formerly Van Buren and Jefferson), Michael Chu (Worlds of Warcraft), Kevin Saunders (C&C: Zero Hour, Shattered Galaxy), Scotty Everts (every Black Isle game ever made), John Morgan (first project, but willing to suffer for his art), and Tony Evans (Secret Weapons over Normandy).

 

 

 

The interview can be viewed by going to this link

 

What do you think?

[Sarkile]

I think I've read this before.

[OLD SKOOL WHEELMAN]

Jonric: What are your main goals for the type of game universe you want players to experience? How many different locations will it contain, how varied will they be, and what are some interesting or unusual ones?

Chris Avellone: The main goals are that we want the player to be entertained, we want them to have a fun RPG experience, and at the end, we want them to feel something at the end (hopefully positive, or at least a refreshing kind of sad).

 

In terms of the actual exploration of the universe, there's about six or seven planets, but that's kind of an unfair categorization, since many planets have sub-locations that aren't really the planets themselves. We did that so it was intentionally confusing for the strategy guide writers, and so that it would be harder to lump the locations into easily definable and (frankly) prejudiced categorizations. Tatooine, for example, isn't in the game, but it must get pretty damn tired of being the "sand planet" and being passed around like a cheap date from game to game. Poor Tatooine.

 

The areas are larger than many locations in the first game (thank our programmers for pushing the engine to allow for more ambient effects and more polys), so you should hit fewer load level points than in the first game. Some of the locations you'll visit include the tortured asteroid mass of the Peragus fuel mining colony - the mining colony is situated in an asteroid field that orbits the shattered world of Peragus II, which was blown up many years ago when miners attempted to extract fuel from the surface and ended up blowing chunks of the planet out into space. These chunks now orbit the planet, and are still dazed and disoriented from the initial explosion. The new shift of miners that showed up to mine the planet decided to play it a little safer and mine the fuel-cooled asteroids instead.

 

'Nuff said.

Looks familiar

[Tyrell]

I think I've read this before.

Probably have, its been out since the 2nd of July.

[Wraith]

thats almost a month in fan time

[Topaz Quasar]

thats almost a month in fan time

I didn't know electric fans had a sense of time.......although they do spin around in revolutions......

[thesnowman]

I didnt realise that it only part one.

 

Feb seems a real long way away. O well at least there are some good games coming out before the end of the year to pass the time.

[Meshugger]

Nothing new there really, but it's always good that the media is showing some interest in Obsidian's progress.

[Wraith]

I didn't know electric fans had a sense of time.......although they do spin around in revolutions......

 

 

 

:D :D :D :D