STACK #223 May 2023

GAMING FEATURE

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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has been developed exclusively for current-gen hardware. We asked Arazi what that afforded them as a studio… “For a start, the ability to offload some of the narrative into the play in more successful ways to keep the game more engaging. Obviously, pushing the graphical content and making the cinematic feel that much more visceral. Every time, as developers, we get new tech we do our very best to max it out.”

a sense of no, it’s more a sense of ‘Let’s keep Star Wars, Star Wars’.

Even after a short playthrough, we’ve noticed that Cal is a more mature character now, more worldly.Where do we find ourselves in his journey? So, we’re five years after Fallen Order , Cal’s been taking his best swings to fight the Empire, and he’s grown into a fully-fledged Jedi. The crucible of combat has brought him to that place, and the Empire itself has also matured to be a serious force to be reckoned with. When we catch up with Cal, he’s battle-worn – it’s not been an easy five years for him. He’s gruffer, he’s tougher, he’s more powerful, he’s more centred, he’s more focused – and we join him essentially on a journey to find his allies to face this threat. What we like about Jedi: Fallen Order and from what we’ve seen of Jedi: Survivor is that you perfectly combine enough of the established popular StarWars content with new unknown content – how do you keep that balance? Is it a conscious decision? Absolutely. And again, that’s in collaboration with our narrative team, and Lucasfilm, and our joint ideas. We want to keep the story propelling forward. We want to keep the characters growing. The story has to engage both, so we have to stay true to where we came from and keep that interest and jazz going, but we also have to keep it fresh. That’s where the new content comes in. Do you feel the pressure of fan expectation working on a StarWars game? Yeah, it’s a bit of pressure. It’s a pressure that drives you to excel and be true to something. We want to make an amazing Star Wars experience, and we want to make it a Star Wars experience, not just a game that has a Star Wars element to it. So, there’s a lot of pressure there because it’s a very unique recipe, the dish has to taste just right.

One of the biggest game releases this year is StarWars Jedi: Survivor . Before it launched, we went hunting details on the mega-release in Los Angeles, playing the game and catching up with cinematic director Dori Arazi of Respawn Entertainment. Words Paul Jones

It’s not always easy to convey emotion between characters and players in a video game, but we can sense already with Jedi: Survivor that you guys have nailed that. What’s the secret sauce? We rejigged the cinematic style we did, and we’ve leaned on some new technologies to switch out the narrative beyond just cutscenes, so the game itself keeps you emotionally engaged with the narrative content while you’re enjoying the game mechanics. Beyond that, we’ve changed the way we shoot content. So, we’ve gone past the traditional motion capture, then we shot the entire story content handheld. It gives it that found footage, in the present, very gritty and very grounded feel, so it helps this fantastic content feel like you’re a part of it. And that combination of factors helps pull the player emotionally into a more grounded emotional space. Where do you start the planning in terms of the narrative?Was Jedi: Survivor already conceived, or did you only begin work on it once Jedi: Fallen Order was finished? That’s usually how things are, we focus on the game at hand. The same is true for this one. The story actually evolved as we were working on Jedi: Survivor and also as we were looking for

certain evolutions in our characters as well. So that’s how we landed on the timeline and the character growth. Are Lucasfilm strict in terms of what can or can’t be done? Is there a lot of going back and forth? It’s not even a back-and-forth, really. We’re all kind of working on it together. We have thoughts that we give to them, and then we discuss them. After a while, when you work in the Star Wars universe, you understand why there are certain things you can do and certain things you can’t. Well,

• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is out now

it’s not even that you can’t, it’s just kind of you shouldn’t. Because you want the universe to feel a certain way, you know, and some things will just break that illusion. So, it’s never

14 MAY 2023

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