George Lucas and LucasArts

This infographic focuses on George Lucas and LucasArts, as part of the George Lucas and the Expanded Universe infographic series. It is the first to focus on George's interaction with LucasArts, and there will be future installments that focus on further LucasArts entries.

Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, was first founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as the video game company of Lucasfilm. It was primarily to focus on original entries not based on IPs like Star Wars or Indiana Jones, partly due to George's interest in original stories, and partly because Lucasfilm had made a deal with Atari and Parker Brothers for the Star Wars license in video games. (Here you can check out my infographic on the Star Wars Atari release).

One of the earliest games released by Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts was Rescue on Fractalus!, a first person flight shooter which allowed players to fly through dangerous mountainous terrain to rescue stranded pilots. First conceived of as an X-Wing game, but released sans the Star Wars connection, it available for Atari and ported to most popular platforms of its time. As discussed in the above infographic, George suggested the inclusion of a fire button for gameplay purposes. He also had another important contribution: according to developer David Fox, "The other thing he said was: ‘What if, if everyone once in a while, the pilot you rescued turns out to be an alien. And maybe he jumps up, or something like that.’" This led the team to introduce a jump-scare, which turned out to be (what is often cited as) the first jump-scare in video game history.

(A fan remake of Rescue on Fractalus! was put out a few years ago. Having played it myself, I can say, it's well worth a try! You can watch gameplay here alongside the original.)

Later, a sequel to Rescue on Fractalus! was put into development, but as development proceeded, it turned into something quite distinct -- a new game, named Rogue Squadron. With a new Star Wars flavor, at first the intention of the Factor 5 team making Rogue Squadron was to combine the Rescue on Fractalus! game design with missions taken from the X-Wing novels, but later the scope expanded to include original stories. A vestage of its original vision can be found in the final level, where a mission from the Dark Empire comics is recreated. Upon release, Rogue Squadron would become a blockbuster game, leading to multiple successful sequels.

In the 1990s, the Star Wars floodgates were opened, and more games were headed to market. Two key entries were Rebel Assault and Rebel Assault II. Rebel Assault was a new effort for the company, and it far outsold expectations, quickly becoming the #1 bestselling CD-ROM game of all time. It included the first live-action footage shot for Star Wars since the Ewok films of the 1980s. George Lucas would later send a personal letter to team, appreciating them for their success.

Rebel Assault II quickly capitalized on the success of the first game, releasing two years later in 1995. As discussed in the above infographic, almost an hour's worth of footage was shot for the game, utilizing real sets, props, costumes, and blue-screens, for the first time since Return of the Jedi. The footage for the game was shot by Hal Barwood, a friend of George Lucas' from back in his film school days. It would also prove to be successful upon release, this time having a release on a console, the Playstation. (And just yesterday, in fact, Rebel Assault II was rereleased for Playstation 4 and Playstation 5.)

Like all of my infographics in this series, the above infographic collects quotations from a variety of interviews and puts them into a visually interesting and readable format. Daron Stinnett, David Fox, Bill Tiller, Vince Lee, and Noah Falstein were all developers and project leads for Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts.

Sources*: Daron Stinnett (1,* 2, Retrogamer #116), David Fox (1, 2, 3, 4), Bill Tiller (1, 2, 3), Vince Lee (Starlog #225, The Adventurer #10), & Noah Falstein (1).

My god…we’ve strayed so far from this with star wars gaming.

“Stay small, Be the best, Don’t lose any money”

I don’t think we’ll ever get those values back :(