Visceral Games has been working for some time on an action adventure game set in Star Wars universe (imaginatively codenamed Star Wars: Visceral Games Project), which alas we don't know too much about.
Amy Hennig, former creative director of the Uncharted series over at Naughty Dog, is now involved in this new project, and recently shared some thoughts regarding the game during an event at PAX West. There Hennig gave us some insight as to how the project is going on.
"When I started working on this project, and again, I have to parse myself carefully... I haven't had anything to drink yet today, which is good because it's not even noon... So I'm not going to accidentally say anything I don't think. But the task was to do the same thing that LucasFilm has been doing, and to do it with them".
Hennig explained that the main difficulty in a project like this lies in the correct and authentic representation of the universe:
"You need guides that have done it for a while and are also looking at everything else, because we're part of the same sort of emerging track of properties that, like obviously seven, eight and nine, is evolving that story further, but films like Rogue One and the Han Solo one that is coming, even shows like Rebels and stuff like that... A lot of projects are in the works, and the question is "is this authentic Star Wars?" right? And to understand what that is, and to have people there at LucasFilm that have helped us define what that is".
When they started to develop the first designs for the game, the studio started with some typical landmarks drawn from the wider genre, but some aspects were handled differently:
"Our goal in this game is to tell an authentic Star Wars story in an interactive context. That carries with it a whole lot of rules and baggage, that we have to kind of deconstruct, and reconstruct and honor.
"That was one example, but the other main example was that the side characters in Indiana Jones and that type of films are just that. They're kind of along for the ride, but if you think to that compared to Han and Leia, and the other characters in Rebels, and the other characters in Rogue one, you can see that these are all ensemble stories. So if our game wasn't an ensemble game, and we weren't telling an ensemble story, then it wouldn't pass the litmus test on whether it feels like Star Wars."