Jedi Academy: Exclusive Interview

Star Wars games have been a shockingly mixed bag over the years. While we've experienced the dizzying heights of the original Star Wars coin-op and Super Star Wars on SNES, we've had the barrel-scraping lows of Super Bombad Racing. Ouch; still hurts.

But in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy on PC and Xbox, Raven software has created what some are calling the best Star Wars game ever. With such a great weight of expectation surrounding the FPS, we caught up with Activision producer Graham Fuchs and gave ourselves to the Dark Side.

First off, could you introduce us to Jedi Academy - for those who might not be completely familiar with the title?

Fuchs: Jedi Academy is the latest instalment in the Jedi Knight series. This time around the player will be able to create their own Jedi and join Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy to learn the ways of the Force.

The player will start the game by customizing their species, look, and lightsaber. Jedi Academy allows the player the freedom to choose how their character progresses through the game as well, since they decide what force powers to train in, what missions to go on, and ultimately which side of the Force to fight for. It's a whole new direction for the series.

How much, and what types of research have you gone into for Jedi Academy, and what involvement does LucasArts have with the development of the game?

Fuchs: A lot of the Raven guys are die hard Star Wars fans, so we really approached this title from more of a "what would we like to do in the game?" perspective, and build the title around that. Everyone wanted to get their favourite moments from the films, comics, and novels into the game, as well as create some new adventures, so there should be a little something for everyone in JA.

Jon Zuk, one of the leads on the title, is so hardcore that on more than one occasion he corrected the Lucas historians on their Star Wars trivia. It's scary.

In terms of who handles what aspects of the project, Raven handles the game design and development, Activision manages the game production and testing, and LucasArts is responsible for the publishing and marketing of the title.

What's great is that LucasArts is able to get us an incredible amount of reference material directly from the Lucasfilm archives. All the models you see in the game of, say Sandpeople, Stormtroopers, or TIE Fighters are based off of detailed photographs taken from the actual costumes and models used in the films. It enables Raven to recreate as realistic a world as possible.

Presumably you've included the RPG-ish character creation feature to give players a greater sense of immersion and attachment to the "hero". How long have you been wanting to incorporate this kind of feature into a first-person shooter, and in what ways do you plan to expand on it in the future (in your FPS titles), if at all?

Fuchs: It was something that we wanted to do from the beginning on Jedi Academy since we wanted to shift the focus of the game from a predetermined character to one the player is able to create themselves. We wanted to give the player full control not only over their look, but of their abilities. By the end of the game, the character you have created is truly "your" Jedi. It also allows the player to replay the game by building up different aspects of their character and have a completely different experience. It's certainly the kind of thing that can be incorporated into future FPS titles if appropriate.

From what we know of Jedi Academy's mission structure, it will be non-linear. Is it therefore branching?

Fuchs: This is another example of how we've given the player complete control over their game experience. The player will be presented with a series of missions to go on for the Academy, and can complete them in any order they wish. Once the player picks a mission, they will pick a Force power they want to train in, and what weapons they want to bring with them.

After completing a mission, the player will get to keep the force power they trained in and choose another mission. At certain points the player will advance in the Jedi Academy hierarchy and new missions, new saber styles and new fighting styles will become available to them. If they pick a mission they feel is too difficult or that they aren't enjoying, they can choose another mission and come back to it later when they have more force power.

The player doesn't actually need to complete all the missions to progress through the game, but skipping missions will cost them force power in the long run. Ultimately, the player will have to decide which side of the Force he is going to fight for, and the last several levels of the game play out completely differently depending on the player's choice.

Can you reveal anything about the types of missions we'll be going on and the locations in which the missions are set?

Fuchs: This mission structure has given Raven the freedom to create twice as many Star Wars locations as in JKII. We've tried to mix up the missions a lot to give the player a variety of things to do rather than just "shoot everybody and find the exit" type stuff. Some of the missions involve the overall story that flows through the game, and some of them are more episodic adventures.

Some missions will be vehicle based, some the player will fight alongside allies from the films, some they will need to rescue people, some they will need to fight through with their lightsaber, and some they will need to use their force powers and abilities to tackle some pretty tough enemies. This takes place all across the Star Wars universe in places like Tatooine, Hoth, Coruscant, and more.


What prompted your decision to focus predominantly on lightsaber combat? How difficult has it been to get lightsaber combat to a point where you're happy with it? And could you give us a quick example of a lightsaber combat situation from the game?

Fuchs: The lightsaber is the most distinctive and recognizable image from the Star Wars universe, and what really sets the games apart from other shooters. It was clearly what fans responded to the most from JKII, and what we loved as well. The hard part was really getting it to where it was possible to execute all the cool moves you see in the films, but keep the controls simple. Having accomplished that in JKII, adding the saber staff and dual lightsabers, as well as additional acrobatics was an evolutionary step that was more fun than work. Raven was also able to add a host of new moves for the single lightsaber, so fighting with your sabers this time around should be even more enjoyable.

We've read that players will be able to adopt different fighting styles and lightsabers as the game progresses. How does this work? Could you go into this part of the game in more detail?

Fuchs: The player will start the game with a single saber and one fighting stance. As they rise through the academy, they will be able to pick a second fighting stance for their saber, and finally have the option to choose a third and final single saber stance, or adopt the two-ended saber staff or dual sabers. Each saber/stance has its own unique set of moves and abilities, so again, you can play through the game several different ways and have a different experience each time.

How have you adapted/altered the use of Force powers for Jedi Academy?

Fuchs: We've added five new Force powers to the game, and we allow the player to choose which Force powers they'd like to have as they progress rather than choosing powers for them as in JKII. Most of the powers have new animations and/or effects as well, so it's even more cinematic than last time.

We can still go into FPS mode with guns, right? What's the balance here? Can we do both or are we forced into using the lightsaber more? If there's the option to use either (gun or lightsaber) at any time, will players lose out from not using the lightsaber as often as intended?

Fuchs: It functions the same way that JKII does. You can use your saber or weapons in most situations, however you're going to have a difficult time taking out enemy Jedi with blasters (as we've learned from the films). We've added some new weapons for the players to toy around with which are pretty fun, but it's entirely up to the player how they'd like to approach combat in the game.

In what ways are you building on Jedi Outcast with Jedi Academy, from a technical standpoint?
Fuchs: It's funny how we've commented a lot internally that Jedi Outcast was really the prototype for Jedi Academy. Now that the engine is complete, Raven was able to focus on expanding on the technology and gameplay elements, such as more detailed levels, fully customizable characters, and more complex animations. Overall, they've beefed up the Ghoul II animation system, added the Infinite Model Modification system, and doubled the poly counts on all level geometry. Put in simpler terms, the game looks and plays more "real" than any other Star Wars game on the market.

How important to you is the multiplayer side of Jedi Academy, compared to the single-player side? What can we expect from JA multiplayer?

Fuchs: They are both important aspects of the game. For the multiplayer in JA, we've brought back the favourite game types from JKII, namely free for all, capture the flag, duel, and team free for all, and added two new game types; Siege and Power duel.

Siege is a team-based game where players choose a class of character to play with their own weapons and abilities, such as technician, heavy weapons, or Jedi. Teams then fight for objectives on the map In the Hoth map for example, it's the Imperials vs. Rebels for control of Echo base. Another map is light Jedi vs dark Jedi for control of a Jedi tomb.

Power Duel is an expansion on the Duel mode, but it allows players to fight in two-on-one battles a la Darth Maul vs. Obi Wan and Qui Gon in Episode I. We've also brought the character customisation feature to MP, so you can create your own Jedi to fight online with.

What's your personal favourite thing about Jedi Academy, and why choose that?

Fuchs: I think my favourite thing is the way in which you can combine your acrobatic moves and saber attacks. I've had fights in the game that look like they were straight out of the movies, and dare I say, some that looked even better. For example, when fighting a dark Jedi, he may push me to the ground and try to stab me before I get up, but I can backflip up to a standing position and jump over him while swinging my saber downward to kill him while his saber is still stuck in the ground trying to stab where I was.

The game winds up being sort of a "Jedi simulator". It's just a ton of fun.

Johnny Minkley