He sat down and played it while they filmed it. "There’s a funny anecdote Daron Stinnett, project director of Dark Forces, told me," Kevin recalled, "The local news wanted to get a story on George and Dark Forces.
Not so, said Kevin – in fact, George Lucas wasn’t really involved with production at all back then. Playing with an entire universe of someone else's creation, you might expect the man himself – George Lucas – to have some involvement in the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games. "We would often spread that resource material all over the floor and look for ideas and ways to tie things into the existing Star Wars universe," Kevin continued, "Since I had such a passion for it, I thought I owed it to the franchise to stay as true to the source material as possible. While Disney might have nuked all of the expanded universe mythology, it doesn’t change the fact that – back in the day – these were people, often Star War fans, who were working on, adding to and enriching the universe they cared deeply about. But I finally had a venue for all the Star Wars knowledge I had stored up for so many years." "The three original level designers on Mysteries Of The Sith got a little worried when I pulled up with my personalized plates (MTFBEWY: May The Force BE With You). He was also a devout superfan of the Star Wars franchise. Kevin Schmitt, now senior designer at 343 Industries, worked on Jedi Knight: Mysteries Of The Sith and Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.
The love of the universe was something that would be expected of many who worked on the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games. Jarrod Showers had finished work on Soldier Of Fortune 2 – now tasked with the role of lead animator on Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, he found that the real world was somewhat lacking compared to that of a galaxy far, far away: "While modelling the Rancor, I remember thinking there was more reference stuff to work off of in Star Wars than there was for the real world guns in
That Star Wars element meant more benefits than some might have hoped for – an established universe with reams of backstory and decades of development is a rich vein to mine, creatively speaking. If you want in-depth features on classic games delivered straight to your door (or your inbox), then you should subscribe to Retro Gamer.Įveryone wanted to play a Star Wars game in the style of Doom – even those who made Doom, as Matthew Tateishi, a level designer on both Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, remembered: "I remember the team getting an email from John Romero after he had played through Dark Forces – he said something like ‘now I know how people felt when they played Doom for the first time.'" This feature first appeared in Retro Gamer magazine.
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