It wasn't until Yoda appeared, in the form of a statue outside Lucasfilm's offices in San Francisco, that it really hit Julian Gerighty:
We're actually making a "Star Wars" game.
He led a group from Swedish Massive, who were there to pitch their idea for a game. An idea that the venerable film company clearly liked.
Before that, it's just a pitch, you don't know how it lands. You don't want to get your hopes up, he says.
It was early 2020, just before the pandemic shut down the world. Gaming giant EA still had an exclusivity agreement for "Star Wars", where Swedish Dice had produced the battlefield-focused "Battlefront" titles and American Respawn had taken on lightsaber combat in "Jedi: Fallen Order".
But the agreement with Lucasfilm was about to expire, and for Swedish Ubisoft-owned Massive, it meant an opening. As creative director, it fell on Gerighty's desk to draw up the guidelines for what kind of game the company would make. It was about creating something that hadn't been done before.
It was very important for us, and for Lucasfilm Games. They work hard to ensure that everything fits into the universe, and that all experiences are very different from each other. And that they have the potential to become part of the canon – more than just a game, he says.
"One of us"
Swedish Massive was already collaborating with Disney on an "Avatar" game, and had demonstrated its technical expertise with the post-apocalyptic "The Division" games. The proposal was to make the first "Star Wars" game where the player moves freely in a large and open world. But not one where you follow a rebel or the dark side, but someone from the fringes, an outlaw trying to navigate the complex web of crime syndicates, not unlike Han Solo from the original film trilogy.
The perspective was someone who is one of us. We keep coming back to that: it's a relatable protagonist who is just trying to survive, says Navid Khavari, who led the work on the story.
About four years after the trip to San Francisco, the game's release is now near. To Massive's large, airy offices – the company occupies the entire Eden quarter in Malmö – journalists from Brazil, Japan, the USA, and Australia have flown in for a press conference. In the entrance, two stormtroopers greet you, demanding identification. The walls are covered with enormous paintings, neon signs, banners, and canvas prints with motifs from the game. Even the toilets have been adorned with posters featuring "Outlaws" motifs.
Cloé Hammoud, who works on creating the game's worlds, describes it as "a really cool opportunity" to get to work with "Star Wars".
I think it's the first time my mom understood what I actually do, since she knows "Star Wars", she explains.
Turbulent industry
Games on this level are incredibly complex. In addition to several hundred employees at Massive in Malmö, ten other studios are involved, located in places like Shanghai, Bucharest, and Toronto. Over 88 days, 75 actors had their movements recorded in three different studios. Just for the game's cutscenes – which advance the story – around 10,000 storyboard frames were drawn.
People think it's just a matter of doing it in 3D. But everything that lies behind – casting, creating 3D models, textures, lighting, composing, and then reviewing it. It's a huge amount of work, and a lot of energy is put into it, says Bogdan Draghici, who worked on the cinematography in the game.
Massive employees can talk for hours about the technical systems that make it possible for the little creature Nix – which already exists as a plush toy – to leave tracks in snow and sand, or the tricks that make it possible to fly in space one second and then land on one of the game's five planets and moons and step out onto the ground, without visible loading times.
CEO Thomas Andrén notes that the expectations are also very high for the title.
And we're, of course, incredibly proud of that, he says.
"Still going well"
The global gaming world has undergone a baptism by fire over the past 18 months. What was a success story during the pandemic was hit by a backlash, where projects were scrapped, venerable game studios were ruthlessly shut down, and thousands of developers became unemployed. The worn-out phrase "you're only as good as your last game" has rarely been so true. Swedish Pieces Interactive, one of Skövde's oldest game studios, had to close its doors when their horror game "Alone in the Dark" flopped.
The market is still going well for us. It's more like the market has stabilized a bit after that overheating. Now it's going down towards a more normal development curve, says Andrén.
"Extremely excited"
Through the pandemic and the subsequent slowdown, Massive has managed to juggle two giant projects – in addition to "Outlaws", also "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora", which was released in December last year. Moreover, new material is still being created for the five-year-old "The Division 2", the aforementioned "Avatar", and work has also begun on "The Division 3".
Thomas Andrén seems set on this being how Massive will work from now on, and says that the studio has learned a lot during the journey.
So today, we feel very mature in taking on new challenges of this size.
On August 30, "Outlaws" was released worldwide. In gaming media, the title is described as one of the year's most anticipated releases. But neither the "Star Wars" license nor the hype is a guarantee of success.
Communications manager Linda Malmgren describes it as a hair-raising experience to wait for when the servers open in New Zealand, which is the first to get to experience the galaxy far, far away that Massive has created a part of.
We're extremely excited to share this, for the rest of the world to experience what we're already experiencing.
"Star Wars Outlaws" is, like other modern Massive games, built in the in-house developed Snowdrop engine, the toolbox that the game is created with.
New for the game is, among other things, technology that allows for seamless flight in space, landing on a planet (certain specific areas), and then stepping out of the ship and directly starting to play on foot.
New is also a technique for deformable terrain, which makes it possible to create realistic tracks in sand and snow.
In the game, ray tracing is also used for reflections and indirect light.
When it comes to the game's created main character, Kay Vess, not much has been left to chance.
She is a thief from the casino city of Canto Bight. As a thief, she is dressed to be able to sneak, but has a modern jacket, inspired by pilot jackets, since the character likes speed. On her shoulder, there are some scrape marks, caused by the claws of her companion Nix.
A scar under her lip, a broken nose, and hints of dark circles under her eyes suggest that Kay has lived a pretty tough life.
Like most Star Wars characters, she has a clear silhouette that should make her easily recognizable.
