By Ben Richardson
While attending the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed launch event at the Harrison Street Best Buy on Sept. 15, I got a chance to part the ranks of cosplayers in Storm Trooper armor and ask project lead Haden Blackman a few questions about his game.
He provided interesting insights into the process of game design and all its challenges, joys, and complications, especially those peculiar to a studio like Lucasarts that is just one branch of the Star Wars entertainment empire. Though he was unwilling to admit that the game’s shoddy force grip targeting was a problem for all gamers, not just the “hardcore” among us (I complained about it in my review), he spoke convincingly about his desire to make the game accessible to players of all demographics and inclinations.
SFBG: In the speech you gave earlier up on the stage, you made it sound like this was an idea that you’ve had for a long, long time. When a game first comes together, when it first germinates, is it a story idea that leads a game to be constructed around it, or are there game elements or things you want to do that in turn birth a story?