One of the lead designers of BioWare talks about the beginnings of Star Wars: The Old Republic and how the character stories of the main story came to be.
The Story Behind the Story
In a comprehensive post on the website starwars.com, one of the lead designers of Star Wars: The Old Republic, Michael Backus, talks about the origins of the game – which are now over 7 years old. He names the sources of inspiration that were crucial for creating the 4 Republic class stories.
Even though a large part of the inspiration came “only” from the movies, a closer insight into the mindset of the developers is still interesting. We have summarized the key points for you regarding the individual Republic classes.
The Jedi Knight – Like Luke, with Flaws and Quirks
For the Jedi Knight, the creation of the character was relatively straightforward. No matter to whom the term “Jedi Knight” is spoken, everyone immediately has a specific image in mind of a “good” character who wants to maintain order in the galaxy and stands up for others. Nevertheless, they did not want to create a perfect superhero and thus used Luke Skywalker as a template.
Backus cites a particularly influential scene on Dagobah, where Yoda tells him that he is not yet ready to face Darth Vader. When Luke learns that he must sacrifice his friends for it, he decides to act against his master’s advice and leaves the planet anyway.
It was exactly these decisions that they wanted to highlight in the personal story – sometimes you have to choose between what is good and what is right.
The Jedi Consular – Like Yoda, Wise and Thoughtful
For the creation of the Jedi Consular, the developers faced a new challenge. While they could draw on many examples from the films, such as Yoda or Obi-Wan Kenobi, who act as wise advisors and work more in the background, they are still very strong in their use of the Force.
However, the difficulty was that Jedi Consulars should actually avoid conflicts, as they prefer to guide the fate of the galaxy through diplomacy rather than raw violence and lightsabers. It is obvious that this is rather impractical in an MMORPG.
For this reason, they had to focus on something else, which was the connection to the Force. Part of the Jedi’s task is to guard the knowledge of the galaxy, which also means seeking out hidden knowledge or even meeting species that are Force-sensitive but have no knowledge of the light and dark sides.
At the same time, the Consulars are the puppet masters behind the scenes who must uncover political intrigues and temptations of the Sith early on. All of this provided enough potential to tell an exciting story.
The Trooper – Few Sources, Plenty of Action
In the case of the Trooper, the situation was significantly more difficult because there was hardly any usable source material, at least not from the films. At that time, there was no “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” and characters like Rex or Cody could not be used as references. The developers had to go further back in history and stumbled upon one of the original Star Wars comics created by Genndy Tartakovsky and George Lucas. However, the Trooper should be more than just a single fighter in a huge army.
He was meant to be a true elite fighter, which is why he was allowed to join Havoc Squad, one of the most powerful units in the galaxy. This also provided a great rationale for how a Trooper was able to face off against Force users: superior technology and professional training were supposed to level the battlefield.
Yet in the story of the Trooper, more than just sheer firepower matters: often, players feel how the units and armies are merely pawns for political power games – and often they can push back against this treatment.
The Smuggler – Cunning, but with a Good Heart
The Smuggler particularly appealed to the developers because here they had the opportunity to create a character who is essentially completely “normal.” He knows nothing about the Force and is not a military expert, but only serves one person: himself.
The source of inspiration, of course, is Han Solo, who is basically a pretty devious rogue, but has a good heart nonetheless. The Smuggler primarily serves himself, but when it matters, he can also protect those who are important to him – he just wouldn’t admit it out loud.
The developers and writers had a lot of fun as they could incorporate much more wit and sarcasm into this class story than into the other stories – and they did so without taking away the necessary seriousness from the Smuggler. “This essence is what we wanted to capture with the Smuggler. A character who says something witty even when he is facing huge dangers. A character that we all wished we could be as cool as he is.”
In the future, Backus also wants to deal with the Imperial classes and provide a similar insight there. As soon as that is done, we will translate the most exciting statements for you again.
For more information about the game, you can visit our Star Wars: The Old Republic-themed page.
