Very little information about the game's actual storyline and characters has been released. With few gameplay videos out there and the same old tech demos playing over and over again, any new information is welcome. Well, The Art & Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed book seems to reveal quite a few tidbits as the writers, W. Haden Blackman (Project Leader) and Brett Rector (Assistant Director), talk about how they originally came up with the concept for the game.
Chapter One discusses how the initial design crew was asked to come up with a new Star Wars game that showed aspects of the universe that had never been seen before. The team created several core ideas that ranged from an outlaw game to a look at the universe in 500 years. The team eventually settled on the idea of overpowered force abilities, and that is where the seeds of Force Unleashed sprouted.
After that, the second chapter, "From Pitch to Approval" discussed the team's attempts to convince George Lucas of the storylines they wanted. While his initial input was good, it removed several of their candidates and started them on the path to combining the different storylines into the game we have been waiting for. Lucas was adamant about the story using standard archetypes pretty heavily. With Lucas' suggestion, the team set out to develop a comedic sidekick, a romantic interest and even a new master for our hero.
Chapter Three focuses on the characters in the game. Besides The Apprentice, new characters like the story's love interest, Juno Eclipse (a female Imperial Officer), or our hero's new master (the crazed Jedi, General Rahm Kota) and the comedic relief sidekick PROXY were all developed deeply. PROXY, for instance, is not only a devoted droid (devoted to Vader, that is), but he also has a holographic transmitter allowing him to take on the form of not only creatures to train against, but also Vader when the Dark Lord tries to contact our hero.
It looks like one of the more interesting characters will be Maris Brood who is training under the escaped Jedi Master, Shaak Ti, but exact details on how she fits into the overall story arc weren't fully revealed in this book.
The Art & Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed then goes on to discuss many of the locations found in the game. While every page is filled with concept art and renders, this chapter is even richer with them. In fact, there are several pages in this part of the book that say little more than a caption for the beautiful piece of art being displayed. This chapter features concept art for Kashyyyk, The Executor, Raxus Prime, Felucia, Cloud City, The Death Star I, Corellia and many other locations (quite a few of which didn't make it into the game itself).
As the book wraps up, it goes over the technology that has gone into the game, including the new game engine that was built from the ground up as a joint venture between LucasArts and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) called The Ronin Engine. The book also devotes a page each to Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) (which gives realistic properties to the objects in the world, so glass shatters like glass, and wood splinters like wood) and Euphoria (which adds a new layer of realism to enemy A.I.).
The final chapter of the book, "Bringing Balance to the Force," discusses the various milestones reached during development and how much effort went into the various demos and gameplay videos seen at E3 and other expos.
All in all, The Art & Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed really does a great job of hyping up this game even more and giving fans just a few more scraps of information (though I fear it hints at a few of the game's plot twists). The artwork found throughout the book really helps to show how the overall concept of the game changed from its early idea-pitching period to the imagery we have all seen over and over again. If you can't wait to get just a little more info about the upcoming game, or if you just love books of this nature, then definitely check it out. Look for it to hit the streets August 19th.
