Now that the epic nine-film Star Wars Skywalker Saga has come to a close, developer Traveller’s Tales wants to create a unified LEGO game experience from Episode I to Episode IX. Titled LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, the game will cover the events of all nine Star Wars movies, in LEGO form. Yes, there have been other Star Wars LEGO games, but this is an all-new game of its own, not a collection of the past releases. An interview with Nintendo Everything, Creative Lead Arthur Parsons provided some additional details about the upcoming saga. The Skywalker Saga was put in development after LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens was finished. While the thought of doing individual games for episodes 8 and 9 appealed to Traveller’s Tales, they decided it was time to sit down and get everything in one single game.
We did Episode 7, and at the time we looked at that and we thought that’s a great experience, and rather than just do 8 next time, let’s do a whole thing. Let’s rebuild it from the ground up, from scratch. This isn’t like a normal LEGO game. This is a big step-up for us, so we wanted to take the opportunity to take that big step up with all new tech, and just make it the ultimate Star Wars celebration. All nine movies.
While most of the interview deals with the Nintendo Switch version of the game, there were some interesting tidbits that apply to all versions. The biggest, however? The Skywalker Saga is running on an all-new engine with all-new tech behind it. While they haven’t said what the engine is—if it’s a new in-house engine or Unreal Engine 4—they did at least confirm that it’s all-new for LEGO games.
We can say that it’s brand new technology, from the ground up. Everything with this game is brand new tech. We’ve never used this tech before. We can definitely say that. In terms of how proprietary it is, we can’t say.
Another major part of the interview had to do with unlocking things and exploring the various locations during different timelines. Traveller’s Tales explained that unlocked things will carry over to each episode and that you can use anything from any episode in the game’s free play mode. They also talked about how different episodes will have different locations to visit, such as Jabba’s sand barge not existing on Tattooine in the prequel or sequel trilogies.
Let’s say you’ve unlocked a bunch of characters. You have free play in all of the games, and you’re free to use all of those characters as you unlock them. You’ll make the galaxy expand the more you play it, as well. The things that you collect, the kind of bricks, the unlockables – that kind of thing carries through with you as well. Did you see the giant LEGO sail barge? If you went there in a different episode, that wouldn’t even be there, right? Because that wouldn’t be within that timeline. All of the worlds are dynamic as well. You can carry stuff over and experience different things depending on what mission and what episode you’re playing on as well.
There’s quite a bit to be excited about with LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Don’t miss our preview from E3 which provides a good look at the upcoming game. It’s set to release sometime in 2020.
[Source: Nintendo Everything]
