How Star Wars Outlaws was made

…in a galaxy far far away

From designing explorable planets to mastering the art of stealth and action, Star Wars Outlaws is an open-world fantasy without the glowing sabres and we spoke to the team on how they made it possible!

With a franchise as massive as Star Wars, Ubisoft's Swedish studio, Massive Entertainment was challenged with the task of designing and creating a Star Wars fantasy from the lens of a sneaky scoundrel named Kay Vess and her loyal companion Nix. As it turns out, this is a story of a thief trying to make it big in the Star Wars underworld while the Empire and the Rebels duke it out With no lightsaber in sight, Kay and Nix will be helping (and stealing from) underworld factions. We think sneaking, stealing and running away from the Empire and the rest can be a refreshing take on the Star Wars universe and we spoke to the Lead Gameplay Designer Fredrik Thylander and Lead Concept Artist Samuel De Vos about how they made it happen and what were the challenges.

Samuel De Vos... on designing a moon for Star Wars Outlaws

Working together with Lucasfilm Games gives us access to a lot of reference materials. So when we look at the original trilogy, we like to look at what did they get inspired by, what did George Lucas get inspired by and a lot of the elements from the original trilogy have a lot of familiar elements and then always this little Star Wars exotic, alien twist to them.

The Savannah moon of Toshara, for example, there is definitely a lot of grounded elements that the player will recognize, certain materials or textures that feel quite similar to eastern African savannas, maybe some of the vegetation as well but all of these and animals will also have a little alien twist them.

If you look at the planet as a whole, there’s a huge wind presence that is carving away this rock material which you might have seen exposes this deep orange amberine material. And, that really adds that alien twist, something that people would not have seen before or do not really recognize. And that leaves for great opportunities to carve out bigger negative spaces underneath large mounds like you have Mirogana (the capital city of Toshara). That then creates a great opportunity to build a dense, bustling city that is quite protected from the elements underneath one of those mounds.

And of course, it trickles all the way down to what do the characters do in their daily lives? What kind of clothes do they wear? What kind of patterns are on those clothes? The team put a lot of attention to detail and a lot of effort into making sure that all makes sense from a visual point of view.

Fredrik Thylander... on making Toshara unique

When it comes to the gameplay side, one of the things that we wanted was for each planet to play uniquely. So, for instance, on Toshara, there are strong winds, and sometimes in some places so strong that you can’t make your way through it.

And, not even with a pretty swift speeder can you fight those winds initially. But there are ways you can upgrade and evolve your mechanics until you can explore those elements. So, even just the elements on each planet allows us to create unique gameplay and make sure that they play uniquely.

Fredrik Thylander... on challenges with adding Nix as a buddy

We had a dedicated pet team as we call it but Nix became their life for the last couple of years. We have, fantastic animators and Sarah Schulze who really, really brought him to life. But, there were some learnings from The Division as well. We had drones and other things that could follow you then. So certainly some things we had before, but mostly it was a huge technical challenge to make sure that he believably can stay by your side but also be able to locomote in a different way than you. Get through little places that you can’t and interact with things in a different way than the player. It was core to the game, alongside shooting, climbing, driving and flying, just as big of a part as those things.

Fredrik Thylander... on what inspired Massive to cast away the XP and level progression system

If you just look at Star Wars, how do characters grow in Star Wars? It’s so often that they learn from someone. So this idea of finding experts, you know, Luke has Yoda and so on, that’s the fantasy. That’s how you want to learn in Star Wars so that was the inspiration for it (learning abilities from experts). What it also allows is - Where are they? How do you find them? Are they all just handed to you? Do you have to go out of your way to find them? Is it an adventure to even get to one of these experts and then prove yourself to them through that adventure, rather than just points and a point system (XP and level progression system)? So the inspiration is really original Star Wars and how usually we see characters grow in Star Wars.

Samuel De Vos… on how to make things interesting for the player regardless of the distance in an open-world game

From a visual point of view if something looks accessible and if something looks lifted, then you should not be disappointed when you get to that place and you realize it’s not. So it’s something that we always try to pay attention to. If a door is open, you should be able to go into it. If a character looks interesting and approachable, you should be able to approach them. Does something look engaging or does something look interactable? Then it should be interactable. And that is how you create a world that you feel like that’s what you do in real life as well, right? You know what is out there. And then if things are a little bit more hidden, then I think it’s nice that you that you add references or details in other places in the world that make you look out for those things. You might see a silhouette that is recognizable but doesn’t necessarily when you see it for the first time, make you think, I need to go there. But then if you see it on a scribble somewhere in the back alley of Mirogana or someone talking about it. Then the next time you come there, you might say, oh, I recognize this silhouette I’m going to go and explore.

Samuel De Vos... on art design for different syndicates

One that was built from the ground up by Massive Entertainment in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games was the Ashiga syndicate. The Ashiga have been present on Kijimi for generation after generation. They’re very loyal to this specific location. And if you look at Kijimi, the architecture, which you’ll be able to dive deep into in Star Wars Outlaws, you see a lot of Southeast Asian architecture that will feel quite familiar in a way.

Of course, there’s always these alien elements to it that really make it Star Wars, with certain tech elements, etc and we really wanted that to make sense when designing the Ashiga Clan, the criminal syndicate.

So if you look at their clothing, you will see some inspirations of samurai, some kimono-like silhouettes that really ground the Ashiga clan in the architecture of Kijimi because that’s where they’re born and raised, and that’s where they will most likely stay forever. So besides that, they’re blind as well — The Milito. And so because of this very niche architecture and these niche lack of the visual sense, there’s naturally a lot of contrast with some of the other syndicates.

There is, for example, the Crimson Dawn, which is much more elegant. They like to display their wealth a little bit more. You will see some gold elements in their outfits.

Fredrik Thylander... on gameplay distinctions between the syndicates

They’re (Crimson Dawn) more elite units as well, compared to something like the rag-tag that the Hutts employ. So, in terms of gameplay, we really wanted to find a unique, defining characteristic for each faction.

So the Hutts are a rag-tag of hired guns but also have their very unique archetypes like the Gamorrean guards, for instance, or the Beast Masters. Whereas something like the Crimson Dawn have elite troops that we already saw in the Solo movie and in the comics that are special forces-like.

And then all the way to the Pyke syndicates who smuggle weapons. So they (Pyke) might not be very well trained or well coordinated but they have technology to bear instead. So they can deploy shields on the ground and use weaponry that is a lot more militaristic than the hodgepodge that the Hutts bring to any situation.

Samuel De Vos... on making Kay unique and different from Han Solo

So visually a scoundrel is not really, a specific, occupation or a hobby. It really is a bit more of a lifestyle. And within the scoundrel lifestyle, there’s still so much room for your personality to come through. And if we look specifically at Kay, Kay is very resourceful. She’s very, ambitious and confident also, maybe a little bit impulsive and naive. And I think that’s where a lot of difference comes in with Han Solo. Kay is definitely less flashy

You will see it in her outfit as well. She’s got quite a worn-down outfit which is quite functional. She’s got these sneakers that make it very easy for her to traverse any type of ground. She’s got a jacket that has a lot of scratches on the back because Nix is always sitting up there.

So as far as wanting to look great, that’s not really one of the core principles of Kay. She wants to be functional. She wants to be swift. And if we look at her room, for example, there is a lot of scribbles there. She has lots of hopes and dreams that she wants to realize. Talking about scribbles, she also has a tattoo of Nix on her wrist, which is another thing that she probably didn’t think about for longer than a few days.

So there’s definitely a lot of elements there that make Kay unique. And it is definitely in that nonchalance, in that impulsiveness and the naivete of being a mere thief at the beginning of the story and then going on that journey to becoming a full-fledged scoundrel together with the player.

Fredrik Thylander... on meeting old faces from Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

So I think we’ve already shown, a couple of familiar faces. I don’t know if you call Jabba a face, I mean, he’s a giant space leg but he’s certainly one of them. We’ve shown that you certainly interact with Lando and Lady Qi’ra. So certainly there are familiar faces, I think they’re all, chosen and appropriate for the outer rim scoundrel underworld underdog storyline that we wanted to tell.

The exciting thing for us is to let you live in that world during those events even though you’re not necessarily going and blowing up Death Stars and doing all of those things. You get to be in that world and fulfil that fantasy of what is it like to just be on the outskirts and live in the underworld while the Empire and Rebels are duking it out for the fate of the galaxy. What does Kay do during all of those events? So when you meet characters they are appropriate to that storyline and that location.