A 'big bang of creativity': How LucasArts brought cinematic storytelling to video games
Watch an episode of our new series The Artists and find out the history of the pioneers behind the pixels
1982. In between the financial and critical successes of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, a young George Lucas has more money than he knows what to do with. Instead of paying heavy taxes on the returns, he decides to reinvest in his company and he founds LucasFilm Games — becoming the very first filmmaker with his own video game division.
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After setting up shop on the storied Skywalker Ranch in a converted horse stable, former studio head Peter Langston described the studio's official mandate as "Stay small, be the best, and don't lose any money."
Teams never know when they're making something that's going to be a hit, but people know when they're making something new, people know when they're making something exciting.- Khris Brown, voice director, LucasArts
The siren song of Lucas's vision proved a strong one, attracting a slew of young, talented and driven creatives all chomping at the bit to create Star Wars and Indiana Jones games. There was just one hitch — due to previous licensing deals, primarily with Atari, these titles were untouchable.
Getting to go to that ranch, it was like a pilgrimage to a holy place. It was this big bang of creativity. Those people at that time in that context made something beautiful that maybe they didn't even understand and that's the way it always works. You don't fully understand the thing you're making until maybe years later.- Tim Schafer, creator Grim Fandango
In this case, the restriction forced the group of designers to come up with their own ideas and concepts for games — which would be a creative boon for the company while it was establishing itself. Nothing was off the table — no idea was too outlandish, no suggestion too unattainable within the confines of the technology.
This was graphic fiction at its best. They were always focusing on the story. Monkey Island as a story is sarcastic, it's funny, it's smart — it's way smarter than me! I don't think I've still ever finished the second one!- Chris Garcia, video game historian
An early foray into licensed material with Jim Henson's Labyrinth laid the foundation for what the company became know for during their golden era in the early '90s: the adventure game. Next came the game Maniac Mansion, their first defining release. With the success of Maniac Mansion, LucasFilm, newly christened LucasArts, went on to create an incredibly varied, enormously successful run of adventure games including The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (which many fans still consider Indy's unofficial fourth adventure), the intricate time-travel puzzle-box Day of the Tentacle and of course Tim Schafer's Grim Fandango. They were the video game equivalent of Pixar.
I was writing code that was very English-like in its descriptions of what you want the characters to do. It was more like stage direction.- David Fox - creator, Rescue on Fractalus
In 2013, Lucas sold his entire empire to Disney for $4 billion US. LucasArts was shuttered shortly thereafter. The sale, however, breathed new life into the LucasArts back catalog, and Disney has started releasing remasters, much to the fan base's delight.
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