Lucasfilm intends to create the next generation of gaming with its game-in-the-works, Star Wars 1313.  Bringing together the entire Lucasfilm family, LucasArts is teaming up with Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, and Lucasfilm Animation, to render a real-time production the company expects will provide an incredibly detailed playing experience.  Lucasfilm says it is using full performance capture, mixing voice actors with full motion capture to record facial expressions and movements, so actors can fully perform what the characters are doing and this will translated to the gaming screen like never before.  This is expected to be a big step toward the convergence of movies and gaming.

Don’t expect to get Star Wars 1313 any time soon for your PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.  LucasArts is designing this complex game for bigger game machines and so Star Wars 1313 will likely not be out in final form for a few years.

As for the substance of the game and story, this action adventure will veer away from the Jedi world that has monopolized Star Wars gaming, and feature a darker, more mature adventure.  From the preview this has the feel of the early Star Wars comic books that took place after the original Star Wars.  In fact the game is to take place between the first and second trilogies.  The background is the seedy underworld of the capital of the Republic, Coruscant.  Think Mos Eisley but in a dense urban area.  The game is to have interesting new weaponry and will feature a bounty hunter stalking his prey in the city.  Whether or not this will include Boba Fett has not yet been disclosed–the character in the preview is an example of a character you might find in the final game.  Supposedly there are some 5,000 levels to the city of Coruscant, and the number 1313 in the title refers to a particular underworld in the city that will serve as the center of the story.

Here is the preview footage:

I think the editing of the music is the best part, plus the explosion sequences look great.

Of course the trailer only shows some apparently spice smuggler inspired scenes in someone’s space vessel–nothing yet about how the city scenes will look.  There is no release date for Star Wars 1313 but the buzz is already building across the Web.  Check out the Star Wars 1313 website for updates as they are released.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg