‘Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’ Turns 20, Project Director Casey Hudson Looks Back on Influential Game Alongside New Concept Art
July 15 marks the 20th anniversary of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), the influential and highly-acclaimed RPG developed by BioWare. To celebrate, io9 spoke with the game’s director Casey Hudson to discuss what it was like working on the game at the time, collaborating with Lucasfilm, and about the legacy of the beloved title. io9 also shared some of the game’s original art by concept artist John Gallagher.
BioWare and Casey Hudson are both large names within the video game industry. But at the time, BioWare (the company most known for making the Mass Effect trilogy) was still a relatively small team with about 75 people working on KOTOR. In his interview with io9 Hudson pointed out that while the studio had made a name for itself within the RPG game world with their previous game Baldur’s Gate, they weren’t expecting the level of success that KOTOR received.
“We would have been blown away by the player reaction that KOTOR has received over the years … We were pretty ambitious about making something really special. We had no expectations about what would happen next. At that time, BioWare had made some good games already. We just wanted to meet the expectations of quality and make something we would be proud of.”
During the late 90s and 2000s, Lucasfilm was making a big push into video games. Hudson explained the initial pitch that LucasArts (now known as Lucasfilm Games) made towards BioWare. LucasArts presented two options.
“One was to set the game in the timeframe of the movies — I think specifically the original trilogy. The other was a much earlier period. [They] pointed us to the comic series Tales of the Jedi, which explored the Old Republic, a time 4,000 years before the movies.”
Hudson then explains why BioWare decided to go with the second option. He explains that the setting of the Old Republic being so far into the past offered much more creative freedom and the ability to make bigger, bolder decisions that weren’t possible if it was set in the original trilogy.
“We wanted to tell the most important story of our era—meet legendary new characters, kill them off, destroy planets, and so on. We saw in the Old Republic an opportunity to have … creative freedom, while also having access to the essential parts of the Star Wars experience: Jedi, Sith, lightsabers, starships, etc.”
Not long after, Hudson was selected as the game’s director. While he states that he was still new to the company, and while the position carried large responsibilities, he was excited for the opportunity having grown up a Star Wars fan.
“[The great] part of working on a Star Wars game was we occasionally traveled for meetings with LucasArts. Sometimes that would involve a trip to Skywalker Ranch. That place is pure magic for a Star Wars fan and we were absolutely in heaven each time we went there. It’s hard to describe the feeling of growing up obsessed with Star Wars and then going to the place where we could walk among the people who created it.
The best part was working so closely as a team at BioWare; inside such a magical IP. Everything people were working on felt incredibly exciting. [From simple things like] lightsaber blur … and level art … It was a thrill just walking around and talking with people about what they were doing!”
While making the game certainly wasn’t a walk in the park, Hudson explains how the team at BioWare rallied around the project with great enthusiasm.
“We all knew what we wanted from the start. There wasn’t much hesitation or false starts—it’s amazing in retrospect how quickly we got to work on such a cohesive vision. Drew Karpyshyn was an extremely fast writer and the story developed quickly. James Ohlen knew what he wanted from the RPG systems. Level designs and maps came together really fast on the design side. Derek Watts and John Gallagher have an eye for Star Wars, which allowed us to start building art very early. Our first prototypes were spot-on in terms of visualizing the game we all wanted to make.”
KOTOR certainly has had a huge impact on Star Wars and the gaming industry. The game spawned a sequel not long after, various books and comics, and an MMO RPG later that continues to this day. Beyond that, however, it was also one of the fastest-selling Xbox games at the time and earned BioWare many accolades. Hudson also pointed out how the game was a stepping-stone towards even larger cinematic RPGs.
“[We made] a game that felt like a cinematic experience. We conceived of a conversation system that used procedural cameras based on cinematography principles, gave our characters gestures and lip-synch animations while they spoke (new for us at the time), and planned continuous sequences…
[What] stands out about it — even today — is the sense of agency. You really feel like you have a galaxy to explore however you want. You decide who you take with you on adventures, make important decisions, decide what planet to visit, and what to do there. At any time you can turn to one of your [companions] and continue a conversation with them.”
Finally, Hudson shared some of his thoughts on Star Wars: The Old Republic, the MMO RPG released almost a decade after KOTOR.
“I was fortunate to work with that team, and it was awesome to see how they continue to bring their passion and dedication to the Old Republic era of Star Wars. It’s great to see players continue to show up for it.”
Following the success of KOTOR, BioWare would move on to make other critically and commercially successful RPGs, such as the Mass Effect trilogy and the Dragon Age series. Casey Hudson also worked as the director for the Mass Effect trilogy, but now works as CEO of a new game development team called Humanoid Studios. In 2021, it was announced that a KOTOR remake was in the works by the holding company Embracer Group. However, it has been some time since fans have heard anything about that project.
For the full interview make sure to visit io9.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
