‘Star Wars: Hunters’ Developers Reveal How They Created New Character ‘Charr’
Zynga Inc, the developers behind the upcoming arena PvP game Star Wars: Hunters have released a special video pulling back the curtain on how they developed and implemented their latest character, the Trandoshan trapper Charr.
This comes as a welcome change at a time where the scant few bits of news we get about Star Wars: Hunters are about more delays and you could easily be forgiven for thinking that the game was no longer in development. The game had a soft launch last year in limited territories and has gradually been expanding with new characters and maps but has yet to announce a global release date, though the official website still states it will be arriving 2023.
The latest update to the game is new character Charr. He is described as a ‘Tank’ gaming archetype, a fearless master hunter wielding a Scattergun and an array of gadgets as well as a ‘ferocious hunt’ ability where he goes into a range, knocking down any nearby enemies. Art Director Betty Le Bon digs into the inspirations behind the latest hunter.
When creating Charr, we started with his play style and gathered references of species that might fit the design, delving into the Lucasfilm archives, creating mood boards and discussing archetypes. A Trandoshan trapper instantly resonated with everyone and instantly felt like Star Wars.
The Trandoshan species first appeared way back in The Empire Strikes Back with the bounty hunter Bossk. Their reputation as hunters and trappers was created for the Expanded Universe books but was featured in the Clone Wars episodes ‘Padawan Lost’ and ‘Wookiee Hunt’ which featuring a gang of Trandoshan trappers who hunted Wookiees and a captured Ahsoka Tano for sport.
After deciding on the character, the team developed his costume, decked out with gadgets and completed with a huge skull with glowing eyes on his back, speaking to his life as a big game hunter and adding to his ferocious personality. One they had the design; the team created a 3D model with an animalistic movement style. More complex movements were captured in-house using motion-capture technology and processed in Unreal engine.
The final ingredient in the character was his voice. Adam James, who has previously provided voices for Battlefront II (2017), delivered the ‘lizardesque’ voice for the character, bringing Charr to life as he entered the arena.
The video closes with a glimpse of hope for those of us hoping to get out hands on the game. Betty claims there is more to come and that, just maybe, we won’t have too long to wait.
That’s just a small fraction of the exciting work the team has been cooking up for you. We hope you enjoy playing as Charr and look forward to welcoming you into the arena very soon
Star Wars: Hunters is a team-based multiplayer battle game set after the fall of the Galactic Empire. It will be available to play for free on Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android on release.
A teacher from Wales in the UK, Aled has loved Star Wars ever since that Star Destroyer flew over his head and blew his mind.
