‘Star Wars’ Strategy Game Developer Bit Reactor Want Game to Have Unique Visual Language, be Accessible to Newcomers
Bit Reactor are hard at work on their new Star Wars strategy game, and while they can’t share any secrets about the development process, they discuss their design philosophy as they explore a galaxy far, far away.
Talking to PC Gamer, Bit Reactor technical director Ryan McFall (who previously worked on the XCOM reboot series), has stated that one of his goals for the new game is to explore the strategy genre in a way that defies conventional expectations:
“I think there’s definitely a perception there – I think folks have a limited view of what a strategy game could be. That is one of the things we want to try to do: expand people’s perception of what the experience actually is of playing a strategy game… We’re always thinking about the different ways that our users could interact with a title.”
The title was previously described by publisher Electronic Arts as a real-time strategy (RTS) title, and it appears that McFall is choosing not to stick with that label because what he and the team at Bit Reactor are coming up with is something new, not just for this franchise, but the strategy genre as a whole. Star Wars has had an extensive history with the genre, starting in 1996 with the 4X title Star Wars: Rebellion before moving on to the RTS realm with Star Wars: Force Commander, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, and Star Wars: Empire at War, the last two of which got expansion packs.
In addition, art director Danish Sayed has stated that a key goal of the game is to have a unique visual language that allows the title to be accessible to those who are not already familiar with the strategy genre, presenting the game in a way that doesn’t immediately overwhelm players who are experiencing a strategy game for the first time:
“Like any genre, there is a spectrum of complexity. Some genres might fall toward one side or the other, but there’s still lots of variation in-between. If you look at the racing genre, you have arcade racers, you have simulation racers, and people aren’t scared by that, because they’ve seen the spectrum. I feel like strategy games potentially have not been exposed in the same way where players haven’t seen what strategy games can be. When a player is brought into the game, they’re learning all the systems and so we want it to be immediately fun, and give the player maximum output for their minimum input and find the fun in the core game itself. Then we can start layering on more features and more systems, but we’re ready to grab the player with that initial core of what makes this game fun… We’re gonna develop our own language that fits within Star Wars, but also feels unique to this game.”
The untitled Star Wars strategy game from Bit Reactor is part of Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment’s continued commitment to Star Wars titles. The teams under those divisions have worked on games like Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor, and it is presumed that a third game in that series will be developed. There were plans for a first-person shooter title, but they were eventually scrapped – though Bit Reactor has stated that their game will not meet that fate.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
