{"id":127460,"date":"2022-08-22T14:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T14:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=fmu9m6xp"},"modified":"2022-08-22T14:00:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T14:00:36","slug":"behind-the-design-lego-star-wars-castaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/08\/22\/behind-the-design-lego-star-wars-castaways\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Design: Lego Star Wars: Castaways"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The world of Lego Star Wars: Castaways<\/em> contains many wonders \u2014 amazing animation, delightful storylines, and pitch-perfect physical comedy. Perhaps the most impressive among them, however, is this: If you had a big enough pile of bricks (and a big enough basement), you could build the whole game yourself. <\/p>\n

Everything in the game \u2014 the massive array of ships, the mixed-and-matched characters, the expansive alien backgrounds, the planets floating in the distance, the docking bays, the outskirts of Jabba\u2019s palace, and even new character Bossig the Hutt \u2014 is designed to be structurally sound and \u201cLego legit.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single brick you see, every Lego plate, connects the way it\u2019s supposed to connect in the real world,\u201d says Jacques Durand, the game\u2019s creative director. Accuracy wasn\u2019t enough for the Montreal-based game design studio Gameloft \u2014 this game had to be reproducible.<\/p>\n

\"Everything<\/p>\n
\n

Everything in Lego Star Wars: Castaways<\/em>, from military-gray Imperial ships to fiery background planets, is what Gameloft calls ‘Lego legit.’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The challenge of physically recreating the entire game is maybe only a little more imposing than the one posed to the Gameloft team when they launched the development process: Design a console-worthy Apple Arcade game set in the Star Wars<\/em> galaxy, evoke the boundless free-play spirit of Lego, merge sci-fi action with exploratory gameplay, and make the whole thing feel like playing with little pieces of plastic on your playroom floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make a game that let you mix and match as much as you want,\u201d says Durand, who\u2019s also a lifelong Star Wars<\/em> fan and self-professed AFOL (adult fan of Lego). \u201cIf you want to customize your character with a Tusken Raider head on top of X-wing pilot suits with Boba Fett\u2019s pants, you should be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In keeping with the improvisational spirit of Lego play, the action-adventure game is powered by a lack of boundaries. It\u2019s all about exploring and battling through (sometimes unreliable) simulations set in the Star Wars<\/em> galaxy; one minute you\u2019re fighting off waves of stormtroopers with friends to protect Hoth\u2019s Echo Base, the next you\u2019re wielding the Force to not-so-gently nudge opponents off ledges in PvP arenas. The game\u2019s place in the Star Wars<\/em> timeline is unestablished, and its fun island-planet setting is new to the Star Wars<\/em> galaxy. \u201cIt\u2019s more [Gilligan\u2019s Island<\/em>] than Lost<\/em>,\u201d laughs Durand. <\/p>\n

\"*Lego<\/p>\n
\n

Lego Star Wars: Castaways<\/em> is set on a tropical world that isn’t as relaxing as it might look.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The island is designed as a kind of repository of Star Wars<\/em> history, an elegant construct that allows the game to sporadically cross paths with the existing movies and shows \u2014 if it wants to. When the game does intersect with familiar scenes, they\u2019re either a simulation brought on by a droid guide named TU-T0R, or entertainment for the pleasure of Bossig the Hutt, a Roman emperor-type kingpin who demands diversion. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave us an incredible freedom to put content into the game without having to follow the timeline,\u201d says Durand, \u201cand it let us add more content, like a rancor pit or a Tatooine hangar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n
\n

An early sketch of the game’s island marketplace (which includes Easter eggs like the toppled AT-AT in the lower right corner).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

To create this galactic playground, Gameloft \u2014 in partnership with Lego and Lucasfilm Games \u2014 built the game around a few core principles. The first: The game should prioritize self-expression. After all, what better way to start off an all-new story than by creating an all-new character? \u201cFrom the start, the message is, \u2018You\u2019re not playing as Luke or Leia,\u201d says Durand. \u201cYou\u2019re in a different location and in a different timeline. The experience of creating a character was at the core.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n

You’re not playing as Luke or Leia. You’re in a different location and in a different timeline.<\/p>\n

Jacques Durand, creative director<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This included fully customizable in-game minifigs, which Durand likens to the build-your-own tables at IRL Lego stores, where you can rifle through drawers full of heads, torsos, and legs to assemble the proper avatar. \u201cWe often said to the team, \u2018I want to feel like I can physically reach into the game and feel the plastic under my finger,\u2019\u201d says Durand.<\/p>\n

\"Durand<\/p>\n
\n

Durand wanted the game’s character customization screens to feel like building real-life minifigs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The second and most important idea was that everything in the game \u2014 from the scorching sands of Tatooine to the craterlike surface of the Death Star \u2014 needed to feel just as real as its physical counterpart. From their Lego-littered offices, Gameloft ensured every environment looked hand-built. And they only needed two huge pieces of cutting-edge software to do it. <\/p>\n

There had never been a game designed quite like Lego Star Wars: Castaways<\/em> \u2014 but there had been a few movies. The Gameloft team drew heavily from the rapid-fire richly textured imagery of The Lego Movie<\/em> and its equally effervescent sequel. \u201cEverything is Lego in those movies, down to the backgrounds,\u201d says Lee Kaburis, game manager for Lego Star Wars: Castaways<\/em>. \u201cWe investigated the matter a little further, decided it was feasible, and said, \u2018OK, we\u2019re going all in.\u2019 We wanted that full immersion of being in a Lego world.\u201d <\/p>\n

The catch: \u201cBricks are complex objects!\u201d says Kaburis. \u201cIt takes a lot of processing power. So we had to figure out a way to be as efficient as possible so we could run not only on a device as big as an Apple TV, but also something as small as the older generation iPhone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stage<\/p>\n
\n

Stage Lego battles by land, sea, and air.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

To build the game elements, the team relied heavily on an adapted version of Lego Digital Designer. It\u2019s very conveniently the exact same software Lego uses to create its own physical bricks \u2014 from single Lego Dots to this year\u2019s ginormous Titanic \u2014 and the team employed it to imagine Lego versions of X-wings, brand-new Hutts, and one particularly tricky Corellian freighter. <\/p>\n

The game\u2019s version of the Millennium Falcon<\/em> is based on the physical Ultimate Collector\u2019s Series set \u2014 one of the largest Lego sets in history, with just over 7,500 pieces. \u201cWe really wanted players to be able to go beneath the Falcon<\/em> and see not only the pieces but the Lego studs \u2014 and even the Lego logo on top of the individual studs,\u201d says Durand.<\/p>\n

But the more complex the shape, the more polygons you have to draw \u2014 and the Falcon\u2019s<\/em> polygons numbered in the millions. \u201cWhen we first put the Falcon<\/em> in, it immediately crashed the game,\u201d laughs Durand. But the team persevered, and Gameloft\u2019s performance engineers came on board for a tune up, creating a process to optimize the complex model without losing its visual detail. <\/p>\n

\n

When we first put the Falcon<\/em> in, it immediately crashed the game.<\/p>\n

Jacques Durand, creative director<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Engineers used lighting to help identify the model pieces that were crucial to the game\u2019s visual look and feel. As soon as something received initial build approval, the team ran it back through the machine to cast lights on it. Any surface that rebalanced that light was kept; every piece of the model that didn\u2019t was removed from its geometry. Durand estimates that decision saved 90 percent of the work \u2014 and polygons.<\/p>\n

While this process was perfect for man-made environments and objects, the team ran into challenges rendering scenes like the docking bay or the rough cliffs surrounding Jabba\u2019s palace. \u201cIt just would have been [impossible] with thousands \u2014 or millions \u2014 of bricks,\u201d says Kaburis. <\/p>\n

\"Turns<\/p>\n
\n

Turns out the Gameloft team likes sand: Exteriors, including the sandy wastes surrounding Jabba’s palace, were rendered by software dubbed ‘the Lego-Lyzer’.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Instead, anything too unwieldy for Lego Digital Designer went to a second piece of software \u2014 the \u2018Lego-Lyzer\u2019 \u2014 that read the scene, ship, building, or background and speedily produced a game-ready Lego replica. Durand and the team found it the perfect solution for the game\u2019s backgrounds and more distant objects: \u201cAt that distance, you\u2019re maybe not seeing Lego studs, but you\u2019ll definitely see the edges of each brick.\u201d <\/p>\n

Once levels were built, the Gameloft team embraced constant playtesting in their weekly meetings. \u201cThe first 15 minutes were updates about progress, what everybody\u2019s doing,\u201d Kaburis laughs. \u201cThe last 45 minutes were playtime.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Lego<\/p>\n
\n

Lego Boba Fett? Where?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kaburis says playtime \u2014 which involved nearly everyone on the team \u2014 was the most important part of development. But the game\u2019s most valuable playtesters were also its smallest: Kid playtesters helped the team refine the game\u2019s perspective from an initial top-down perspective to a behind-the-ship point of view, and helped them develop and refine the onboarding process. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time you play, you see a pop-up screen that says \u2018Hold your tablet or phone with two hands,\u2019\u201d says Kaburis. \u201cThat\u2019s because in a lot of the play tests, we saw kids putting the phone down and playing with one finger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a game that balances the adventurous spirit of Star Wars<\/em> with the tactile joy of a Lego set. \u201cNowadays, games have the ability to immerse you with story and audio and visuals that are akin to watching a movie,\u201d says Kaburis. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved games that can do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

With Lego Star Wars: Castaways<\/em>, he and his team made one \u2014 and brought balance to the Force.<\/p>\n

STAR WARS \u00a9 & TM 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

Learn more about Lego Star Wars: Castaways<\/a><\/p>\n

Download Lego Star Wars: Castaways on Apple Arcade<\/a><\/p>\n

Behind the Design is a weekly series that explores design practices and philosophies from each of the 12 winners of the 2022 Apple Design Awards. In each story, we go behind the screens with the developers and designers of these award-winning apps and games to discover how they brought their remarkable creations to life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Explore more of the 2022 Behind the Design series<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world of Lego Star Wars: Castaways contains many wonders \u2014 amazing animation, delightful storylines, and pitch-perfect physical comedy. Perhaps the most impressive among them, however, is this: If you had a big enough pile of bricks (and a big enough basement), you could build the whole game yourself. Everything in the game \u2014 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-developer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}