Star Wars Outlaws Creative Director Julian Gerighty on Kay Vess, Scoundrels, and Unique Open Worlds
“You think you know Star Wars when you start – you don’t know Star Wars. There’s so much to learn.”
Posted 2 months ago
“Cantonica.”
Of all the worlds Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty and his team brought to life, it’s the bustling, casino-crammed planet on which the action-adventure game opens that he’d opt to make his home. For the wealthy? It’s certainly not a bad choice. But for Kay Vess, the game’s inexperienced, scoundrel-in-the-making protagonist, it’s a land best left behind – and in a hurry.
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Ahead of Star Wars Outlaws’ launch, we caught up with Gerighty at Gamescom to discuss crafting Kay Vess, the dream of playing a scoundrel, and how Star Wars Outlaws aims to differentiate itself from Ubisoft’s extant open worlds. But first: those planets. It’s not that Gerighty doesn’t love the other environments he helped define. More so that each offers its own charms.
“It’s like choosing amongst my children,” Gerighty chides. “Why would you do that? Why would you be so unpleasant in the morning? I think visually: Kijimi, the frozen wasteland. Gameplay-wise: Akiva [a lush, jungle-smothered land] because it’s so full of secrets and little parts to discover.”
Julian Gerighty talks Star Wars Outlaws at Gamescom
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Through movies, series, cartoons, and comics, Star Wars has taken us on a galactic tour of myriad alien worlds. Outlaws itself features five – four planets and one moon – during Kay’s travels. But while each one brings something eye-catchingly different, Gerighty believes that it’s the similarities to our world that make them memorable. It’s all based on an ethos embedded in the franchise right from A New Hope.
“It’s simplicity with a twist,” says Gerighty. “And just taking that allows us to get inspiration from Tatooine, which is Tunisian dunes with Tunisian architecture, but with two suns, these big wooly mammoth creatures roaming the desert, and huge skeletons cropping out. Just that little twist is familiar but alien at the same time.
“That’s a philosophy, summed up in six seconds, that we applied to everything. So Toshara, a moon we created, is inspired by the African savannah but with huge outcrops of amber, and cities carved in-between mountains. So it’s little things that bring this whole difference, but make it still relatable and recognizable.”
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Ubisoft has developed somewhat of a reputation with regards to open-world video games. Applied to the likes of Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and more, the publisher’s formula has proven unquestionably successful but undeniably familiar. Outlaws is a creation of Massive Entertainment, a separate team behind The Division and its sequel. But even so, Gerighty was cognizant of ensuring their take on free-roaming gameplay felt truly distinct, and unmistakably Star Wars.
“What we wanted to do here [is] to make sure that our approach to RPG elements is very different as well,” Gerighty says. “So instead of a skill tree in which you’re gonna put points, we’ve put experts in the open world that you seek out. And that's an adventure in and of itself! And once you find them, you build a relationship with them and you unlock different gadgets or skills. And that’s really the sort of master and padawan situation of Star Wars, ingrained within the open world. That’s a very different approach.”
Ask someone for their favorite thing from Star Wars and, no matter how beautiful, a planet isn’t likely to emerge as the answer. Sorry Coruscant; it’s not you, it’s us. Characters are at the heart of any good Star Wars tale, and Outlaws is looking to make Kay Vess’ journey its lifeblood. Like many other members of his team, Gerighty saw Episode IV: A New Hope as a teenager. It inspired dreams of being an interstellar smuggler and scoundrel that stuck with him, and served as a primary inspiration for Star Wars Outlaws.
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“We want to be the coolest guy in the galaxy, surfing amongst the stars in his beautiful ship with his two-legged dog companion, Chewbacca,” says Gerighty. “That was the archetype, the player fantasy that we wanted the most. … And there hasn’t been an experience that lets you tangle with the underworld in Star Wars. Not in a ‘mature’ way, but in a matinee action, very pure to the original trilogy of Star Wars.”
Thus, Kay Vess was born. Initially, Outlaws’ inexperienced protagonist was envisaged as someone a little more seasoned. Rougher around the edges, more mature. Closer, perhaps, to the likes of Han Solo. But as development progressed it became clear that, to hit the right tone, Kay needed to start from humbler beginnings.
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“The character really evolved,” Gerighty says. “You think you know Star Wars when you start – you don’t know Star Wars. There’s so much to learn about how Ralph McQuarrie, George Lucas approached worlds and characters that you start evolving and simplifying some things, making some things more complex, making them more relatable. Relatability is so important to Star Wars.
“For this character we wanted that evolution to be from a street thief to an outlaw. And how do you take a street thief in this galaxy? You put her in front of Jabba the Hutt, of Lady Qi'ra – of some of the most fearsome and notorious criminal syndicates in the galaxy. That’s the journey we wanted to look at.”
That narrative arc fed back into the gameplay. As well as seeking experts across the galaxy to develop her skills and gear, Kay can use her relative anonymity to discreetly gather leads and information from those around her.
“One of my favorite things is just going to cantinas,” says Gerighty. “Listening in to conversations, picking up intel, missions, and sidequests from eavesdropping on other criminals talking about their adventures. That sort of thing is very much plugging into the essence of being an outlaw.”
For all his childhood fantasies and time spent defining Kay, however, Gerighty’s personal favorite character from Star Wars isn’t even a scoundrel. Not unless you consider their avant-garde approach to music.
“Max Reebo!” Gerighty chuckles. “That creature could play with his feet! And that’s an amazing skill that I’m still working on.”
Our thanks to Julian Gerighty for taking the time to speak with us about Star Wars Outlaws.
