27 Facts About LucasArts

LucasArts became known for its line of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s, including Maniac Mansion, the Monkey Island series, and several Indiana Jones titles.

Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the Star Wars franchise, LucasArts produced numerous action-based Star Wars titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while dropping adventure game development due to waning interest in the genre.

Also in 1990, LucasArts started to publish The Adventurer, their own gaming magazine where one could read about their upcoming games and interviews with the developers.

LucasArts was often referred to as one of the two big names in the field, competing with Sierra On-line as a developer of high quality adventures.

LucasArts halted adventure game development for the next five years, focusing instead on their Star Wars games.

Related searches

On June 1, 2009, LucasArts announced both The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition, a high-definition remake of the original game with revised graphics, music and voice work, and Tales of Monkey Island, a new episodic installment in the Monkey Island series that was developed by Telltale Games.

In 1996, LucasArts released Afterlife, a simulator in which players build their own Heaven and Hell, with several jokes and puns.

LucasArts contributed to this trend with the 1995 release of Star Wars: Dark Forces, a first person shooter that successfully transplanted the Doom formula to a Star Wars setting.

Apart from Star Wars-themed 3D shooters, LucasArts created the western-themed game Outlaws in 1997 and Armed and Dangerous in 2003.

LucasArts was president of LucasArts until 2003 and some successful Star Wars games released during his management like Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2, Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars Jedi Academy and Star Wars Galaxies.

Also in 2002, LucasArts released a compilation CD filled with music from their past games.

Ward performed a top-to-bottom audit of LucasArts infrastructure, describing the company's state as "quite a mess.

In 2004, LucasArts released Star Wars: Battlefront, based on the same formula as the popular Battlefield series of games.

LucasArts told Obsidian Entertainment that the project needed to be finished by that year's holiday season.

In March 2005, LucasArts published Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, the first game in the popular Lego video game franchise by Traveller's Tales.

In May 2005, LucasArts released Revenge of the Sith, a third person action game based on the film.

Also in 2005, LucasArts released Star Wars: Republic Commando, and one of their few non-Star Wars games, Mercenaries, developed by Pandemic Studios.

On February 16, 2006, LucasArts released Star Wars: Empire at War, a real-time strategy game developed by Petroglyph.

Lego Star Wars II, developed by Traveller's Tales and published by LucasArts, follows the same basic format as the first game, but, as the name indicates, covers the original Star Wars trilogy.

In May 2007, LucasArts announced Fracture and stated that "new intellectual properties serve a vital role to the growth of LucasArts".

Rapid scaling down of internal projects at LucasArts was reflected in its handling of games developed by external developers.

Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis described how working with LucasArts evolved from being "the best relationship we'd ever had with a publisher" to withholding money for 6 months and abusing the independent developer's position to withhold the full project cancellation fee—this was a major event which contributed towards Free Radical entering administration.

The games announced were Tales of Monkey Island, which was to be developed by Telltale, and a LucasArts-developed enhanced remake of the 1990 title The Secret of Monkey Island, with the intent of bringing the old game to a new audience.

In March 2011, LucasArts published a sequel to the popular Lego Star Wars series, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, based on the Clone Wars animated series, developed by Traveller's Tales.

At the time, there were no plans for any downsizing of Lucasfilm divisions, and a LucasArts representative said that "for the time being, all projects are business as usual".

Related searches

In 1998, LucasArts approached Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment, citing that their logo was copied from the top portion of the LucasArts logo, and threatened legal action.

Ex-LucasArts developers have founded numerous San Francisco game development studios such as Double Fine Productions, Telltale Games (2004), MunkyFun (2008), Dynamighty (2011), SoMa Play (2013), and Fifth Journey (2015) playing a significant role in the continued development of computer games in the Bay Area.