Exclusive SWTOR Art Interview - Tweaking Lightsabers

[Cody Bye]

The announcement for Star Wars: The Old Republic has now been stewing for nearly a week. Since that time, fans that are anticipating the upcoming game have been scrutinizing every screenshot and piece of concept artwork available to them. Perhaps the most attention has been spent on the graphics, where players have commented on everything, but most notably the size of the lightsabers.

Thankfully, the Ten Ton Hammer staff is on your side, and we asked BioWare's Art Director, Jeff Dobson, about the oversized lightsabers while we were at the BioWare media day in San Francisco among other things. Interested in Dobson's answer? Check out our interview!

Star Wars is an immense IP. From an art standpoint, are there going to be a lot of options for players when we want to go and create a character? How are you going to achieve this - are you going to use sliders or options?

Customization is really key in an MMO, and if we don't have those character creation options we'd be shorting the players. Beyond that, we're trying to tell stories the BioWare way, and that includes the fact that if you see silly-looking people running around in your world that breaks the immersion. That said, it's a bullet point feature in any MMO and is very high on my personal list.

To read the rest of the SWTOR Art interview (including the lightsaber question), click here!

[Sardu]

Another excellent interview. It seems like a lot of the visual issues people were taking from what's been shown so far were addressed which should help give people a better idea of the direction things are going in.

Personally I'm glad to hear that things will have a more 'lived-in' feel vs. being too overly polished and shiny ala Ep. I-III. To me, Star Wars has always been about contrasts - high tech elements in rustic settings, overly bright exteriors and almost oppressively dark interiors - in other words the visuals mirror the themes and ideas presented in the story. The fact that story and setting mesh so well is at least one of the factors for why it's so easy to get pulled into that particular world and in such a believable way.

[AngryBeaver]

But without a doubt we want to have that "oversized" weapon feel in the game for the guns and the lightsabers both.

I really don't want my lightsaber hilt to look like a 2 litter bottle of coke.

[WookieIsshe69]

Originally Posted by AngryBeaver

I really don't want my lightsaber hilt to look like a 2 litter bottle of coke.

I totally agree with you there. Blizzard likes oversized everything and it was blah to me. This is supposed to be a Star Wars game not a Star WoWs game.

I think Bioware needs to do a fan poll about weapon sizes and go with what the fans say on that ONE issue.