Thread by @LucasfilmGames

Star Wars 1313 (LucasArts, cancelled in 2013): Boba Fett chararacter design & Coruscant level 1313 world development by @designergus + work-in-progress scene.

In the last year of production (out of 4 or 5), George Lucas decided that Boba should be the protagonist of the game.

@designergus Maybe not the best idea, or the most original, but this project had already gone through many upheavals since 2009. Including in its game design. Or its intertwining with the TV series (cancelled circa 2010) SW Underworld.

I have many things to tell about it, later in the year.

@designergus A few things:

Long before Lucas brought back Boba, it was GTA on Coruscant, then a coop shooter on Coruscant, then Uncharted on Coruscant (and a few planets), then the new adventures of Boba.

Here's a concept art by Ryan Church:

@designergus I know, I know: some people wonder: why ?!

Long story short, LucasArts was in bad shape in 2010. Several leaderships had succeeded each other, and each time the project went in a new direction (not at all the first time at LucasArts, nor any video game studio. NOT AT ALL).

@designergus These are decisions that come from above, from the top.

Like Lucas for Boba - while the latest version of the game was thought and written for another protagonist, it was only in the weeks leading up to E3 2012 that Boba became the hero. That's why he's not in the teaser.

@designergus Paradoxically, while the teaser was a huge success, production was paused soon after. Because Lucas was going to sell Lucasfilm to Disney! This being done 5 months later, Disney executives took the time to see how they would manage the franchise.

@designergus But Disney was no longer developing games internally. They therefore closed LucasArts, and sold the rights to Electronic Arts (EA). But they did try to save 1313, which was a well-advanced project. They went to play the game at Visceral Games (Dead Space), which belonged to EA.

@designergus This scene is told in the book "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels" by @jasonschreier Eventually, Visceral just recruited a few members of the 1313 team. They later worked on Ragtag, an Uncharted-Star Wars, but more ambitious and with less budget. Canceled in the fall of 2017.

@designergus @jasonschreier Then the assets of this game were used for and other SW game, made at EA Vancouver. Cancelled again, a few months ago. Now they're making a less ambitious game.

End of the story? Not really.

@designergus @jasonschreier Because, you know, LucasArts is very good at managing resources. Nothing is ever lost. Everything can be used elsewhere, or inspire other artists. As @designergus then worked on other SW projects, including @Respawn Jedi: Fallen Order, scheduled for the end of the year.

@designergus @jasonschreier @Respawn In The Clone Wars season 5, Ahsoka Tano explores the Coruscant underworld.

Because these episodes were made before the game was cancelled.

She'll come back soon at the level 1313, in the 7th season.

@designergus @jasonschreier @Respawn The Clone Wars TV series, next to a few Star Wars 1313 artworks.

@designergus @jasonschreier @Respawn That's not all.

Left: SW 1313 concept art.
Right: Solo: A Star Wars Story set. A movie released 5 years after 1313 was concelled. Nothing is ever lost.

@designergus @jasonschreier @Respawn And, of course, the costumes of the protagonist of The Mandalorian TV series (end od this year on Disney+) look a lot like the artworks made by @designergus for 1313.

I am actively pursuing my research on the early years of 1313 (if a former employee goes through there, MP me!). Be sure that I will write, one day, in detail the story of the last project supervised (not closely) by George Lucas.

In the meantime, it's all about telling people who have worked on this game, which certainly was not released, that we did not forget what they did! Your work has influenced this license, despite everything.

Thank you!

Some art and a part of the 1313 team:

Above, I wrote: "Because, you know, LucasArts is very good at managing resources. Nothing is ever lost. "

LucasFILM.
LucasArts was closed in 2013.

Maybe you forgot the SW 1313 E3 2012 teaser trailer? I can't believe it's been 7 years.

I take this opportunity to share one of my favorite documents, because I love MAPS :)
This was the level on the surface of Coruscant, near the portal that leads to level 1313 of the underworld. It dates back a few years before Boba was introduced. 2011 at the latest, I believe.

I'll come back to the first years of the project in a few months, when I could cross-check my information.

But I talked about Underworld, why? Because this game was a time developed in coordination with an eponymous Star Wars series (yes, ten years before The Mandalorian).

After the release of Revenge of the Sith in 2005, George Lucas had completed his saga. For the big screen. He did, however, have major SW projects for other media.

In 2004/2005, LucasArts began working on what would become The Force Unleashed (2008).

Under the supervision of Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm Animation was then working on The Clone Wars (2008). The first project that was important to Lucas. The second was a live-action series. Codenamed "Underworld", it was running (like The Force Unleashed) just before Episode IV.

The story unfolded primarily in the underground and criminal world of Coruscant. Nearly 50 scripts have been written. And not by unknown writers.

You know Ronald D. Moore, from Star Trek Next Gen, DS9, Outlanders and Battlestar Galactica? He was there.

@TremensDr (Doctor Who, Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, Electric Dreams) too!

Artists from Lucasfilm have produced many illustrations, including Erik Tiemens (below).

A dream team, really.

@TremensDr Darth Vader, the Rebel alliance, Boba Fett could be able to appear. It was expected.

But the costs of production were very, very expensive. In 2005, George Lucas and his producer Rick McCallum hoped to reduce these cost before the broadcast scheduled for 2008 at best.

@TremensDr The work was done at Skywalker Ranch, north of California.

In 2010, after 5 years (!), they realized that this series was far too ambitious and paused this project. Definitely: 2 years later, Lucas sold Lucasfilm. The scripts & illustrations are now stored at Lucasfilm archives.

@TremensDr Not before the early version of the complementary game, already under development, might help craft the vision for the show.

Soon after the TV series was paused, Underworld-the-game became 1313.

And here we go back to the top of this thread ^^

@TremensDr As I said above, I know a lot more about the early versions of 1313, but I can't talk about it here until I've done a verification/cross-check job (again, if anyone wants to talk about it, don't hesitate: MP).

I hope you liked this thread! It's a lot of research and... love ;-)

@TremensDr

Nice catch @Thecheese9229 !
This space liner is clearly from Star Wars; Republic Commando (developed in-house at LucasArts, 2005).

https://twitter.com/Thecheese9229/status/1133282511411453952

@Thecheese9229 Ahsoka in the Coruscant underworld (level 1315 to 1312).
The Clone Wars: To Catch a Jedi, Season 5 Episode 19. Aired on February 23, 2013 (2 months before LucasArts closed. 1313 was already paused).

@Thecheese9229 And here, Ahsoka goes back to level 1313 in the next The Clone Wars season. If you have seen the artworks and teaser of 1313 above, you will recognize the scenery:

@Thecheese9229 Some new precisions received thanks to this thread (you have the right to tell me when I'm wrong, too): The creation of Underworld/1313 started in 2008, when The Force Unleashed was released. The game was named 1313 in 2009.

@Thecheese9229 And the first version was less GTA than Mass Effect with Gears of War mechanics.

I'm really going to stop talking about it before having a better idea of these early years, because I feel like it's going to end in false headlines across the web, as usual ^^

New early artwork:

But don't think it was Mass Effect, too. It wasn't a RPG like KOTOR. "It's more like something, less than something". You know, it's complicated and simplistic to make comparisons. Early 1313 was its own game design.

More WHEN I know EXACTLY what it was. :)

Here, on this account, I'm only sharing part of my research. And I still have a lot of people to contact, and information to check, to cross.

You can read the making of, an "oral history", when I'm done.

The funny thing is that this thread is appreciated while I don't believe that I tell the least thing that has not been revealed elsewhere. It's just a synthesis. I did not include the result of my own research/interviews, or so little.

Art by @janurschel :

I insist: this thread allowed me to get in touch with a lot of people. Forget the part about the first versions, it's too vague and not enough faithful to the reality to be acceptable.

I didn't think this thread would be so shared, so please, videogames websites, don't make articles to say that 1313 could have been GTA Star Wars. It's not true. Thanks <3

SW 1313 "teaser trailer version" vs SW 1313 "Boba Fett version".

The character on the right seems to have survived the change, but his hair may have been sacrificed ;)
Or, it's just the same costume.

https://twitter.com/spaceshipsporn/status/1133686123576868864

I forgot to mention that Rogue One (2016) has strong ties to Underworld (the series, not the game, but it was complementary projects at the start). Saw Gerrera was thus imagined by Lucas for Underworld, before being finally introduced in the TV series The Clone Wars in 2012.

And John Knoll had the idea of the pitch of Rogue One because he wanted to propose that an Underworld episode tells the theft of the plans of the Death star. When Kathkeen Kennedy took control of Lucasfilm 2 years after the series was paused, he resubmitted his idea.