You Can Work for and Even Betray Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars Outlaws

ign.com:

Developers from Ubisoft Massive and their compatriots over at LucasFilm shared a number of new details today with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con regarding Star Wars: Outlaws and the two locations revealed for the game thus far: the new moon Toshara, and Tatooine. Including, yes, that you can both work for and betray (if you want) Jabba the Hutt.

Speaking to IGN, director Julian Gerighty says that Toshara is inspired by the eastern African savannah, and was specifically designed with heroine Kay Vess' speeder (which yes, is at least somewhat customizable) in mind, with lots of wide, open plains. The team even visited Tanzania for inspiration.

"We start off with a biome, in this case, southeast African biomes as an inspiration, and then you put a twist on it to make it feel a little bit alien," Gerighty said. "If you think of the first shots, maybe not the first shots, but the first the shots of Tatooine. Beautiful, recognizable architecture, but two suns. For us, it's having this huge mountain and carved into it into the amberine of the mountain, the crystalline substance is a city, and these outcroppings of orange, very reflective material. That's what brings the really alien nature to it. Familiar but fresh."

Lucasfilm senior creative executive Matt Martin then stepped in to mention Lucasfilm's "80/20" rule of designing locations that are 80% familiar, but 20% alien or fantastical. In this case, the east African inspiration is the familiar, but the city and the massive outcroppings of crystal are the 20% fantastical.

Later in a panel on the subject at SDCC, the group gave even more detail. Tatooine was evoked again as a somewhat similar landscape with large, barren expanses. But as it was put on the panel, “It’s not just about