Rebel Rebel

For Star Wars Rebels we created ‘Team Tactics’ – a deep, level based adventure where players used the three key protagonists from the show. The game took the form of a physics puzzle platformer where each character has their own unique ability, as well as physical attributes. The big task was engendering a strong sense of narrative whilst balancing all the character’s capabilities and creating levels where players were always challenged but never overwhelmed with options. Add to that the fact we needed a full virtual UI for touch-screen and quick toggling between characters and the challenge was on.

The resulting game set out each level as a single screen where everything the player needed to solve it was right there in front of them. Like tiny little Rube Goldberg machines, players would move their team around, combining skills and abilities to slowly crack each puzzle. Spread across four locations and culminating onboard an Imperial Star Destroyer, Team Tactics got our Star Wars Arcade off to an amazing start.

Poe with the flow

The final game in the Arcade was X-Wing Fighter. This really brought the whole thing home as we got to create an original game for one of the biggest cinema events in recent years. Having established that HTML5 was indeed up to the job and earned the trust of the client we were approved to make our classic shmup in a totally custom vector/gradient art style. Art was of course one of our big challenges here. As all the games were landscape mode it meant we’d be going with a side scroller shooter. For Poe Dameron’s iconic X-Wing this was fine, however Tie Fighters in profile are slightly less exciting as they become flat hexagons! A combination of offset parallax planes to make pseudo 3D, combined with real 3D renders for evasive barrel rolls meant that even viewed side-on, our Ties were both formidable and totally awesome looking!

As with all the games, we had some specific brand concerns to deal with in X-Wing Fighter. After seeing an early pre-production build, Lucasfilm expressed concerns that the classic ‘fodder’ type behaviour of shoot ‘em up enemy ships was not quite right for First Order Tie Fighters. We worked extensively with Disney to create attack waves, ship strengths and aggression systems that meant that although still numerous, the Ties always felt like a threat.

In addition to the narrative game we also created an endless mode meaning that once players had completed the game there was still plenty to return for, besting high scores, and working through the achievements list.