DP ServBot
04-04-2013, 08:00 PM
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2013/04/grimlogo.jpg (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/remembering-the-life-and-legend-of-lucasarts/)
LucasArts has become one with the Force. The venerable studio and publisher was shuttered (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/03/disney-closes-lucasarts/) by owner Disney yesterday, halting production (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/star-wars-1313-halted-says-lucasfilm/) on its games, including Star Wars 1313. Though the amount of content coming from the studio had been drastically reduced over the last few years - well before Disney acquired Lucasfilm (http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/30/disney-acquires-lucasfilm-for-4-05-billion-lucasarts-included/) in October 2012 - LucasArts was a beloved studio finding success in multiple decades.
But what made LucasArts games so special?
Although LucasArts may be best known for its Star Wars games - starting as the gaming branch of Lucasfilm, George Lucas' production company - the developer's biggest successes in the 1980s were point-and-click adventure games. The classic Maniac Mansion, released in 1987, introduced the SCUMM engine, that would provide the model for most of their two-dimensional adventure games (including several Indiana Jones games, Loom, Day Of The Tentacle, and The Dig).
It has a very familiar look to a certain type of gamer: a collection of verbs like "Look at" or "Open" on the bottom of the screen, and bright inventory. It looks somewhat ungainly now, but at the time it was a revolutionary step toward mouse-based interfaces and away from text adventures that forced players to type in all actions.Continue reading Remembering the life and legend of LucasArts (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/remembering-the-life-and-legend-of-lucasarts/)
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif (http://www.joystiq.com)Remembering the life and legend of LucasArts (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/remembering-the-life-and-legend-of-lucasarts/) originally appeared on Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com) on Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Permalink (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/remembering-the-life-and-legend-of-lucasarts/) | Email this (http://www.joystiq.com/forward/20530015/) | Comments (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/remembering-the-life-and-legend-of-lucasarts/#comments)
LucasArts has become one with the Force. The venerable studio and publisher was shuttered (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/03/disney-closes-lucasarts/) by owner Disney yesterday, halting production (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/star-wars-1313-halted-says-lucasfilm/) on its games, including Star Wars 1313. Though the amount of content coming from the studio had been drastically reduced over the last few years - well before Disney acquired Lucasfilm (http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/30/disney-acquires-lucasfilm-for-4-05-billion-lucasarts-included/) in October 2012 - LucasArts was a beloved studio finding success in multiple decades.
But what made LucasArts games so special?
Although LucasArts may be best known for its Star Wars games - starting as the gaming branch of Lucasfilm, George Lucas' production company - the developer's biggest successes in the 1980s were point-and-click adventure games. The classic Maniac Mansion, released in 1987, introduced the SCUMM engine, that would provide the model for most of their two-dimensional adventure games (including several Indiana Jones games, Loom, Day Of The Tentacle, and The Dig).
It has a very familiar look to a certain type of gamer: a collection of verbs like "Look at" or "Open" on the bottom of the screen, and bright inventory. It looks somewhat ungainly now, but at the time it was a revolutionary step toward mouse-based interfaces and away from text adventures that forced players to type in all actions.Continue reading Remembering the life and legend of LucasArts (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/remembering-the-life-and-legend-of-lucasarts/)
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif (http://www.joystiq.com)Remembering the life and legend of LucasArts (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/remembering-the-life-and-legend-of-lucasarts/) originally appeared on Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com) on Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Permalink (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/remembering-the-life-and-legend-of-lucasarts/) | Email this (http://www.joystiq.com/forward/20530015/) | Comments (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/04/remembering-the-life-and-legend-of-lucasarts/#comments)