LucasArts has become one with the Force. The venerable studio and publisher was shuttered by owner Disney yesterday, halting production 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 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
Remembering the life and legend of LucasArts originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments