For Star Wars Outlaws, Massive worked together with LucasFilm Games to bring a different kind of Star Wars story to life. Instead of someone who's swept up in the conflict between the Empire and Rebellion, or the Jedi and Sith, we'll be stepping into a "scoundrel story through the eyes of someone who is experiencing the underworld and the galaxy for the first time". As laid out by narrative director Navid Khavari at the developer's studio in Malmo, Sweden, that someone is of course protagonist Kay Vess, who's "sent out on a journey that spans the Outer Rim as an outlaw", where she'll be forced to confront her past to "guarantee" her future.
With the chance to create a fresh experience that plays around with the "Han Solo archetype", the team set out to craft a story that could "combine LucasFilm's great history of storytelling with Massive's ability to craft open-worlds" through the lens of an up-and-coming thief who's trying to find her own way.
"It was crucial to us that Star Wars Outlaws is not a story about the Rebel Alliance. It's not a story about the Empire. It's the story of a scoundrel, a thief, a hustler, an outlaw, it is the story of Kay Vess," Khavari says. "And that feel, that tone, that aesthetic, that perspective, was absolutely crucial in forming the character of Kay Vess. So who is Kay? Well, she's a rookie taking her first steps into the greater galaxy, she's absolutely a dreamer. Someone who has big dreams and high hopes to land a score that is going to set her and Nix up for life. And like any great scoundrel she takes risks, rolls the dice. And that is the only way really to succeed in the Star Wars underworld."
Entering an era
Once the team decided on exploring a scoundrel story in Outlaws, one of the first hurdles was determining where it would sit in the Star Wars timeline. Khavari explains that it was important to figure out the era early on, since "every era has its own tone, its own set of characters, and its own aesthetic" they would need to try and capture. After meeting with LucasFilm Games at the start of the project, the suggestion was made that the turbulent period of time between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi would be perfect.
"That one year gap, where the Empire is at its absolute height of power," Khavari says, "but it's a bit distracted by this vigilante Rebellion, and the underworld really is thriving. And so that felt like a really, really good period to base our game and our story."
Not unlike Massive's approach to the open-world design of Star Wars Outlaws, the narrative team also looked beyond the original trilogy for inspiration to craft the story. "We wanted to go a bit further," Khavari says, "in that both these films, Empire and Return the Jedi, were blueprints [for] aesthetic and tone. But we actually delved a little bit further into the cinematic roots that George Lucas himself used."
Pointing to the films of Akira Kurosawa, such as Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress, Khavari also highlights spaghetti westerns and dog fight sequences in WW2 films that helped Lucas formulate the trench run sequences in A New Hope. Drawing from these cinematic roots for inspiration, the narrative team created a "roadmap" of ingredients for the tone of the story, with matinee action to deliver explosive action and challenges, while characters bring a mix of light-hearted fun and emotional tension. Finally, of course, there's the all-important scoundrel charm that shapes Kay as a cunning, playful figure who "can talk herself into and out of trouble".
Story rooms
"We actually tried to invite a lot of different disciplines to participate in organically growing the story"
Navid Khavari, narrative director
With an era and scoundrel archetype in mind, the narrative team worked in collaboration with the whole studio to see what would be possible from a gameplay and technical point of view, but also to develop and grow the story.
"We moved into what we call story rooms," Khavari says. "These weren't just writers rooms, which is sort of what we traditionally might see. We actually tried to invite a lot of different disciplines to participate in organically growing the story – so level artists, quest designers, writers – [because] we wanted it to grow holistically. And this is something we've been carrying forward quite early in the project."
"What emerged out of those story rooms is the narrative pillars of the game. These are what we call almost lenses for those on the team, those focused on story development, whether a writer or a narrative designer, with a sort of view through the prism of fitting our aesthetic and fitting our tone. If you're not hitting three or four out of five of these, it probably isn't going to fit in Star Wars Outlaws."
These pillars revolved around the scoundrel fantasy, with Outlaws again bringing us into the Star Wars universe as a rookie who's experiencing the galaxy for the first time and "emerging into the underworld". Above all, the team wanted to tell a story with a character who feels like a relatable character, which actually led to one of the most engaging discussions in the story room about one familiar face that will be making an appearance.
"We really feel like Kay is one of us," Khavari says. "She's not part of this sort of bigger battle between good or evil, rebellion and Empire. This is someone who is relatable to us, someone that we can connect with. And with that in mind, it gives us a new perspective. Kay is not a character that has ever fought a stormtrooper, and one of the most fun story rooms we had was talking about: what would it be like for any of us to meet Jabba the Hutt the first time? What does that play like when you have no history, or even any idea who Jabba is? And so the idea is that while audiences might be familiar with Star Wars, we get to go on this journey with a rookie who's seeing everything for the first time."
Outlaw origins
As Kay goes up against the underworld, she won't be alone. With Nix at her side as her partner in crime, Khavari says he's like "Kay's heart" in "a lot of ways narratively". She's not one to trust others easily, but Nix is said to open her up, meaning that "she might have the ability to trust others as well" thanks to his loyal presence. Though the pair will venture to various locations and worlds, the story begins in Cantonica, or the city of Canto Bight, which is where Kay comes from and where she struggled to survive. "This is where she lived in the shadow of the wealthy elite," associate narrative director John Bjorling says, "far away from the oppression of the Empire and the fights of the Rebellion."
"Kay herself is going to be taking jobs on Canto," Khavari says. "She is running out of some marks to hustle, her world is getting very, very small, and she's looking to leave Canto Bight. And when she takes on one job that puts her in way over her head, she ends up with a death mark on her back, and on entering a journey through the galaxy, and through the greater underworld. And what that means is, she's gonna have to rally a crew together to take on one of the galaxy's biggest heists."
I can't wait to discover what Kay's perspective on the galaxy will offer us when the Star Wars Outlaws arrives on August 30. The chance to step into this universe as someone who's an underdog, outside of the Jedi, has drawn me in, and I'm very curious to see how we'll have to tackle this heist – which just may "guarantee" her future with Nix.
