LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga dev diary teases never-before-seen characters

A new video from Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker saga developer TT Games teases new characters in a galaxy-sized LEGO adventure. 

"It is just one of the biggest games we've ever done," says designer Dawn McDiarmid, reiterating previous claims that The Skywalker Saga is head and shoulders above most previous LEGO games. Senior designer Laurence Gee says the plan was to "give fans everything Star Wars, we're gonna give them the galaxy," and to fill out that massive world, TT Games pulled on some of the more niche threads in the Star Wars universe. 

"You'll see characters in this game that you have never seen in any of our Star Wars games," says lead animator Mark Crane. "We created them just for this game." Mama the Hutt, who's described as Jabba but with lipstick on, is one of the bigger examples here. Yaddle, a Force-sensitive woman of Yoda's species, also makes an appearance. Babu Frik is in here too, and you can even play as the tiny little warrior, which looks hilarious since he's got what seems to be the smallest character model in the game. That ought to numb the pain of being unable to play as Baby Yoda. 

Beyond the size of the world and the variety of its characters, this dev diary also highlights the detail that went into The Skywalker Saga. Lead render tech programmer Vassilis Poulopoulos mentions a "LEGO weathering effect" which adds environmentally tailored grime to characters, vehicles, and props. Sand sticks to your joints on Tatooine, for example, while snow piles up on Hoth, which is a pretty cool way to marry the LEGO aesthetic with realistic wear and tear. 

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is out April 5 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, and Switch. 

Check out the combo- and counter-driven combat of the next LEGO game in its previous trailer.