Some time in November 2006, Kevin Toyama, a former colleague at Future U.S. (edit per Kevin: and uber-foxy ladiesman) (he was an editor on the excellent videogame industry newspaper, Games Business) contacted me in his new role as an Acquisitions Editor at San Francisco-based Chronicle Books. His company, he told me, was going to pitch LucasArts about producing a book chronicling the history of the storied developer and publisher. “Would I,” he innocently asked “be interested in helping shape out the pitch.”
Of course I would, and so I sketched out a content outline that encompassed the entire run of LucasArts game development from 1982 to current day. It was rough, but it was clearly book-worthy.
Well, Chronicle won the pitch to produce this book (against, I believe, one other competing publishing house). “So,” Kevin now adds, “would you be interested in fleshing out that pitch into a chapter list?” So I did, and with Kevin’s shaping and feedback from LucasArts, it became the basis for what was known as “The Magic of LucasArts.”
A few weeks later and I was on board as the designated author of this officially endorsed history of one of the videogame industry’s most storied companies. What did that mean? What was it to include?
This blog will fill in, among other things, much of the back story to bringing this chronicle of events to publication; the highs and lows of a company with over 25 years of investment in the very fluid videogame market is complex, intriguing, and full of fascinating characters, conflicting egos and opinions, and contributions to the videogame canon that are as endearing today as they were when some of these seminal games were originally published. Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts provides insight into the creation of all of them, with never-before-seen interviews with the principals, new concept art and images, and even details on the game concepts that hit the cutting room floor.
The comments is live, and I’ll answer whatever questions I get!
September 19, 2008 at 4:07 am
What I want to know is, why is it that Grim Fandango never got made into a movie franchise? That was a gold mine, I thought.
And how, exactly do star destroyers travel beyond the speed of light? Or is that a question for another book entirely?
September 19, 2008 at 5:06 am
Answers to both questions in the book…
(Well, sort of an answer to the first one, and the second question would need Einstein to answer.)
October 29, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I’m hoping to get this for Xmas but what I’m wanting to know is this a kind of Autobiography on the company as a whole or an art book cause I’ve heard different things or is it a bit of both
Also does this book go into more details about the 3 different versions of The Dig and why it took so long to be released
November 1, 2008 at 6:07 am
It’s a complete history of the company, but supported by around 300 images from the games over the 25 years. Those images include concept art, never-before-scene images from cancelled games, and more.
I didn’t dwell on the variations of The Dig, but that game is covered in here as an interesting test case of Hollywood meeting videogame production.
Thanks for your interest.
Rob