Oral History of the Early Days of Lucasarts

[Correct_Carlo]

There's an interesting interview with 5 of the earliest developers at Lucasarts at US gamer. Way too long to copy pasta here, but some of the best bits (much of which isn't new):

-Lucasarts was originally created as a tax shelter. George Lucas had no interest in games and just needed another company to funnel his massive profits from Star Wars into. Plus, they often had to look for external investors/funding as Lucas did not fund most of their games.

-While they promoted Lucas' involvement at the time, he had zero creative involvement other than his name (although SPielberg did do some "initial brainstorming" on "The Dig")

-They were initially forbidden from doing Star Wars games, and "Rescue on Fractalas" was conceived of as a "Star Wars" game, only without the licence. They ultimately acknowledge that the studio's inability to use Star Wars forced them to be more creative in other areas.

-They almost did another fractal game/iphone sequel to Koronis Rift in the era of the Monkey Island remakes, but it was scrapped when the president was replaced

-They think Disney bought Lucasfilm/arts soley for star wars and are unaware of most of Lucasart's back catalog, so they don't think old Lucas Arts games will be rereleased any time soon

There's a bunch of other interesting stuff about the making of Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, and (especially) Habitat (which you really don't hear much about at all):

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/i-actually-was-hunting-ewoks-lucasfilm-games-the-early-years

 

[TheGreatOne]

-They think Disney bought Lucasfilm/arts soley for star wars and are unaware of most of Lucasart's back catalog, so they don't think old Lucas Arts games will be rereleased any time soon

God damn I hate these old men running these corporations with a burning passion. So much incompetence that I can actually tolerate socialists in this regard. They could actually make more money AND please the customers but they're too ignorant on the product they're selling to monetize any of these opportunities. Just think of all the great IPs that are being hold by big corporations who do fuck all with them, from Capcom and Sega to EA, Activision and all other cancerous giants of gaming that own many of the most memorable IPs from 80s and 90s.

 

[Don Peste]

-They think Disney bought Lucasfilm/arts soley for star wars and are unaware of most of Lucasart's back catalog, so they don't think old Lucas Arts games will be rereleased any time soon

God damn I hate these old men running these corporations with a burning passion. So much incompetence that I can actually tolerate socialists in this regard. They could actually make more money AND please the customers but they're too ignorant on the product they're selling to monetize any of these opportunities. Just think of all the great IPs that are being hold by big corporations who do fuck all with them, from Capcom and Sega to EA, Activision and all other cancerous giants of gaming that own many of the most memorable IPs from 80s and 90s.

Would you want a Disney Presents Loom 2? Sparrow & Threepwood Save Christmas? Let those games rest in peace. We would never have proper sequels. There's only hope in fan games, with things like Heroine's Quest.
Look what Gilbert or Schafer are doing now. Damn verräter...

 

[Boleskine]

(I feel terrible for posting that, but couldn't help notice how the guy with the best hair lost the most.)

 

[Jarpie]

-They think Disney bought Lucasfilm/arts soley for star wars and are unaware of most of Lucasart's back catalog, so they don't think old Lucas Arts games will be rereleased any time soon

God damn I hate these old men running these corporations with a burning passion. So much incompetence that I can actually tolerate socialists in this regard. They could actually make more money AND please the customers but they're too ignorant on the product they're selling to monetize any of these opportunities. Just think of all the great IPs that are being hold by big corporations who do fuck all with them, from Capcom and Sega to EA, Activision and all other cancerous giants of gaming that own many of the most memorable IPs from 80s and 90s.

The executives in big companies don't care about small profits, even if there'd be many products getting small(ish) products but a lot when combined...they all want/need a product what will bring in Teh Big Bucks because most of the times (if not all) their bonuses are tied on getting huge profits from (by pure numbers, not by percentage) one single product.

 

[Abelian]

-They think Disney bought Lucasfilm/arts soley for star wars and are unaware of most of Lucasart's back catalog, so they don't think old Lucas Arts games will be rereleased any time soon

An interesting thing is that Monkey Island had as inspiration the novel On Stranger Tides and the Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean park attraction. In turn, I read that the Pirates of the Caribbean movies borrow elements from the Monkey Island series (can't confirm, not having watched the movies) and one of the movies is actually called On Stranger Tides.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Look what Gilbert or Schafer are doing now. Oh wait...

Fixed it for you.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

The executives in big companies don't care about small profits, even if there'd be many products getting small(ish) products but a lot when combined...they all want/need a product what will bring in Teh Big Bucks because most of the times (if not all) their bonuses are tied on getting huge profits from (by pure numbers, not by percentage) one single product.

The money brought in from the back catalog wouldn't even begin to cover the daily wage of the people involved in organising it. It's a waste of money, and crabby shareholders might get bitchy if they see valuable personnel being wasted on pocket change projects.

 

[SCO]

-They think Disney bought Lucasfilm/arts soley for star wars and are unaware of most of Lucasart's back catalog, so they don't think old Lucas Arts games will be rereleased any time soon

An interesting thing is that Monkey Island had as inspiration the novel On Stranger Tides and the Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean park attraction. In turn, I read that the Pirates of the Caribbean movies borrow elements from the Monkey Island series (can't confirm, not having watched the movies) and one of the movies is actually called On Stranger Tides.

They bought the rights to the name and setting from Tim Powers, presumably to waste money since the title was cool, since they didn't actually use anything except it. Then again, On Stranger Tides IS about zombie voodoo pirates so whatever.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

They bought the rights to the name and setting from Tim Powers, presumably to waste money since the title was cool, since they didn't actually use anything except it. Then again, On Stranger Tides IS about zombie voodoo pirates so whatever.

It does seem counter intuitive that they wouldn't at least dump them on GOG. But, at the same time, Disney has its own massive backlog of characters, films, and TV shows that it does nothing with. A bunch of their cartoons from the 1980s and 1990s have never been released on DVD. So if they won't touch their own properties, I doubt that they will touch Lucasarts'.

I wonder how "Grim Fandango" is getting re-released, though? Did Lucasarts not own that? Or does Scheiffer just have that much pull?

 

[tuluse]

It does seem counter intuitive that they wouldn't at least dump them on GOG. But, at the same time, Disney has its own massive backlog of characters, films, and TV shows that it does nothing with. A bunch of their cartoons from the 1980s and 1990s have never been released on DVD. So if they won't touch their own properties, I doubt that they will touch Lucasarts'.

I wonder how "Grim Fandango" is getting re-released, though? Did Lucasarts not own that? Or does Scheiffer just have that much pull?

Disney has long believed in forced scarcity to drive up prices and sales.

 

[Abelian]

It does seem counter intuitive that they wouldn't at least dump them on GOG. But, at the same time, Disney has its own massive backlog of characters, films, and TV shows that it does nothing with. A bunch of their cartoons from the 1980s and 1990s have never been released on DVD. So if they won't touch their own properties, I doubt that they will touch Lucasarts'.

I wonder how "Grim Fandango" is getting re-released, though? Did Lucasarts not own that? Or does Scheiffer just have that much pull?

Disney has long believed in forced scarcity to drive up prices and sales.

Ugh, don't remind me of their habit of putting old animated features "in the vault" to make people stock up. On the bright side, I was a never a Disney fan, so it doesn't affect me.

 

[taxalot]

I've seen somewhere concept arts of a canceled Monkey Island movie/cartoon that was to be produced by Spielberg ; apparently, the guy who wrote the script ended up as a writer on Pirates of the Carribean.

Not sure what amount of this story is true, but I would not be shocked.