“It was kind of radically egalitarian. Almost all developers’ titles were ‘designer/programmer’ at Lucasfilm Games, and everyone was entitled to contribute.”
– Lucasfilm Games expat Chip Morningstar reflects on the studio’s unique culture.Now playing on the GDC Vault: Before LucasArts, there was Lucasfilm Games. From a small startup within a medium-sized (and very famous) film company, this group grew from 1982 to 1990 to become one of the most popular game companies of its day. It then morphed (a Lucasfilm term!) into LucasArts, which was acquired by Disney, and then shut down shortly after GDC 2012.In the early days, the company was known for experimentation, with early multiplayer games (Ballblazer), first-person games (Rescue on Fractalus, Koronis Rift), the first MMO (Habitat/Club Caribe), and of course, some well-loved graphic adventures (Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and more).This GDC 2014 postmortem featuring six of the studio’s earliest employees asks the questions, “What mix of creative and business forces shaped this early success story?” and “Could this kind of company be duplicated today?”It’s a great talk, so we’ve gone ahead and embedded the free video of “Classic Studio Postmortem: Lucasfilm Games” above. You can also watch it here on the GDC Vault.
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