A small Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic development update has arrived from Arcanaut Studios. To celebrate Star Wars Day on May 4th, KOTOR and Fate of the Old Republic director Casey Hudson made a Tweet to bring our attention to his studio’s new content on their website and staff working on the game.
Arcanaut Studios’ homepage has received a small visual and content update showing footage and photos of the developers working on the game. Plus, short videos of a few key staff members announcing their involvement in the project.
KOTOR Developers Return
Casey Hudson is not the only ex-KOTOR developer working on this new Star Wars game. Senior Technical Designer Dan Fessenden mentions in one of these videos how working on the original Knights of the Old Republic game felt like a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. He says he would never have believed to make this a twice in a lifetime thing” with Fate of the Old Republic. Other games he has worked on include Mass Effect and The Old Republic MMO. Fessenden is currently building the foundational tools and systems needed to make the game. This includes level design and gameplay.
“We have what we need to go on and create something special in this space.”
Casey Hudson
Another BioWare veteran with credits on three Dragon Age titles plus Mass Effect and The Old Republic is Melanie Faulknor. She is Fate of the Old Republic’s Director of External Development.
Next on the homepage list is art director Pascal Blanché. The artist had previously announced his involvement with this game back in March which we reported on here. Blanché is well-known in the game art scene for his fantastic pieces and work on Far Cry New Dawn and the Aquaman films. During one of three interview clips with Pascal, we can see footage from the game’s reveal trailer from a slightly different angle offering a new look at the characters seen in the game’s reveal. You can see that below.
“I think there is a possibility for us to push things a little further. I like to give our own flavour. Something that we have never saw before.”
Pascal Blanché
The game’s Director of Production and Performance, Caroline Livingstone is a long time BioWare staffer. Having worked on the original Knights of the Old Republic game and around 20 years at BioWare, she is bringing her experience to this new game.
“My goal every day is to come into work and ensure that there is no friction for the creatives. I want to unblock them as quickly as possible so that they can do the work that makes this game spectacular.”
Caroline Livingstone
Arcanaut Studios’ Chief Technology Officer is Ryan Hoyle. The CTO worked on KOTOR and Mass Effect at BioWare. During his short video interview, he explained that player choice is important to games; marking a shift from being a movie to “something bigger” but still being a cinematic experience.
Homepage Video Shows Development Work
The first video you see on the homepage gives us just a small glimpse of early work being done on the game. Its first shot shows a developer at a desk and a running animation on one screen.
Close-up shots of computer monitors show Unreal Engine 5 blueprints being utilised (the game was already confirmed to be running on this engine) and hologram style visuals.
Another has concept art/storyboards of a scene from the reveal trailer; the one where the Jedi ignites her Lightsaber.
We should not expect too much information to come out about this game for a while. That said, the game’s director Casey Hudson believes it will be out before 2030. What do you think to this information from Arcanaut Studios? Let us know down in the comments section below.
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