Star Wars: Battlefront designer on the ‘daunting’ challenge of Star Wars combat

Above: Oh gawd! Who thought bipedal armor was a good idea!

Image Credit: DICE

GamesBeat: I notice with this game that, comparing it to Battlefield, there seems to be some simplicity in the controls and such as well.

Fegraeus: Well, it depends on what you mean by simplicity. The controls themselves, are, you know … I think most people who play first-person shooters would be quite comfortable. They’re what you’d come to expect from a game like this.

But when it comes to how we introduce systems, it’s quite approachable. We don’t throw too many advanced things at you immediately, we feel this is more about, “Hey! Just jump in and have fun!”

We aren’t going to require you to spend a gazillion hours in order to not be mocked by the Internet. [Laughs.]

At the same time, there is a lot of depth to be found on the other end of that scale.

GamesBeat: Hmm?

Fegraeus: I think the term “easy to learn, hard to master” is a term we’ve used throughout our development to describe how we want it to feel. Like, you should be able to jump in quickly, and you should be able to control things quickly, and you should be able to understand things quickly.

But, when you do, you also begin to see the facets and the layers that are there. You start to realize, “Oh! Oh yeah! I can combine those, and oh, that’s what happens!”

So, my hope is that most people feel like, “Yeah! I can get into this. I get this!”

But then, as they play, they will go, “Ok! Now, I see where this is going. I can develop here and here. I can do this in different ways.”

GamesBeat: So, I just want to clarify that I brought simplicity in controls up because I was playing the X-Wing tutorial.

Fegraeus: Yes.

GamesBeat: And I noticed that the controls automatically were not set like a normal flight stick. Up is up. Down is down.

Fegraeus: Right. It’s not set up like a simulator flight stick.

GamesBeat: And there was the lock-on situation. It didn’t seem like it mattered once I got lock-on. I mean, I still had to keep them on the screen, but once locked on, my bullets would track. I was thinking to myself, “Huh, I wonder if they did that to make it simpler for people to get in and start shooting opponents down?”

Fegraeus: The main thing is, actually, this is from being inspired by the films. When [Darth Vader] is chasing Luke in the trench, and he has that lock on thing that beeps, and when he has him he says, [in a menacing voice] “I have you now.”

So, we got inspired by that and wanted the same sort of feel. So, when you are in a TIE Fighter and you see this thing lock on like, “Doot! doot! doot! doot! doot!”

But, it also provides an easier time for the pilot. I mean, they don’t have to pixel shoot.

But, to your point, you still have to aim at them. You can’t lose them. Because if they just fly away, and you can’t keep your [crosshairs] on them, there’s no way you’re going to win that. You have to keep on them.

So, it is improvised for dogfighting.

Above: These dummies thought bipedal armor was a good idea. Watch this guy run right into this explosive that is flashing a bright blue light. Telling you man, the Empire is dumb.

Image Credit: DICE

GamesBeat: I didn’t notice a squad based kind of design around it like I saw in Battlefield. I also didn’t see something that said, “OK, you’re going to play this specific class.” That seemed to be something taken a little bit simpler as well. But maybe I haven’t played it long enough to see this evolve.

Fegraeus: What we have is more of a free-class creation in that sense.

I mean, yes! You can arrange certain things into certain pockets, so if you play this, you’re called something like that, and if you play this, then you’re called something like that. And it becomes what you call classes, and that’s great because it gives players a strategic option.

But, it’s also great to be able to create that yourself! And that’s what we’ve gone towards. We basically have these things that you can unlock and that you can then combine yourself and create your own play style.

I don’t know if you’d call that simpler or just varied or different. I think it’s very interesting how player agency will play into that kind of creation. I think that’s just one of those cool things that people will be able to toy with.

As for the squad thing, what we have is something called the “partner feature,” which basically means that, instead of focusing on a big chain of command, which is one way of doing it, we wanted to focus on you and your friend. So, it’s just you and your buddy in battle. We can fight for the good side, fight for the bad side, and this is your partner.

So, we have lots of features in the game that strengthen that bond. Like, you can use your partner’s unlocks even though you may not have them yourself. You can play the split-screen stuff with your partner, so on and so forth.

GamesBeat: [Cringe] What’s your favorite Star Wars movie and why?

Fegraeus: Oh! [Laughs] Yeah! I was just asked that!

So, I, of course, have seen all the … six Star Wars films. Although a seventh is coming. To me, Star Wars is a big thing. I like all the films, but my fondest memories are of course from when I was a kid and watching the original trilogy.

And I remember really falling in love with the first film. I was too young to see it in the theaters, but I watched it on VHS over and over and over again.

Then, the second and third film came out, and Star Wars became just this three-film thing for me. So, when it comes to finding my favorite one now, I think it comes down to The Empire Strikes Back. I mean, we’re comparing gold to platinum here, but to me, The Empire Strikes Back has this really nice arc if I were to put my professional hat on and analyze it from a movie perspective.

But, in my heart, it’s more about the greater adventures of Luke Skywalker and his friends.