Hi. I'm Dan Borth of Red Fly Studio the creators of the cancelled Darth Maul game Ask Me Anything

Could you add in a bonus stage where you fight wave after wave of Jar Jar Binksis? Thanks.

i would vote for an easter egg where maul kills jar jar over and over

It could be an arcade-style mini-game called "Whack-a-Binks," only with a light saber instead of a mallet.

Sounds like a vapid mobile title to me. Would make billions.

"Gunga-Bunga"

You should work at Zynga.

No one really works for Zynga, though.

Get it? Because they're contractors who are abused? Haaaaa.

Lol

How about a cheat code that replaces the models of all humanoid enemies with Jar-Jars? It's the new Big-Head Mode!

And after you input the code, Jar-Jar's voice shouts "Oh no!". Picture it with the voice, it's good. I'll wait.

If this ever gets made I will make sure there is a mode for that.

I'm saving this post, and I'll hold you to it.

Please do - it will mean the game got made. Well worth the sacrifice.

Haha, this truly is my favorite AMA ever. Well done!

Thank you - I have never AMAed before.

BTW we are currently working on a full next gen demo of all things Maul to show to the powers that be. It's been a lot of work on our off time.

Can you elaborate on this?

We have been burning a candle for this game since it was killed in hopes we can get it turned back on again. IF that is to happen we need to approach EA with a demo that will impress them. I think we have that or are close to it. Still it is completely not up to us.

Seeing as it is a Darth Maul game, would it make sense to burn the candle at both ends? A sort of double ended candle?

Clever.

With the focus moving sharply away from the prequels do you think you realistically have a chance? Note how in battlefront and all movie material they're only linking these movies to the original trilogy. This is clearly a marketing move because the prequels were not great and that this movie is the true continuation of the cult story.

So have you considered reskinning Maul with another Sith / Jedi from 4, 5, & 6? Or a shift to episodes 4, 5 & 6 in any way?

That's a fair point. I don't know what are chances are realistically. I would say this helps them if there were any.

Hopefully EA will see the value in us reskinning our combat mechanic to be more in line with what they are thinking for Star Wars if they are not interested in maul.

I think it would really help you guys to sweeten the deal if you offered to setup a kickstarter to help fund development. Then contact the big gaming websites when it's up (Kotaku, IGN, GameSpot) asking them to do an article/interview about it with a link to the Kickstarter. As long as it's set at a realistic goal I am certain it will reach it and then some if you show clips of game play on the kickstarter page. Tell them they want have to pay for all the development this way. Execs care about money and risk more than anything. This way it's less money and less risk for them.

If they want dlc... I don't like paid dlc a lot of the time but EA loves dlc and they are the only Star Wars publisher and you'd likely have to do it anyway for them to say yes and I'd rather it have dlc than not exist at all so tell them you are willing to make dlc to increase their profit margins. Maybe an arena mode against troops and jedi/sith focusing on Saber combat and the dlc would be different playable characters for it with different combat styles.

Invoke Outcast and Academy and tell them there are many people still playing those games and people are thirsting for a good lightsaber combat deep game and this would fill a hole in their game plans. Plus Darth Maul is very popular and underused.

I would love this game so much I really hope it happens.

Sure it's a good idea but it's all up to the IP holder. "They" are usually against it because it it doesn't fund it will hurt the IP/Brand. "They" are usually for it when they are more concerned about the money.

There is already millions into the game. A crowd funding effort could put more in and then "hopefully" the risk would be lowered enough for them to Green Light it.

I think you should also consider trying to do a showing of this game on reddit.com/r/gaming

It's the largest video game subreddit on the website and I know for a fact a ton of Star Wars and video game fans are subscribed to that subreddit that aren't subscribed to this one. I've used Reddit for a good while and I'm a massive Star Wars fan/nerd and I only subscribed to the Star Wars subreddit about a month ago. I know there were a ton of people on there that were interested in this game but just thought it was dead. I bet you'd get tons of attention and questions if they knew you were trying to get it going again. Lots of professional game developers and artists on there too. I've seen some volunteer their help for free on occasion for projects like this

Also, certainly. I wasn't saying any of these were a for sure thing, just ideas for your team to consider bringing up to them or that might spring new ideas on how to help get it green lit. I really hope your teams time and passion pays off. If I could solely fund this game all by myself and get their approval I wouldn't think twice about it.

I think that is going to happen now for sure. Very good advice.

Just share it with /r/StarWars, they aren't as awful.

Will do

Hi there, how close to completion was it when the plug was pulled also would the game use clone wars maul lore?

We had really only started to get our footing. The story had gone through some of what they were doing in Clone Wars at one time as he was being paired up with Savage Opress. So yes at one time it was being slated for that time frame

How would the combat have been? There hasn't really been any game that handled lightsaber combat as well as the "Jedi Knight" games. With Maul being an excellent duelist I figured this definitely has the potential to be a really great game.

Anyways, thanks for doing this. I'd love to see this game being (finally) made.

Combat was a challenge but we settled on a reverse fear mechanic and combat that was similar to Arkham. In our story he rarely fought characters with lightsabers - those had to be Jedi and we had to explain who they were and Maul had to keep his existence a secret.

Me too.

Luckily its maul so he's have no problem killing some Jedi to keep his whereabouts on the down low

He has no issues with killing Jedi no.

So, without a saber, what would he fight with? Hand to hand combat? Different weapons?

The Jedi in question (forgot his name) used a wooden sword. Achieving a zen like mastery of the saber like none before him - he cast off the power of the saber. The story goes that he beat Maul soundly and then Maul constructed his staff saber and returned and killed him.

That's a story from the Dark Horse Tales comic books! The comic in question is called "Nameless," and the Jedi Siolo'urmanka (I can understand not remembering that one... bit of a mouthful).

yes that's it

Could we kill room fulls of enemies like in Force Unleashed?

it would be more like Maul to trap them and use something else like the environment around them to kill them while he watched.

That's sadistic. I like it.

Word

Man, I'm pumped for this! Regarding the situation you mentioned above, are you planning on having multiple ways to approach an enemy encounter? Or is it too early to say?

yes multiple ways

Surely part of his training would have had to include learning how to fight effectively in lightsaber duels though? It makes sense that he wouldn't want to be attempting to take out numerous random Jedi, but equally defeating Jedi is a skill he needs to have.

Of course. Sidious is on a par with the best Jedi when it comes to lightsabers.

Can you elaborate on the combat system? I would probably buy any game that included darth maul since hes my favorite villain in the star wars series. However the one/two button combat system that arkham has barely worked for it and lacks a lot of depth, even in arkham knight where they added more contextual button prompts the game got really boring after a couple hours...

Well the newest version of Arkham - Arkham Knight and Shadows of Mordor are much more complex systems based on the original. We would push towards more of that. Reverse fear and using the probe droid would - hopefully - make things less monotonous.

Hi! What timespan was the game going to have, and what were your plans to make Maul more fleshed out and relatable as a playable character?

Young Maul age 9 or 11 to right before Episode 1.

We wanted to show what he went through to become a Sith. Showcase the torture the Emperor put him through. Show how you as the player would have made the same mistakes and ended up a Sith.

You say that like being a Sith is a bad thing ;)

Well it's not really. The Jedi are incredibly flawed in their opinions on not getting involved but getting involved and spying on people and using their abilities to get what they want. They are just like the Sith but don't admit it - the Sith admit it.

The Sith are making game about the Sith. This is the main argument for EA, bring it!

Yes it's the perfect place for it!

I'm sure EA marketing loves this comment.

Don't worry about hurting marketing people's feelings. They have none.

I agree. Being a sith is not Inherently bad, and being a Jedi is not Inherently good. They simply embrace different aspects of the force, specifically the Sith use the power of passion to access the force, while the Jedi do not

Agree. Besides I would be a sith no problem

This sounds great, I love it when games flip your actions over and show you how flawed your logic was, or how easily manipulated you are as a player.

Reminds me of a part that I loved in The Witcher 3 where I was manipulated into helping a ghost kill someone because I was nïeve enough to trust her. No other medium can do this, yet not enough games get it right. In most other games, doing that would be treated as doing the 'evil' thing and my morality would get worse, but in the Witcher it was treated as me being nïeve and I should have known better. If you can get the player feeling like they got tricked like this, instead of deciding to go on an evil run of the game infamous style, then I think you're onto a real winner here.

Yes I agree completely.

Careful... Little annie skywalker didn't exactly do wonders for Darth Vadar.

True but he was void of character and function. Lucas had the story right in front of him. FREE Your mother who is a slave. Jedi council says NO. Anakin says "No fuck you. I'm freeing my mom and the rest of the slaves" plus you get to see Watto die. Awesome sauce and I'm 100% with Anakin at this point.

Playing as a young Maul you would (hopefully) feel his pain and rage as he was brutally exposed day by day by The Emperor.

That's a great idea. It also puts the audience in the very awkward position of defending slavery if they criticize. Anakin. The only scene in all the prequels that I really enjoyed was the operatic kill fest of him flying around the desert and reaping revenge. Good stuff. On the other hand, the most obvious story solutions are the ones that are rarely visible when you're writing.

Fair enough. I am not a writer.

What was the main reason for the game being cancelled?

Darth Maul is one of my favorite Star Wars characters and I would pay upwards of $100 for even a halfway decent game about him.

We were told multiple things really. After the fact we were told by those that were in the know it was because everything was being shut down for the Disney acquisition.

The Disney acquisition killed some number of games it seems

yes. 1313 as well.

Why did Disney have these promising looking games cancelled? Were you ever given a reason?

Again Disney has it's own ideas and uses it's own set of people/studios so it's not a surprise.

Hey! I saw your story as a feature in PC Gamer a while back. Is it true that when George Lucas came in to look at your game, he wanted Darth Talon to join him as a companion, even though they are almost 200 years apart in lore? Can you elaborate on how that was going to be solved in-game? I was always interested in this project (being a fan of the original Jedi Knight games). Sorry it worked out like it did.

There is still an interest in this kind of game in the market, especially something with competitive multiplayer value (Like JK2 & JK3 still has) Maybe you could come up with your own IP of laser-sword badasses?

We weren't against Darth Talon just didn't understand what she and Maul were doing teaming up.

Yes. Darth Talon was interjected into the story. From there the main character really wasn't Maul but was an heir of his that was basically just like him. We thought we could design that character to look different but that was not something they wanted.

In the GIF posted. Why was Darth Maul fighting Death Watch members who had multiple DARK SABERS? THERE IS ONLY ONE DARK SABER!

that was to demo our combat system it wasn't something we would ship with.

Do you ever get sick of explaining crap like this to fans?

I do not.

We all heard stories about George Lucas and his bad decisions that led to the fall of Lucas Arts. Is that true? How much Lucas was involved in the process of making this game, and how his decisions were perceived by the team?

We didn't meet Lucas for a while. I don't know to what extent all the decisions that led to some of the Lucas Art's failures were his. He employed a lot of powerful people and they were very, very risk adverse. Ultimately the final story Lucas wanted was "challenging" to say the least.

Hi Dan, cheers for the AMA

-Had you written any new characters for the game, if so who were they?

-Could you point to any released games as a comparison for how your game would play and feel?

-Big fan of Maul's extended arsenal; his speeder bike, drones, and the Scimitar. Were there any plans to pilot and utilize his tech in-game?

-Have you thought about turning to crowdfunding for support, as a demonstration of fan-interest to EA? Having just come off a partially indie-funded Star Wars fan project myself, I can confirm it's safe to do so with the property.

-Can Rancors reciprocate love?

Thanks again, and best of luck.

yes - we had tons of new Jedis (to kill) and bounty hunters plus new locations. When we moved into the story of Talon and Maul then we had a lot of new Sith to design. The story we came up with was that Maul was against the idea that there could be thousands of Sith warriors so he was completely against the new Sith. His allegiance with Talon was to benefit himself and get close to destroy them all. His character had to be an atheist about the Sith and lost his faith or a Fundamentalist about it and go back to the Rule of two.

We looked at Arkham a LOT. But also had a reverse fear mechanic that we felt was pretty interesting.

Yes! Utilizing his probe droids was a big part of his infiltration abilities and you playing as them was a welcomed break from combat. So it was completely puzzle driven: Shut this down, hack this computer, open this door, gather info. his Bloodfin was just a blast to play. We have that in unreal 4 now and it looks amazing.

You partially funded a SW project with crowd funding? We should talk - I NEVER thought that would be possible. IF that is possible we would certainly consider it.

Rancors are misunderstood.

I should clarify that the project I was a part of isn't something we're able to make money off of, according to the directors. We were able to fund the film and use the license without fear, as long as we didn't sell anything and featured the the right disclaimers.

What I'm thinking might work for you is what Koji Igarashi did with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, he used crowd funding as proof that there was enough interest in the project to get it fully funded/published.

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/243131/QA_Castlevanias_Koji_Igarashi_returns_with_new_game_Bloodstained.php

The details I received say that the game already has funding -- can you talk about the source of that funding, and why you are also going to Kickstarter?

KI: All I can say right now is that after over a year of talking with just about every publisher out there, I was able to secure funding for about 90 percent of the game with the condition that I prove the market still wants an Igavania game. Kickstarter proved to be a great solution, as it would (hopefully) show that people still want an Igavania game while simultaneously providing funds for the core game.

Well that makes sense. He had the permission of the IP holder. I can't imagine that would fly at Disney/EA but that is how a lot of games are being made now. If they would allow that we would certainly do it. I am confident we could get people interested if we could show off everything we have now.

Could you elaborate on the reverse fear mechanic? Sounds interesting.

And I fucking love Maul, I really hope this sees the light of day!

The reverse fear mechanic had Maul using fear to control opponents - you chose to drop down out of no where and behead a guard because you saw the rest of the guards were susceptible to fear so when you did that they would scatter and the AI would kick in. Some of them would run into walls and even wound or kill themselves. When you were trying to plot against opponents that was pretty tough you would not do that. They would stand their ground and engage so it would be better to pick them off one at a time. It really was a great layer to everything and fit his character completely.

Welp, if I wasn't sold before I definitely am now.

That sounds like a really cool gameplay mechanic. The thugs in Arkham are, except from what weapon they use, all the same. I really think this could make the enemies a little more diverse.

Thanks for replying and best of luck with getting this thing up and running!

Yes that is what we found we needed another layer and that was it.

Some of them would run into walls and even wound or kill themselves.

AI that straight up offs itself out of fear is so bad ass. Pretty sure that's never been done before, but I'm definitely no expert.

Advanced AI for enemies has done some of that before - maybe not to what we are talking about. But yeah.

Uh-oh. The plural of jedi is jedi not "jedis".

Gimme a break - I am typing a mile a minute with fat fingers.

Coypop - can you message me? Would like to talk privately on your indie funded SW campaign.

I just replied mate, hope the information helps

It does - thanks!

Q1: Was score recorded for this game? If yes, who composed it?

Q2: What we, Star Wars fans and gamers, can do to help you convince EA to support the project and release the game?

We never got that far score wise.

Well things like popular Reddit posts might help. As developers we don't have a lot of power to whether this gets made or not. Maybe a petition with a ton of signatures? Lol.

Can you UNcancel it?

I would press that UNcancel button harder than anyone if I could.

Step 1) Code an uncancel button Step 2) Finish coding the game Step 3) Profit

Profit seems far fetched in the game industry. We settle for just getting the funds to make the game.

What engine was this using? Bonus points for the decapitations by the way. That was one of my favorite things about Jedi Outcast.

We wanted Maul to be vicious and stealthy. Decapitations had to be there. There was talk about it actually being an M title. That was really cool.

Please release this as M!

I would vote for that if it were up to me

Wasn't 1313 supposed to be M as well? I feel like Maul's story would be the perfect place to display the grittier side of the SW universe.

not sure - 1313 was all over the place too

oh sorry - we were using Unreal 3 at the time.

Are there any plans to move up to UE4 if this game gets the green light?

yes everything we are doing is in Unreal 4 right now - it looks incredible

If resurrected, how would this game be handled? Would the original story line be changed? Will other famous characters be introduced?

Thanks for doing this.

I have no idea really. originally we wanted to stick with an origin story that had you playing a young Maul that was taken from his home by Sidious. EA owns the rights so they and Disney would have a say for the story.

Maybe post-TCW story? Darth Maul is still alive and it seems we won't know what happened to him in the near future... Maybe Disney is holding this story for a rumored Kenobi spinoff movie?

Possible. We have no window into that. I would still vote for an origin story. no one has ever shown what it takes to make a Sith Lord from A to Z. I think it could be very interesting.

Have you read the novel Darth Plagueis? While not canon anymore, it does have a Maul origin story that could be re-appropriated into a game to fit the new canon.

No but our original idea had the cut scene where Sidious killed Plagueis.

If you are still backing the idea of an origin story, i would strongly recommend it. It is a very well loved book and has the basics of a Maul origin story, while also allowing the freedom to expand where you see fit. It also explains the processes by which a master tortures his apprentice to make him a Sith. It is important to note that in the book Maul is being trained by Sidious while he is still an apprentice to Plagueis, and Plagueis isn't actually killed by Sidious until well into the events of The Phantom Menace. Because of this you can not only expand upon Maul's pre-TPM character, but you would have an opportunity to flesh out Plagueis in the new canon, something that fans would greatly appreciate.

yes very into that

no one has ever shown what it takes to make a Sith Lord from A to Z.

Wouldn't Vader qualify here?

Well i should clarify - no one has ever seen that as something that was intended. Anakin was good then turned bad. maul would start off intended to be a Sith

What would have been the final level or end of your game? Like a final Sith trial?

Maul is stranded on the outer rim and Sidious comes to tell him he has never been his first choice for a disciple. You get into a lightsaber battle with Sidious and he hands you your ass. You think you are going to die but he uses a training saber to fool you into thinking he was going to kill. You bite his hand and he loves it. This was established in the comics or books we didn't come up with it but thought it was amazing. That was your final test and after that you were a Sith Lord.

That sounds awesome and WAY more emotionally complex and nuanced and mature than most other games (not to mention movies). Did Lucas Arts balk at making the main character so young and the storyline so dark?

We never pitched it to him. We were excited to but never got the chance. He just pitched the story to us and did as commanded.

I give you infinite props for actually making the "Unbeatable final boss" so many games cop out on that, even though it is a great narritive device. I think too many devs/studios get caught up in it "making the player feel weak"

Some bosses you can't beat.

Hi!

Darth Maul has a total of perhaps 4-5 minutes of screen time in a film that was widely panned. The promise set forth in the trailers has been seen as a "total rip" by some. The fact he gets unceremoniously cut in half by a padawan after dispatching a skilled Jedi is... interesting.

Now to my question: Why the hell would anyone make a game revolving around this failure of a Sith?

Fair enough. Originally Maul was not supposed to die but Lucas decided to kill him once Christopher Lee expressed interest in being in a Star Wars movie. One of the reasons Count Dooku was just terrible. He was an afterthought. There was a lot of good books and graphic novels about Maul and his past that made him super interesting - at least to me. That's partly why IMO they made him a big feature in the Clone Wars. Which had him kicking Obi-Wan's ass and taking over Death Watch and ruling Mandalore while running a criminal empire that challenges the Emperor is hardly a "failure". Even some of the pre-Episode book fiction had him dispatching a blind Jedi that had retreated into a forest planet who had such lightsaber skills he stopped using it and only used a wooden sword. Plenty of good stuff to explore.

Who do I have to kill to get this game uncanceled?

I don't know but if you find out we can kill them together.

Count me in on that one, I know a great spot for a body(s). Its all nice and scenic, right in the middle of a new concrete pad being poured in a walmart parking lot.

let me privately message you about this.......

Was Lucas involved in the process at all? Does he 'get' video games?

He was more involved than I ever expected him to be. We met with him which was amazing for us. Lucas Arts used to be an amazing place for games but something happened when budgets kept rising and rising. He is a genius so yeah i think he gets it. But I don't think it's the most interesting thing for him.

question 2, do you have any sweet Darth Maul memorabilia from the game?

Me? Nah. I have a Lucas Arts termination letter.

What sort of things were you told that you can't do. Like killing main characters and such?

We didn't have any other than The Emperor. So were were free to create characters for Maul to fight and kill. When it moved into Darth Krayt's time frame then he was the new guy.

How the hell does the story jump 200 years?

that is the first question we asked. but we don't have to do that now

Did the Yuuzhan Vong play a role in this video game? Also, a video game involving the Yuuzhan Vong has the potential to be awesome.

No he didn't but that would be a cool character to explore for a game.

From the very short amount of gameplay I saw, it looked like the Batman Arkham games a little. There was a camera positioned off-right behind Maul as he was walking. Combat too looked like perhaps the character was able to quickly go between enemies with a similar counter system. Can you elaborate on what the combat would have looked like?

Yes it was very much like Arkham - since Maul was a Sith him jumping frantically from enemy to enemy felt fine. It would have been an extension of the Arkham style combat you see in those games and games like Shadows of Mordor.

First, I hope this game get's revived because it needs to be made!

Second, if the game get's revived, would you include a level where you fight a rancor, or would your love of rancors get in the way? ;)

There would be Rancors. Dathomir Witches riding Rancors.

Yesssssss. If I was an angel investor, I would invest in this project in a heartbeat.

Follow-up question: What do you think is essential for telling the character development of Darth Maul? What do you think drives him?

Well we would take your money. ; )

We felt that Maul could be a character that you cheered for because he was so ferocious. Like a wild animal. We didn't want to humanize Maul like "Dexter" but we wanted to explain what happened to him and you could see why he turned out the way he did.

Just show me where to donate!

I really like the sound of that approach and would have loved to experience it. Hopefully someday I will.

We don't have any place to donate lol - I wish we did.

What would it take to get the game made again?

We would need to complete our vertical slice of the game - a fully functioning complete portion of the game or as close to it as possible and put it in front of EA and also talk with Disney. EA has the rights to Star Wars on console and PC so it would be up to them to Green Light it. For them they would need to be convinced we could do the game and that it fit into their new vision.

In your opinion, why do you think so many people pan the prequels and all things related to it? Whenever I suggest to my friends that the Clone Wars were genuinely cool, I'm met with incredulity. Sometimes such a suggestion is also met with downvotes here.

Do you think it's a risk to work on a prequel game when so many companies are avoiding the subject these days? I've heard that Battlefront will be entirely OT.

Well I am one of those people that am not a big fan of the prequels. The Clone Wars started slow but really had some cool shit in it towards the end. Especially the Darth Maul stuff and how they treated Ventress.

I think if it is done right it would be great.

Any thoughts on a C3PO game? Possibly with ewoks and Jar Jar?

God I hope not. ; )

Hey Dan! Thanks for the AMA!

-Now that the Star Wars canon has been cleaned up, have the plans for the game's storyline been changed at all? Do you have more creative freedom?

-Who will ultimately decide if it gets resurrected?

-Can we expect other well-known characters to make appearances?

Thanks again! I really hope this game pulls through!

Well we are not actively making the game. We would like to talk to EA about resurrecting it and utilizing everything we have already made. It just sits on the shelf ATM. EA will decide if it ever sees the light of day. We were against showcasing well known characters. It was a problem with the rights anyway but we also felt doing that made the universe feel small and that was already happening with the movies.

If Lucasfilm owns everything that is Star Wars, how was there a problem with the rights in game created by LucasArts?

EA holds the game rights to Star Wars for console and PC.

I'm not particularly a fan of Darth Maul, but I am a fan of lightsaber combat where the saber actually cuts things rather than just having some wimpy damage number, which seemed to be the direction you were going for from the video we saw.

Was that, and is it still the case?

Yes of course. Things that the lightsaber touches hit the floor. We envision lots of parts.

Hey there. I'll be honest, I had never heard of the Darth Maul game. It seems like it was promising though. I do remember there was a bounty hunter game that was cancelled with the Disney acquisition, and there was a lot of disappointment because of it. So, my question is, where do you think Disney wants to take the Star Wars franchise? Why cancel games that, a least as far as I could tell, had their consumers' interest?

I don't know if I have the answer to that. I think it's normal policy to bury stuff rather than inherit it from another company. It's easier.

The little footage I've seen looks really really cool!

Is there any more you can share?

Best of luck, I hope this gets made, I might actually buy a console again to play it :)

I have new stuff. Possibly. yes.

Have you guys got anymore gameplay or even an alpha build that you could possibly show on a YouTube video or stream? Would be really interesting to get some developer commentary over it! :)

The answer is yes. We have lots lots more. Bloodfin prototype speeding across huge distances - probe droid prototype all working - graphics bar hitting a high mark. We would be very interested in showing that stuff. The only issue is we don't know if that is "ok" or not. I really don't have much to lose so -

If someone within the company just happened to send this stuff to a third party to showcase, they couldn't really do much ;) May catch enough attention that EA gets in contact :)

We have some roads into EA. They are very busy with battefront.

If the game was to be released when you previously planned it to, would you have continued the story with dlc or did you have other ideas for a game in mind?

DLC and full sequel

What advice would you give for someone wanting to become a producer?

Don't. It zaps soul credits.

So does working in a student nightlcub as a 27 year old, I need something else :P

QA positions are easier to get than producer slots.

Seriously start in QA the best producers and designers come from there

What could you do on next gen that you wouldn't have been able to include in the game before?

Tons of stuff graphically and processing wise.

There have been a lot of Star Wars games out there. How do you bring new content into a gaming generation that is so used to MMO and large world gaming with no end especially using content that has been so saturated?

My answer would be to infuse the characters with purpose and story. otherwise no one really cares.

Are you taking content from the sci fi series or creating new content for the character?

At times when it was in production at Lucas Arts it was both. If we ever turned it back on it would be determined by the license holder and Ip holder.

Hey. I just wanted to say that as a kid, I LOVED the Mushroom Men game. Any plans to do something like that again?

We did another one. No one bought that one either. Mushroom Men: Truffle Trouble on Steam. Third time is the charm I guess.

Did this game just become the force unleashed? They look the same sorta

No this was all after Force Unleashed. We worked on a Force unleashed but Lucas didn't want Maul to use a ton of Force powers. He also wasn't gifted with that as a character.

Hi Dan,

Just a quick question... What were your feelings after the game was cancelled?

Thanks!

I cried, put my hand through a wall and laid 40 plus people off - then went to get shitfaced.

Thanks for the answer. That must have been pretty crap.

It was very Brutal. To be THAT excited about something.

What do you mean by "resurrecting"?

We have been working on the game in our off off off time here and there in hopes that we could approach EA at some point with it and turn it back on.

Have you considered a Kickstarter to raise money to finish the Darth Maul game, which you could then release on any and all platforms you possibly can? Also, I haven't been keeping tabs on anything, so I don't actually know what you've tried.

Sure but again we don't own the rights. We would have to either:

A. Crowdfund the game with the knowledge that we do not have the license and hope that the amount raised would get EA/Disney's attention and they would agree to it. Possibly but highly unlikely.

B. Crowdfund the game with EA's blessing and statement that they would agree to the game if we raised X and become publisher.

B is the way to go. But it isn't without risk. One would think we would be somewhat a "special case" having been a third party group that passed due diligence with Lucas Arts (most specifically Lucas himself) which wasn't easy and there are huge portions of the game that are just collecting dust. Millions and millions of dollars of work. So who knows?

Trying to look up info on Red Fly Studio what comes up is a photographer. Have any links to your studio's info?

Our website got malewared recently. So it's down. You can tell this has been well thought out.

Let's say this project is okayed by the powers that be. Would you develop the game under EA, or would it be handed off to another developer?

Ultimately EA could pick another developer for this idea. I would probably kill someone. Maybe myself.

I saw a video on Reddit a few days ago and I couldn't believe it got cancelled because it looked amazing. My question is, if this got made then would it be canon and if so would it take place before or after the son of dathomir comic?

Good question. I love the Son of Dathomir!

I realize this story is/was not finalised, but what direction did you hope to go as far as good/bad is concerned? Not enough franchise follow a "bad" character with any kind of depth, and I would be interested to see a storyline that has you rooting for someone who is really pretty morally ambiguous.

Oh Maul was definitely BAD. An origin story would showcase his pain and growth into a Sith so you could understand it. Maul also has a code of combat so there is honor with him. We didn't want to Dexterize him (I trademarked that BTW) but we wanted to explain where he came from so playing the bad guy was ok. It's always better to play the bad guy IMO.

Any chance it could have been or hopefully will be Rated M/18+? Not only is maul awesome(only good thing from episode I) but I would LOVEEEE to see a mature Star Wars game with the lightsaber doing the damage it should.

yes agree - at one time there was talk about it being M. We thought that was a gutsy call and supported even though we knew the marketing people would never let it slide.

Hey Dan,

If you were to get the game going again, what part of maul would you focus on? Before or after Episode 1.

Are you building the demo in UE4 since it became free, or are you still using UE3?

Is there any other character or era of Star Wars you'd like to make a game out of?

I would still be into a Maul Origin story.

We are using Unreal 4.

Yes. I would try for some dark adventures of Obi Wan. A Lords of the Sith Mortal Kombat game where you play as one of the many awesome Sith characters would be sick.

How did you decide on making the game about Darth Maul? Did you have multiple ideas for what kind of Star Wars game you wanted to make?

We were never that lucky. We were approached after completing Force Unleashed 2 for the Wii.

I see. A stealthy Darth Maul game certainly would be a contrast to the rampage that is The Force Unleashed 1+2 ;)

yeah we worked on FU2 so we know how much different it is to that. Lucas also was very adamant about maul NOT using the force like that. Maul is more saber combat oriented. using the force like that is "cheating". He wants to use a knife instead of a gun and see the life leave your eyes up close.

Would the game have been similar to the Force Unleashed in that it was levels instead of an open world or was it due to be an open world game?

Our game was very story driven and definitely not open world. It was a clear accept mission infiltration/destroy target type of game.

• Was the story already fully written?
• If the projects get resurrected ( which I would like to, it looks good from wjhat I saw ), how is the story in your opinion ? Do you emphasize on it or putting more ressources on the gameplay and other stuff ? Where does the title have a place story-wise ? Would it be considered "Canon" by Lucas Arts ? Mainly, we only saw Maul in E1, where he didn't last a long time, then in Clone wars where he had his lower body replaced by some mecha tech. Would be nice to have some pre Ep1-Maul, but then I'm worried about the enemies he would face.
• What types of enemies you would face ? ( I guess this answer relies on the previous one too, knowing he wasn't supposed to be known by the jedi, the republic army wasn't really shown before the clone wars, Sith were kinda supposed to be nearly extinct ). Creatures ? Sith ? Jedi ? Droids ? Civilians ? Mercenaries ?
• If it gets resurrected and is successful in the end, do you have other things planned ? maybe other games on the same line as this one but featuring other Sith/Jedi maybe ? It would honestly be amazing if we get an Action line games featuring famous / original Sith.

No the story was not fully written.Pre-Episode I enemies could be anything from Black Sun mercs to jedi that left the order but are still "good". I'm interested in a fighting game similar to Injustice: Gods Among Us/Mortal Kombat that features Sith Lords.

The older jedi games were the first to make me realize how odd it is to just kill nameless enemies. Every time like 3 sith attacked me... those were 3 lifelong apprentices that movies / books should be made about and they just had no names and I killed them and moved on. I hope future star wars games don't treat the jedi/sith so casually like fodder.

Other thing that bugs me about most other star wars games is things devolving into hit points which makes no sense with light sabers. Basically any time a light saber touches an enemy human, that person should be out of the fight. No biological enemy should ever be a threat - even a charging animal should just be looked at with pity as it runs at you and cuts itself in half on your sword.

How will your game handle these things?

Agree. Our game had Maul as a "Glass Connon" he can die easily if he is shot or cut with a saber. Everyone he cuts with a saber is done unless he is making a point and trying to get information which we featured in the game.

When you said you wanted the game to start with Maul at age 9ish instantly thought of a "Fable" style story but more predetermined that you were definitely going to become a Sith. Would a fable style RPG be possible?

I am sure it would have but that didn't factor into our design. We wanted to tell a story about a sweet boy who became a monster and that had to be fairly linear.

What general changes do you think you'll have to make (if any) since Disney's acquisition? Do you think you'll have to tone down the violence?

Not sure. Since we have not talked to them about this I really don't know. marvel is experimenting with mature only content so I would love to get darker SW stuff.

Probably quite a bit but marvel is getting dark with Daredevil so who knows.

Are you seeing a difference in approaching Disney vs working with Lucasfilm proper to move forward in terms of openness, notes, collaboration, etc?

Best of luck to the team!

We would have to go through EA at this point. We could talk to Disney as well. We have not collaborated with either EA or Disney. I would have no idea.