https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-tales-from-the-galaxys-edge Get ready for an adventure on the planet of Batuu — in stunning virtual reality. Today, ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s award-winning immersive entertainment studio, announced that it is developing Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, a new action-adventure virtual reality experience, in collaboration with Oculus Studios. Coming later this year, the experience connects to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the epic new land at Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. “We are so excited for fans to step into Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge later this year,” said Vicki Dobbs Beck, ILMxLAB executive-in-charge. “This action-packed adventure not only speaks to the promise of connected and complementary experiences by extending the lore around Black Spire Outpost, it represents another meaningful step in ILMxLAB’s quest to transition from storytelling — one-way communication — to storyLIVING, where you’re inside a world making consequential choices that drive your experience forward.” Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, taking place between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and set on the outskirts of Batuu’s Black Spire Outpost of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, will give players the opportunity to live their own adventure and explore part of a galaxy far, far away in virtual reality. The original story will feature both new and iconic characters from the Star Wars galaxy with multiple styles of gameplay and difficulty settings to accommodate a wide variety of players, from Star Wars fans to VR gamers alike. Check out the official logo and concept art by Chris Voy from the experience below! “The rich storytelling in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has redefined what a Disney park experience can be, and we are thrilled fans will have an opportunity to discover new stories, meet new characters and explore new regions of the planet Batuu in Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge,” said Scott Trowbridge, Walt Disney Imagineering creative executive. “Now our guests can immerse themselves in these stories both inside and outside our parks.” Stay tuned to StarWars.com for more on Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge.
Totally cool! So, I guess between the recently announced Target Galaxy's Edge merchandise, the Galaxy's Edge Cookbook I have on my shelf, and now Batuu VR, we basically can have Galaxy's Edge at home. And for the home experience just replace Smuggler's Run with the Squadrons PC game and Rise of the Resistance with uh... other Star Wars games?
https://ew.com/gaming/tales-from-the-galaxys-edge-an-inside-look-at-the-new-star-wars-vr-game/ Spoiler 'Tales From the Galaxy's Edge': An inside look at the new Star Wars VR game Bobby Moynihan and Debra Wilson, two members of the Star Wars family, will voice main characters in a story based on the Disney Parks attraction. By their own accounts, it was a long, long time ago — not in a galaxy far, far away, but one called Disneyland park in California — that the team behind Vader Immortal, ILMxLAB’s hit Star Wars virtual-reality game, touched down at Black Spire Outpost, the setting for a new coming attraction at the time called Galaxy’s Edge. For years, they tossed around ideas about centering some kind of new project around a staple of Star Wars, the cantina. But, as senior producer Alyssa Finley remembers, a question remained: “How can we tell different stories in a single project and open up [the world]?” The answer came once Disney Imagineering began realizing a planet called Batuu for the next expansion of Disney Parks. Jose Perez III, who supervised the creation of Vader Immortal's lightsaber dojo, remembers feeling “fully immersed” in the Galaxy’s Edge experience upon immediate entry. “When you step in and you look around, I am here,” he says. "I'm not seeing a bunch of Disneyland stuff. I'm in a world in Star Wars” — an experience that naturally lends itself to the medium of VR. It was as if each small detail of the park attraction came with its own tale to tell. “What's up with the droid that's crashed in this bush over here? Who owns this Droid Depot? There’s all these crazy stories.” That's when the creation tale behind Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge, now directed by Perez, truly took off. ILMxLAB’s next VR game for the Oculus Quest takes the concept of the park experience and crafts fresh stories set in the canon of Star Wars. In EW's exclusive first-look concept art, some of those stories are starting to be told. Welcome to the world of Batuu The main narrative arc for the game, set after the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, "starts out in absolutely classic Star Wars style," says Finley, returning as a senior producer on Tales From the Galaxy's Edge. As a droid repair technician aboard a cargo ship, you, the player, crash land on the planet Batuu. "You got some stuff to do that leads to a conflict, and now the Guavian Death Gang is after you. Sorry about that," she explains. That name should ring bells. The Guavian Death Gang previously appeared on screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Those were the guys decked out in red mech armor, led by Bala-Tik (Brian Vernel), who accosted Han Solo, Chewbacca, Rey, Finn, and BB8 aboard a freighter carrying the Millennium Falcon. In Tales, actress Debra Wilson delivers an animated performance as Tara Rashin, leader of one of the gang's cells. Wilson is already a member of the Star Wars family, having portrayed Cere Junda in the video game Jedi: Fallen Order. Now, as Tara, she embodies a power-hungry space pirate. "She is, at the core, just very tormented and has a lot of these really dark issues," Perez says. The director describes the character's dialogue as "sinister, goosebump-y, freaky" which could come across as "jokey" in another actor's hands. Wilson "was so pumped up" for the role, he recalls. "It was just like, 'I've got to be a thousand percent, we've got to take this further.'" Speaking to their collaboration with the writers in forming this story, Finley offers a glimpse into how some of these recognizable names and figures found their way into Tales: "You need an antagonist to run into who would be cool. 'Oh, the Guavian Death Gang would be cool!' And then we bounce it around. We have weekly meetings, if not more often, sometimes with the story group. How can these stories collide? What could bring Tara to Batuu? What could she want? Why would she go to a place like Batuu to get it? And then you work through that." With the dark also comes the light. It's about balance, as is everything in the world of Star Wars. Enter Seezelslak, voiced by Saturday Night Live's Bobby Moynihan — who, too, already has roots in Star Wars. He voiced Orka in the animated TV series Star Wars Resistance, and now plays the six-eyed bartender (well, he lost one eye, so technically five) of Black Spire Outpost's signature cantina. (Another fun connection to the larger universe, Seezelslak is an azumel, the same alien species seen around Lando Calrissian's gambling table in Solo: A Star Wars Story.) He's always willing to share stories with his patrons, each "tale" taking players to a different part of the Star Wars timeline where they'll see more familiar faces from canon. "We were at Star Wars Celebration doing a Vader Immortal thing," Perez says. "We had a bunch of booths there and Bobby came through. He's like, 'Just let me know how I can play with you guys. Just let me in somehow.' When we started talking about Seezelslak, we wanted somebody who could be really funny, but also could have a heart. It's not just all jokes. There's a fully realized character there, and Bobby just had all the right things." Moynihan also came equipped with bartending experience. While reading through the Tales script with the team at Skywalker Ranch, he made it known that he worked in a bar before making it on NBC's famed late-night sketch comedy series. "He immediately was talking about little bartender tricks. He may have this coaster thing. I can't even do it," Perez says. "It was some weird flip. Just knowing that he actually lived a life like that as Bobby Moynihan, he was able to bring a lot of ideas and fun, little anecdotes." Venturing beyond Black Spire Outpost Tales holds a lot of potential for Disney Parks. For those financially unable to travel to Disneyland in person, this game can offer a taste of that experience at home. Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic remains an overwhelming stresser, it can also offer something similar for veteran park-goers who may not feel comfortable making that in-person trip. At the same time, Perez doesn't see their project as Galaxy's Edge, the game adaptation. "We want to tell all the stories that you don't get in Galaxy's Edge," he says. "If you really want those exact stories, if you want to build your lightsaber at Savi's Workshop, you should go to the physical [park]. We don't want to just replicate something that you can get in real life. We want to build on it and make something that's new and unique." What they made is a planet riddled with pirates, which at times makes the wilds of Batuu a treacherous terrain. As Finley notes, you can now actually die in the game and there are multiple difficulty levels. With help from Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm, ILMxLAB digitally scanned the entire environment at Galaxy's Edge, using specific details to then expand into a fully-realized planet. Perez points, specifically, to Droid Depot, an attraction at Galaxy's Edge that they turned into "a really amazing" virtual space for the game. "Obviously, we're saying [the protagonist] plays a droid repair technician. So, many great ideas spun out of that space alone. I think it's going to be really cool to see how it plays in [Tales]." "We get to work with the same concept artists that they use for all of ILM and for Lucasfilm," Finley notes. "We have these incredible artists who are drawing out the scenic vistas, imagining what the spires look like... You throw out two words: 'What if there were tree roots?' And then, all of a sudden, you get a space that is intertwined with the ancient tree roots and the story of the entire space starts to be realized." Because of their connection to Industrial Light & Magic, the VFX division of Lucasfilm, Perez also says they could "literally take those assets" from the movies and park attractions, like the Falcon-inspired Smuggler's Run at Disneyland, and transpose them into their game. "You can't get more authentic." Making a game in quarantine The team, clearly, had many ideas to throw at the wall, like their virtual game of Space Darts. Executing those ideas, however, presented new challenges none of them were anticipating. When the global coronavirus pandemic began to spread rapidly throughout the U.S. in mid-March, ILMxLAB, like most other companies with work-from-home capabilities, moved the team out of their studio space to operate remotely. Completing a game that required motion-capture and facial-capture under these conditions initially felt crippling. "When we intellectually considered it, it always seemed like that’d be way too hard. 'No, no, that would never work because we need to look at each other all the time, because we need to play together,'" Finley explains. "I think what happened is the necessity of doing it got past the intellectual objections. It's like going into the pool in the deep end. You find ways. It's not the way you’re used to and it’s not the way that you think is gonna be perfect, but it’s the way that actually works." The situation proved to be a creative problem-solving exercise. Moynihan needs to record a facial performance as Seezelslak? Great. They got him a personal at-home camera setup, tricked out with the circular ring light typically seen in YouTube beauty tutorials, while Perez directed the actor over Zoom. The team needs to log a full-body motion-capture performance? "We've got one person who’s running the whole stage and doing the whole thing for this particular project," Perez says. What about the animation process? "The Quest is a huge advantage," Finley remarks of their Oculus gaming system. "You can carry it with you wherever you go." "It was one of those things where we were just going to have to make it work. And it did," Perez adds. "We were definitely a little worried about it. There were talks about, maybe we’re going to have to animate this, but let’s capture it anyway. [Since] we started working with the technology, it’s working pretty well." Now, with the game scheduled to be released sometime later this year — a date has not been announced — Finley mentions they are at "the best and the worst stage of development." That would be the point of fine-tuning. "We've got the experience built out," she says. "So, the time we have now is to play it, to feel it, to go, 'This could be better. That's broken. This isn't working. This is amazing. More of that.'" Until that happens, we'll have to put a bookmark in this Star Wars tale.
What in the world happened to HTC Vive support? That's what I have yet Vader VR came out on Oculus (I think it can be emulated on Vive though). Star Wars VR has turned to the dark side of business monopoly.
If Moynihan's character is the framing narrative and they plan on telling ST-era stories that could make him the new post-ROS bartender.
https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-tales-from-the-galaxys-edge-interview Spoiler From the lightsaber-wielding fun of Trials on Tatooine through the intense, story-driven Vader Immortal, ILMxLAB has continually pushed the boundaries of experiential storytelling in virtual reality. (And, let’s face it — seeing Darth Vader walk toward you is just kind of awesome.) Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge looks to be the next leap forward, bringing Star Wars fans to Batuu — the world seen in Disneyland® Resort and Walt Disney World® Resort at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — where they’ll encounter barkeep Seezelslak (played by Bobby Moynihan) and be transported to different eras of the saga through his stories. Today at Facebook Connect, ILMxLAB pulled back the curtain just a little further on Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, debuting a new teaser along with some major reveals: Anthony Daniels will reprise his role as the iconic C-3PO, Yoda is set to appear, and the experience will release this holiday season. StarWars.com caught up with Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge director Jose Perez III to discuss the origins of the experience, featuring ol’ goldenrod himself, and more. StarWars.com: I love how Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge is a multi-layered experience: you’ll get to explore and have adventures on the outskirts of Black Spire Outpost in VR, while at the same time, engaging in all of Seezelslak’s stories. How did the concept come to be? Jose Perez III: Obviously, we LOVE Star Wars here at ILMxLAB, and we really wanted to create something that would allow us to freely explore this multifaceted universe George [Lucas] created over 40 years ago. So we developed a structure for our story to fictionally support the idea of jumping between different eras in the Star Wars galaxy. That’s where Seezelslak and his tales come in. He tells such great stories, you will literally be transported to other places and eras as you live out these adventures first hand. This structure allows us to play with different mechanics and tones as we dig into future tales. So we had our story conceit but we needed a place to ground it all, and Batuu was an obvious choice. We came away from our first visit to Galaxy’s Edge incredibly inspired. Black Spire Outpost is rich with characters and legends yet to be unveiled to the public. It was ridiculously exciting to think about how we could expand the story of Black Spire Outpost while bringing Star Wars adventures to a new medium. StarWars.com: Usually in Star Wars VR or gaming, you’re building worlds based on movies or other media, and you’re limited to the reference available to you. But here, Black Spire Outpost actually exists at Disney Parks. What difference did that make in bringing it to life for Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge? Jose Perez III: Being able to stand in a physical version of Star Wars was incredibly helpful. The ability to absorb the atmosphere of the land was super informative. In our experience, players will actually spend their time in this adventure on the outskirts of Black Spire Outpost. Building out these new areas of Batuu was an incredible challenge that our artists tackled head on and with a lot of enthusiasm. We were very lucky to have a physical world we could reference from an art and story perspective, and I think it really solidified the project as a whole. StarWars.com: Today we learned that Anthony Daniels will play C-3PO. To your mind, what does having his performance add to the experience? Jose Perez III: Threepio is one of the most iconic characters in the Star Wars galaxy. He’s one of the first characters you see in the original trilogy. Having Anthony bring his experience and energy to the game has been a dream come true. He really elevated our project with his deep-rooted understanding of C-3P0 and his fun-loving attitude and kindness. Having the real Threepio just makes everything feel more Star Warsy. StarWars.com: And what can you tell us about C-3PO’s role? Jose Perez III: Without giving away too much, you are working on a ship that is “transporting” Threepio to Batuu when shenanigans ensue. The ship crashes and Threepio is really broken up about it. So it’s up to you to help him pull himself together and accomplish his top secret mission for the Resistance. That’s all I’ll say! StarWars.com: You also teased that Yoda will be in Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge. I know you probably can’t say anything about it, but…tell us ONE thing. Please. Jose Perez III: In Vader Immortal, we let you stand next to Darth Vader. It was terrifying. In Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, when you stand next to Yoda, THE Jedi Master, it is powerful and a little heartwarming. I’m super stoked for all the fans to experience that. StarWars.com: Finally, VR is still a new form of storytelling for Star Wars. What do you think VR offers to Star Wars that traditional media cannot? Jose Perez III: VR is by far the most immersive way to experience Star Wars from your living room. Being able to stand directly next to these iconic characters, explore the galaxy from any angle, battle enemies with one-to-one motion controls, and be a character in the story yourself was simply not possible before virtual reality. It’s really its own thing. It’s pretty wizard.
https://www.starwars.com/news/tales-from-the-galaxys-edge-trailer-interview Spoiler The new Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge trailer just dropped, and it has us even more excited for the ILMxLAB virtual reality experience. Not only will we be interacting with C-3PO, R2-D2, and visiting the cantina of barkeep Seezelslak, but we’ll also get to work alongside Droid Depot proprietor Mubo and, in an all new standalone story (known as a Tale), encounter the famed Jedi Master Yoda with Frank Oz reprising the role. The immersive experience offers a whole new way to explore the world of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland® Resort and Walt Disney World® Resort, and discover what exactly happens past the boundaries of Black Spire Outpost. With the November 19 release date quickly approaching, StarWars.com spoke with a few Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge creators, including director Jose Perez III, producer Alyssa Finley, lead experience designer John Nguyen, and lead experience designer Ian Bowie to learn more about just what we can expect. StarWars.com: The new trailer gives us a ton more insight into what exactly our journey will be like when we step into Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge. How did you approach the multilayered storytelling while ensuring that everything was connected in a realistic way? Jose Perez III: We always knew we wanted to tell a story that was anthological in a way. We always knew we wanted a bartender that was going to tell you stories that you would be transported away to. The big reason for that is we’re huge Star Wars fans and it gives us the opportunity to play in all the different eras in Star Wars, which is really exciting for us. I love the prequels, sequels, original trilogy, I love it all. I think that love and appreciation was something that was deeply rooted in our approach from the beginning. One thing that became clear very quickly was that we needed some kind of story that was pulling us into that cantina in the first place and firmly grounding us on Batuu and in Black Spire Outpost, so that’s where the droid repair technician story came in. We felt that we really wanted to use that as an opportunity to introduce all these new characters that are already being talked about in the parks and are going to become a bigger part of the Star Wars galaxy. Alyssa Finley: It’s all about that experience of being able to go to a cantina and pick what you want to do, whether it’s talk to the bartender and hear a story or play Repulsor Darts. [Laughs] We’re giving you freedom in this world, you’re not on rails, you can move around, explore, and pick the mission you want to be on at any given moment. I like that kind of storytelling, I like to be a little in charge of my destiny and where I want to go. That’s what I’m most excited about. StarWars.com: The trailer also gives us a peek at a new character, Tara Rashin. What can we expect from our interactions with her? John Nguyen: Tara is the main baddie in our story. She’s a leader in the Guavian Death Gang, which is doing some nefarious and pirate-y stuff. In classic Star Wars fashion, you’re thrust into one of their heists, you’ve got something that she wants and you’ve got to defend what’s right and good. You’ll be facing off with her throughout your experience on Batuu leading you to very big and fun confrontations at the end. She’s a very interesting character that we loved so you may be seeing her around quite a bit. Jose Perez III: [Tara Rashin actor] Debra Wilson is such a powerhouse. When she came in to do the voiceover, she already knew what she was going to do and just killed it. She can get very dark in the way that she’s talking and it’s very creepy at times. She makes an excellent antagonist in this story. StarWars.com: It seems like there is also a ton of new gameplay in this experience. Can you tell us a bit more about what kind of activities we’ll be doing or mechanics we’ll be utilizing? Jose Perez III: The really interesting thing about Tales is that it allows us to explore a bunch of different mechanics because of the way we’re approaching our storytelling. For the droid repair technician, there’s a heavy focus on being a droid repair technician. [Laughs] You have this cool [item], we call it an “all kit” tool that has fusion torches, little zappers, and a hydrospanner. It’s got all these great capabilities that allow you to do things like slice open consoles so that you can get into those things and mess with them. Within that story, there are also things called training remotes, which can be seen in a lot of the films. As a droid repair technician, you’re able to carry those around with you. There are several different types that have different functions. There are some that you can throw up in the air and they help fight alongside you. They all have some special features that are really cool. On top of that, there are blasters that are used throughout the droid repair technician story — you’re going to be using a lot of those. So we’re covering a lot of fun Star Wars fantasy things within that particular story. In the Tale it’s all about the Force and lightsabers and dealing with the darkness as a Padawan. Just off the bat, in Part I we have some really interesting mechanics that we’re playing with. For Part II we can’t say too much about it, but we’re already expanding out into completely new areas and functionalities. Ian Bowie: The really cool thing about these mechanics is how they allow you to traverse Black Spire Outpost in a way that you haven’t been able to before. When you step into the park, you see those huge spires and get the sense that adventure is out there. Now, you’re given the opportunity to actually venture out into the wilds and experience that adventure. With the tools that you have as a technician, you’re able to take on pirates with the training remotes or use the hoverpack to explore spaces you wouldn’t have been able to on foot. Getting to use these droid technician repair tools in different creative contexts is really very cool. StarWars.com: How have learnings from past VR experiences influenced how you approached incorporating the lightsabers here? Jose Perez III: We took a lot of what we learned with Vader Immortal and the lightsaber dojo and took those same mechanics and brought them over to Tales. If you’ve played Vader Immortal, then you understand the core mechanics of it. The big difference here is that we’re wrapping a clean story around that action and I think that’s really what we’re focusing on with the lightsabers here. It’s not about trying to do cool combat, we’ve done that already in the dojo in Vader Immortal, now it’s really about the storytelling and how we pull you through the experience. John Nguyen: We want it to feel familiar to our players, it’s a big part of Star Wars, so it’s something we cherish quite a bit here at xLAB. So the story is really the new thing here, you get to experience the mechanics through new eyes, which is different from your experience in Vader Immortal. We’re showing what a new lightsaber experience could be like. StarWars.com: This seems like such a perfect activity: you get to travel to a new world and have new experiences all from home. What do you find so exciting about VR and what it can offer? Ian Bowie: The transportative nature of VR is something that I step into every day. With everything we’re doing right now to be safe as a society, VR allows me to go out and meet people, to go out and experience things right now that just aren’t safe or possible. Being able to actually feel like I’m in the Star Wars universe with VR actually shares a lot of similarities with how it feels to walk into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. It’s a feeling that people who have been to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge understand and to be able to have that same experience at home, and to be able to step back into it any time by putting on the Quest headset, that’s something that I absolutely love about my job. Every day I get to walk up and interact with all these characters that were such a big part of my childhood and creative development. Being able to access it anytime at home is just absolutely fantastic. Alyssa Finley: I really miss going places with people and I think one of the things that the Quest headset provides you is this sense of immersion — the idea that I went to a place and I did something. And then you get to talk to other folks that had the same shared common feeling of an experience. Especially in these days it’s really vital to have ways to get out of your head and your video conference call and “go” somewhere else for a change. [Laughs] John Nguyen: VR is such a powerful transformative medium. Some days I’m here in my home, playing video games on a tiny screen and then others, I’m jumping into VR. The fact that you just jump into the Star Wars universe and you’re having a conversation with Seezelslak, it’s great. Right now, I really only talk to my wife every day and my co-workers, but that’s all on 2D screens. [Laughs] It’s just such a different sort of feeling, being in VR and having a character respond to you and your movements, and you get to be a part of their story while they also become a part of your own story. Jose Perez III: Black Spire Outpost is a real place, it exists right now. So the story we’re telling in Tales aren’t covering what you do when you usually visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, like building a lightsaber or going to Oga’s Cantina. We’re trying to build out stories that are on the outskirts, that bleed in and expand that world. For me, it’s really exciting to hang out in Seezelslak’s Cantina and look out the window, see the Falcon, and know that I’m going to be able to go back there at some point, but right now I’ve got another job to do. I’m going to go out to Batuu and do my droid repair technician jobs and know that when I’m done with all of that, I’m going to go back to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in the Parks and all these new stories will be in my head. I’ll know who Mubo is, I’ve hung out with him. We want to give people another medium to experience Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in the meantime, and then when you do return to Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World Resort, it’ll be an even richer experience because of the stories that we’ve told. Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge arrives November 19 on the Quest family of headsets.
https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-tales-from-the-galaxys-edge-introduces-yoda Spoiler It’s only been a week since ILMxLAB revealed that Frank Oz is reprising the role of Yoda in Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge and this morning we learned even more about what we can expect from this story with the release of a never-before-seen trailer. As told by barkeep Seezelslak, players will experience the tale through the eyes of young Padawan Ady Sun’Zee as she joins Yoda in exploring a mysterious Jedi temple on Batuu. StarWars.com gathered director Jose Perez III, producer Alyssa Finley, and lead experience designers John Nguyen and Ian Bowie on a video conference call to gain some insight into the all new tale and this first installment of Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge. StarWars.com: We now know that Frank Oz will be reprising his role of Yoda for this project. What was it like getting to work with him and hear that voice again? Jose Perez III: It was so boring. [Laughs] No, it was awesome — that was surreal childhood dream stuff. From the second Frank showed up, he had a commanding presence, it was truly like having the wise master in the room. He immediately started quizzing us on things like, “What do you think Yoda is all about?” or “What’s one word that you think encompasses Yoda?” It was really interesting to go around the room and hear everyone’s responses. I thought Frank’s response was really beautiful: for him, the character was all about the struggle — the struggle of being old and wary and living through generations of battles, constantly pushing for the right thing. There’s something really beautiful about this idea that it’s not always easy to do the right thing. That manifests in Yoda, in the way he walks and talks because that’s something he’s always doing, striving to do the right thing. StarWars.com: Did Frank have any input on the dialogue? Jose Perez II: We would talk through every line, some for half an hour. We really dug into the subtext about what we were really trying to say. Yoda’s character has a lot of weight and history to it so we needed to make sure we’re staying as true to that as possible and Frank was there to make sure that was happening 100%. He was also just really excited about seeing it all in VR and getting to be a part of these new technologies that we’re playing with. StarWars.com: How did you approach bringing Yoda into the VR world? What changes did you make to the character design? John Nguyen: Yoda is so much smaller in VR when you’re standing there with him than you imagine when you see him on the 2-D screen. [Laughs] It’s just great fun to get to be in VR and see and look at Yoda. He has such a commanding presence no matter his size. Hearing him talk with Frank Oz’s voice, he has such a Yoda-ness about him. He could speak for however long and you’re just standing there enamored with him because he has such a presence. He’s your mentor through this tale and it’s really great to get to experience that mentor/Padawan relationship with him. Jose Perez III: From a pure character design perspective, we’re trying to make sure he matches the era that the tale takes place in. So we really dove into all the source material we have at Lucasfilm and ILM, going back to all the original films and talking with Frank about what the essence of Yoda is and bringing all of that into these new headsets. John Nguyen: Oh, also his ears waggle when he walks. [Laughs] Jose Perez III: There was too much waggle at one point and someone that had worked on the prequels mentioned that they also had the same issue. StarWars.com: What can we expect from our interactions and relationship with Yoda as Ady Sun’Zee? Ian Bowie: It’s very interesting to compare the mentor relationship with Yoda to the relationship in Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series. In that experience, you have Vader as a teacher and mentor so with this new tale, you now see the two different ways you can basically bring someone up in the Force, which is something very cool for our players to experience. Vader has a very different teaching style than Yoda does, and the two different vibes give you a much more complete picture of the Force and what it’s like to be brought up in the light side versus the dark side. Jose Perez III: That was something that definitely influenced our thought process going into this tale. We just told this very dark story with the ultimate evil so what if we flipped that? However, even though this is about the Jedi, there’s still a lot of darkness as with any Jedi story. Alyssa Finley: You’re also playing a very different character in this tale with Yoda. You’re a young Padawan who’s not yet sure of their powers, who really needs to learn about what the Force is. You’re unsure of yourself. Part of the story we get to tell within the Yoda tale is a story of self-discovery and figuring out a little bit more about what the Force means to you. That’s what was really exciting to me about this project, the idea of taking a totally different perspective within the Star Wars VR world. StarWars.com: Part II is slated to be released in early 2021. Anything you can tell us about what we can look forward to? Alyssa Finley: The biggest goal for Tales is to tell a series of stories that give you new and different views into the Star Wars world. Whether it’s learning about what it’s like to leave the boundaries of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as you know it in the park or jump into a tale about Yoda that you haven’t heard before. In the long term, we just have a lot of new stories that we’re super excited about telling. Ian Bowie: Yoda is just the beginning when it comes to the stories that we’re going to be telling. One of the great things about having Seezelslak tell these stories to the players is that we get to jump around to different locations, different times in the Star Wars universe, which allows us to branch out and explore so many different characters and some really cool mechanics in VR. You’ll meet characters that you’ve never seen in VR before. Yoda is just kicking things off. Like any Star Wars fan knows, there are millions of characters out there that we want to meet. Tales is the perfect opportunity for us to go around and show the audience these different characters, experiences, and stories, which all offer different lessons and holistic experiences that have amazing payoff within this specific medium. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-vr-story-lets-players-train-under-yoda Spoiler The 'High Republic' initiative debuts with the first 'Tales from Galaxy's Edge' title. Star Wars fans have even more reason to be excited about next month’s launch of Star Wars: Tales from Galaxy’s Edge than they knew. The first VR story in the anthology series centered around the Batuu cantina belonging to Seezelslak will also be the first chance the public will have to visit The High Republic, the new era of Star Wars publishing that launches early next year. In the first installment of the VR series, Temple of Darkness, players will be transported hundreds of years before events in the Star Wars movies to see the Jedi in their prime, and become a padawan of none other than Yoda himself, as the two investigate a mysterious temple overrun by… something. "It's thrilling to see the era of the High Republic expand beyond the printed page, especially with regard to Master Yoda,” Lucasfilm Publishing creative director Michael Siglain told The Hollywood Reporter. “Whether you're experiencing Tales from the Galaxy's Edge or reading about his exploits in [IDW Publishing’s upcoming comic book series] The High Republic Adventures — as well as some of our other books and comics in this era — fans will experience Yoda doing what he does best: teaching Padawans as only Yoda can." Two pages from IDW's The High Republic Adventures make their exclusive debut below, showing the young Yoda in action. Temple of Darkness is just the beginning for both Tales from Galaxy’s Edge and The High Republic, with both continuing through 2021 and beyond; Tales from Galaxy’s Edge will continue to allow fans the opportunity the visit multiple locations — and eras — in Star Wars history with new VR installments, while The High Republic begins its ambitious publishing program in January with the release of Charles Soule’s novel Light of the Jedi. Frank Oz, the Star Wars legend behind Yoda, gave the team his input on the character, with his tips helping them rethink the way they were portraying him. THR talked to Lucasfilm franchise content & strategy VP James Waugh and Tales from Galaxy’s Edge director, ILMxLAB’s Jose Perez III, about Temple of Darkness, bringing the VR and publishing worlds together. James, I want to start with you. I mean, Tales from Galaxy's Edge as a whole is a really exciting thing — I know that everyone in Star Wars fandom is really excited about it — but doing something with The High Republic attached feels even more so. When did this idea to bring both of these together come up, and how did it get started? James Waugh: Early on, Kathy [Kennedy, Lucasfilm president] was always pushing us to look at things differently. Right now we do a lot of publishing connected to movies — you know, we do the Rogue One movie, and then there's the Rogue One novelization, and the prequel, and these definitely have an effect, and they're powerful in the sense that they connect dots and go deeper [into the mythology]. We were talking a lot about, could we explore a whole new space in publishing? Could we craft characters in publishing that could permeate other spaces in the future? So we, we ended up going to the ranch, which is where all good things start (Laughs) and we got an amazing group of writers together. We spent like almost a full week just talking about what we would like to see in Star Wars. What are we missing in the franchise right now? What type of adventures do we want? We kept coming back to the phrase from Obi-Wan from the original Star Wars: "For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire." That was the moment where we realized, we've seen the Clone Wars, when they are at the end of that, and we've seen all these other spaces where, you know, the myth of the Jedi is there, but we've never actually seen that era where the Jedi are who we've always heard they were. So we wanted to really dig into that — that's really where The High Republic started. As far as like how it connected to Tales From Galaxy's Edge, it was really early conversations with Jose and the xLAB team. We thought this could be an amazing opportunity — that it is a time that could do new things and give these developers a lot of space that was fascinating, new, and exciting. It was a really fluid process of, we're developing the publishing, and at the same time, we're developing the xLAB experience, and these things inevitably inform each other. Jose, you want to add to that? Jose Perez: Coming off of Vader Immortal, and playing with the lightsaber there, we knew we wanted to expand on it [in future VR releases]. At first, we were kind of skirting around the idea of maybe some Clone Wars stuff, but you just, there's so many stories that have kind of been told there. When James and Matt Martin and those guys started talking about The High Republic and opening that up, it was just crazy exciting for all the things that he's saying right now — the freedom to tell a story about the Jedi when they're at their peak, and what are the struggles that they're still dealing with, even when they were the guardians for all that time? I want to delve into that, because Tales from Galaxy's Edge is, as is obvious from the High Republic setting of this particular tale, set at different points across the Star Wars timeline, contained within this one particular anthology framework. What was the conversation around that idea, especially following up on Vader Immortal, which told one linear narrative? Perez: The genesis of the idea for Tales was that we wanted to build a story structure that would allow us to explore all the different eras of Star Wars. At the point when we started it, we talked about, you know, we've got the original trilogy, we've got sequel trilogy, we've got the prequel trilogy. We already knew that we would have this bartender working at a cantina in Black Spire Outpost, we knew that he could tell stories and, when he tells those stories, we can go back in time and and experience the stories firsthand. When we brought that concept up, people got really excited because, all of a sudden we weren't restricted to just one era. We're all huge Star Wars fans, right? We love all the different eras; there's something so exciting about each one of them. Where we're going with xLAB, we want to experiment, we want to try new things, and this concept gave us a structure to do that. It allows us to go back a couple hundred years before the Clone Wars even. So it just dovetailed really nicely together: they had a new era that was being worked on, we wanted to tell stories across multiple eras. It just made a ton of sense. It was actually really natural. Once you have the idea that you're going to be telling a High Republic story in VR, how do you build that out? What is the process? Is it an entirely different process from building the publishing side of things? Perez: We always start with the story. We try to figure out, what's the best way to get the story across? What are we trying to say? I think the biggest thing is that we're not just doing something to say, "oh, cool, you get a lightsaber, and you jump around!" People like that. We have a responsibility as storytellers, specifically with an IP like Star Wars, to make sure that there's some meaning behind it, and that we're trying to give people something to look at and reflect off of in their own lives, and then take that forward. That's where everything starts, and then after that, it's all the crazy parts of making sure the technology works, and where to look and everything. Waugh: You know, the truth is, I actually think it is the same process in many ways, regardless of medium. It is still fundamentally finding the heart and soul of a story, and how it kind of reflects on your own life and your own human experience. I think each medium, each platform, gets to do that in a different way. I think what is cool about this, is that, as a virtual reality experience, you're getting to look at the galaxy through a different lens, but when we work together, we're crafting the world in the same way. We have fundamental rules around what The High Republic is; we've done a lot of world building and intra-team meetings around, "What does it look like? What does it feel like? What are the values of this era? What type of storytelling belongs in this era?" That's not to say we're limited anything, it's just that we want it to feel a specific way, regardless of medium. Jose, this is following up on Vader Immortal, as well as other experiments in VR — what has the experience and feedback from those earlier projects done to shape Tales from Galaxy's Edge? What's different about this? Perez: I think we were really proud of the work that we did on Vader Immortal. We were really excited about the cinematic quality that we brought to it, but one of the things that we kept hearing was, when you're in VR, you want a little bit more freedom to be able to walk over there and do a thing while this person talking stuff here. Some of those conversations were coming up. When we have looked at where VR is now, what we've learned a bunch of people are more familiar with the medium and how to interact with it, so we decided to open it up a bit more. We're still very much story-focused, but we give you a lot more freedom to explore the environment that you're in. This is kind of a, story-living versus storytelling thing. You can hang out in the cantina and play repulsor darts and listen to the jukebox all day if you want — it's totally fine, we're not going to kick you out. When you're ready to go out into the wilds of Batuu, and you're seeking that, the adventure is there for you. It's up to you to opt-in. It's really, in a lot of ways similar to how the Disneyland parks and the Disneyworld parks work — when when you go there, it's not like, "Hey, you're here for five minutes, you got to get on the moon." You know, it's like, "Hey, you're here to get some blue milk, maybe let your kids use the restroom first, and when you're ready to come out here, we've got a whole adventure for you." Waugh: I think Jose and his team take it even a step further. In the publishing space, you can read about Yoda in The High Republic, you can see him, but in this space, you can look over to your left and literally see Yoda in that same sort of way that, when you looked up at Vader the first time in Vader Immortal, you really got a sense of scale and how intimidating that is. It's a visceral experience, and finding ways to listen to those visceral responses, I think, is really the part that I enjoy seeing. Perez: To that point, when you meet Vader, it's like, he's large and intimidating, it's kind of scary. When you meet Yoda, it's so awesome, because it's the complete opposite where he's a small little guy (Laughs.), but there's still like a power and a wisdom there. Waugh: We were fortunate enough to record Frank Oz for this, and the conversation with Frank Oz, and his perspective on who Yoda was, as a character, fundamentally made us rethink how we are approacing the character in publishing. That kind of reaction wouldn't happen if there wasn't that sort of porous intersection between these two media types. Perez: That whole thing was the most surreal experience. You know, you're talking to the Jedi Master, right? I couldn't even believe I was there. You're talking to Yoda, Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear all at once. We start talking about Yoda, and he's like, "around the room, everybody, tell me one word that you think means Yoda." I said "wisdom," we heard "old age," you know, we heard "powerful," and all of that stuff. He's like, "those are all okay, but I don't think you guys are getting it." The word that he came to, and this is what I think kind of changed where publishing was going, was "struggle." When you think about Yoda, and everything that he does in the way he walks to how he moves, the world that he's been in, it's all been this really massive struggle. What is beautiful about Yoda's struggle is that that struggle is to maintain, and to try to keep, good in the world. That can be hard, and it weighs you down. He was really adamant that Yoda is not out there just being a badass and fighting and everything's super cool, like he's this rad ninja guy. It's like, this is a strong, little guy, he's worked extra hard, because he's a little guy, to do this. When we looked at Yoda through that lens, even just some of the images that we're working for publishing didn't make sense anymore. He looked too mad, or too strong. It's like, no, this is somebody that is struggling to maintain balance, and to try to bring good back to the world. Waugh: Because we are doing this at the same time — and that's the beauty of it — we [in publishing] are working on, who is Yoda during High Republic? This is Yoda you know, 200, 300 years before The Phantom Menace. Do those years matter? We were thinking like, "lighten him up a little bit more! Make him a little more spry, a little bit more adventurous!" The more we started thinking of that, we realized what a tonal shift that would be to his character and how wrong it would be. The truth is that Frank's right — Yoda has always been fighting the struggle, and it does weigh on him. Ultimately, we rethought how we're writing the character, and then that impacted all the authors in a really positive way. So talk a little bit more about what role Yoda plays in the game. What can you tell me about that game itself? Perez: The majority of this story to start is about the droid repair technician — that's you embodying this character in the Star Wars world that's working for Mubo — Mubo owns the droid depot in Galaxy's Edge —and there's some shenanigans that happen with pirates, and you're going out into the wild to deal with that. Along the way, you stop at this cantina, and when you're there, and the cantina worker is telling you these stories. Those stories will, without giving away too much, have themes that runs through them that will relate back to the main thread repair technician's story. When you're in those tales — in the case of Temple of Darkness, when you're playing alongside of Yoda — they have a very specific story, but at the core of it, Yoda is the Jedi master, and you're Ady, his padawan. I'm trying to give away too much, but your character is a little stubborn and has had something very traumatic happened at the beginning of the experience, and Yoda is going to help her kind of deal with the darkness and get through some stuff. Waugh: When we were breaking the story, a big part of it is, what is that fundamental question of being a Jedi, that balance of light and dark. It's essentially the struggle we're referring to with Yoda, and you're in VR, embodying that and feeling that viscerally, exactly the experience we've seen so many times in so many other spaces. It is actually the core Star Wars story; it's all about using selflessness over being selfish. That is the core; it's just done differently here. *** Temple of Darkness, the first installment of Star Wars: Tales from Galaxy’s Edge, will be released Nov. 19 on the Quest family of VR headsets.
https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-tales-from-the-galaxys-edge-last-call Spoiler What’s it like to be a treasure hunter in the galaxy far, far away? We’ll soon find out. ILMxLAB revealed today a teaser trailer, key art, and new plot details for Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge — Last Call (previously known as Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge — Part II), the final installment of ILMxLAB’s virtual-reality series coming this fall to Oculus Quest. In Last Call, Batuu’s resident grouchy antiquities dealer Dok-Ondar will look to players, once again in the role of a droid-repair technician turned adventurer, to secure some valuable relics; in their adventures, fans will encounter at least two new characters — Lens Kamo and Baron Attsmun — who can be seen in the trailer and key art below. Baron Attsmun, who first appeared in the Canto Bight sequence of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and is voiced by Mark Rolston (The Shawshank Redemption, Rush Hour), is an ultra-wealthy industrialist who sells cybernetic parts throughout the galaxy. Underneath all the glitz, glamor, and a facade of good intentions, however, is something much darker. Lens Kamo, voiced by Karla Crome (Murder: Joint Enterprise, Carnival Row) is the daughter of scholar parents who grew to have a deep interest in history. Now a treasure hunter, her only goal is to keep artifacts out of the wrong hands. StarWars.com caught up with director Jose Perez III to learn a little more about these mysterious figures and the adventures ahead. StarWars.com: I know you probably can’t say much, but what might fans expect from the story and missions of Last Call? Jose Perez III: More swashbuckling adventure! A large chunk of Last Call has strong Indiana Jones meets Star Wars vibes. So we had a lot of fun building out interesting environmental puzzles for the player to unravel as they dig deeper into the ruins of an ancient Jedi Temple. StarWars.com: We’re also getting three new characters Last Call: Lens Kamo, Baron Attsmun, and Dok-Ondar. What can you tell us about them and their role in the experience? Jose Perez III: Lens Kamo is a relic hunter that has had an ongoing conflict with the evil Baron Attsmun. The Baron has been stealing relics and using them for nefarious purposes. Dok-Ondar gets the player involved in the mix when he hires them for a job and then…shenanigans ensue. StarWars.com: The teaser has some really interesting imagery, especially a mural that seems to activate. Care to fill us in? Jose Perez III: I can’t say too much! Tell you what. Meet up with Dok at Seezelslak’s cantina and he’ll fill you in on all the details. For more on Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge — Last Call, check out StarWars.com’s kickoff interview.
Looks cool, bit sad this looks to be the final installment though. How many did the Vader castle game get? Other people make fun of it, but I honestly love that star wars is the kind of universe where a minor character in the background of a scene can be the villain or hero of another story later.
https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-tales-from-the-galaxys-edge-last-call-trailer Spoiler Dok-Ondar’s final assignment for you is almost here, and there’s lots of new intel to help prepare for the adventure. ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s award-winning immersive entertainment studio, revealed today a full gameplay trailer and new details for Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge — Last Call. You can check out the trailer below, featuring the biggest look yet at the final installment of the Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge virtual reality series, now confirmed to arrive September 15 on Oculus Quest. In addition, ILMxLAB revealed several new characters in Last Call and the talent bringing them to life, including Hondo Ohnaka voiced by Jim Cummings (Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog); Neeva voiced by Anika Noni Rose (The Princess and the Frog, Dreamgirls, Them); stormtrooper leader Lt. Gauge voiced by Daman Mills (Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Final Fantasy VII Remake); slaver Boggs Triff voiced by Darin DePaul (Spider-man, Shazam!); and assassin droid IG-88 voiced by Rhys Darby (Yes Man, Flight of the Conchords). Ady Sun’Zee (Ellie Araiza) makes a return, as will familiar Star Wars characters like R2-D2 and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels). Last Call also includes the previously announced Dok-Ondar (Cory Rouse), Seezelslak (Bobby Moynihan), Lens Kamo (Karla Crome) and Baron Attsmun (Mark Rolston). In Last Call, Batuu’s resident grouchy antiquities dealer Dok-Ondar will look to players, once again in the role of a droid-repair technician turned adventurer, to secure some valuable relics. Players will experience two new Tales as they journey to recover these mysterious artifacts. For more on Last Call, check out StarWars.com’s teaser trailer interview with director Jose Perez III and kickoff feature. Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge — Last Call arrives September 15 for the Oculus Quest platform for $9.99, or a total of $34.99 for the full experience.
Jemaine Clement as an IG droid would indisputably be the best thing to happen to Star Wars in possibly ever. EXT: ARVALA-7 BAD GUY CAMP The smoke clears and THE MANDALORIAN steps off the gun platform. Bodies are strewn everywhere. He has decimated his enemies in a glorious, ridiculously cool blaze of blaster fire. IG-12: "Is that it?"
I love these sacred Jedi disks from Tales from Galaxy's Edge: Last Call Does anybody have or can screenshot a topdown view of them please? Also any more Jedi symbology or murals from the game that need screenshots? I think I saw several more. So far we have seen lots of different SW versions of the Yin & Yang symbol, from Mortis, Prime Jedi to these. I wonder what other real world symbols may look like starwarsified. Tree of Life / Yggdrasil we got here already, as well as another disk showing a dragon and a fish Yin&Yang style as in eastern cultures. The astrology symbol is nice but in comparison to the others less meaningful. The one with the stars, roots, fish and human looks like an ancient greek vase design as well as a mix of all other three. Did we have yet in any way or variant a GFFA version of a Triskelion or a Triquetra?
Oh, very cool art and design. A lot of work for objects the average player probably won't pay much attention to in an already niche game. Looking at the fish and the dragon...makes me wonder if these might be some kind of creature from Acht-to that have symbolic meeting for the early jedi. I would also love a star wars take on a triskelion and a triquetra. But back to the game - I have really liked its visual design in general. In particular, I find a lot of the enemies pretty cool looking.
https://www.starwarscelebration.com/en-us/panels.html Beyond the Spires: Making of Tales from the Galaxy's Edge Sun, Apr 9, 2023 • 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Location: Twin Suns Stage Hear from key creators of Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge - Enhanced Edition, the hit experience on PlayStation VR2 that expands and explores the world of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and get a behind-the-scenes look at how this VR adventure came together.
