Ever since I resigned from LucasArts back in August, there’s been a bit of speculation about why I left that venerable company after nearly 13 years, and what I’d be doing next. Well, the answer to both of those questions came today when Cedrick Collomb and I officially announced the formation of Fearless Studios, an independent game developer located in Northern California.
You can read the full press release here, and interviews with USA Today, Gamasutra, and Techland are also up.
So, I left a good job, working with great people on arguably the most powerful and recognizable IP in the world to do something more than a little bit crazy, but it’s already been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Creatively, I feel reborn, and have discovered that Cedrick’s knowledge of tech rivals my knowledge of useless X-Men trivia. Together, we’re creating a studio that will combine the best of gameplay and story to create games that are constantly surprising players and leave a lasting impression. Fearless Studios will be an environment where we aren’t afraid to take smart creative risks and tackle new challenges, but we’ll mitigate these through smart tech decisions, prototyping and iteration, hard work, and being honest with ourselves and our partners. We’re already working on six different concepts, ranging from a splashy action title to hardcore horror.
To those of you who contacted me looking for info on my next gig, wishing me well, and/or offering me jobs, I want to say thanks, and to apologize if I was slow to respond or vague when I finally did reply. Since resigning from LucasArts, my mental bandwidth has been consumed with getting Fearless Studios off the ground, so I wasn’t as diligent about following up with e-mail and Facebook messages. And when I did find time to respond, I didn’t want to jinx anything by revealing too much too fast. I hope you all understand.
Anyway, please check out our official site at www.fearlessstudios.com. We’re still working on getting content in, but I hope to post regular updates about our progress. You can sign-up for e-mail updates there as well and follow us on Twitter.
Be Fearless!
Congrats Haden, it sadden me to her you were leaving LucasArts, but I can not wait to see what you guys come up with. 🙂 Best of luck
I know you left Lucas Arts, but, for what it worth. I’m not buying TFU II because theres no multiplayer. Thats a HUGE, HUUUGE. FAIL! The game should be called “The force leashed by a lack for expected modern gaming features.” but that name might be a tad to long.
Loved TFU2, do you guys know if LucasArts will let you make the third one? Just wanted to throw this idea at you-Boba Fett and the evil clone, from the darkside ending, fly in Slave 1 and attack the Rogue Shadow when it heads to a hyperspace point where some of the Rebel Fleet is meeting before going to Dantooine. The Imperial Fleet arrives and decimates the Rebels, while Fett and the evil clone rescue Vader. While rescuing Vader, the evil clone kills Kota and Juno and destroys Proxy and wounds Starkiller and leaves him for dead.
Starkiller is later found floating in the heavily damaged Rogue Shadow floating in space and is nursed back to health. He swears revenge on the evil clone for killing Juno and pursues him across the galaxy, seeking to kill him. He helps the Rebels in their fight against the Empire and even helps get the Death Star plans at first, but later goes rogue.
He goes off by himself pursuing the evil clone and comes across Obi Wan Kenobi, who tries to turn the original Starkiller clone back to the light, as he is slowly slipping into the dark side. He finally finds the evil clone and there is a massive duel. Objects are thrown everywhere, lightning, locking lightsaber blades, the fight is tremendous. But unfortunately both kill each other in the fight and this leads to Episode 4. Also, perhaps the original Starkiller clone could have a double bladed lightsaber, the game could be a little bit longer, and more environments could be seen, like Tatooine, Dantooine, Alderaan, Coruscant, etc.
Cheers!
Sorry to say Jarad, but TFUII sucked. It was killed by bad management who wanted to cash-in on the franchise at the expense of the game.
Sorry if I seem harsh but if you have ideas for a game you should email it to Haden and not spam the comments. Your ideas are way off topic.
It was really sad to see you leave LucasArts. You left a huge mark on the Star Wars franchise, especially with TFU. It was really sad to hear about the drama of TFUII: the rushed schedule, the low quality outsourcing, the layoffs, etc.
Im sure that your original story for TFUII was magnificent compared to what we’ve seen in the game. Alas!
It should go without saying that you have extensive experience in Sci-Fi/Fantasy themed games. Will you be pursuing a similar genre over at FearLess? What kind of games are you going to try to produce specifically?
Ace –
Fearless Studios plans to build story-driven action titles. That’s a pretty wide open descriptor, but we believe in melding the best of gameplay and story to create memorable thrill rides. In terms of content, we’re working on 4 very different concepts right now, ranging from a hardcore horror title to a superhero game. The lead horse is a really unique fusion of horror, sci-fi, and dark fantasy.
-H