First introduced nine minutes intoStar Wars: A New Hope, Tatooine is easily the most iconic planet in theStar Warsfranchise and one of the most iconic locations in all of entertainment history. A desert planet in the Outer Rim with scorching hot twin suns in its sky, Tatooine has appeared countless times in the last five decades, cropping up in multipleStar Warsmovies, many episodes of variousStar WarsTV shows, a plethora of novels and comic books, and a good percentage ofStar Warsvideo games, andStar Wars Outlawsis the latest to feature the beloved planet.
One of four explorable open-world planets,Star Wars Outlaws' Tatooine will feature plenty of recognizable locations, including the Mos Eisley spaceport and cantina. Game Rant recently had the chance to speak with a few ofStar Wars Outlaws' lead developers and creatives, and when it came to speaking about the recreation of iconic planets like Tatooine,Outlaws' art & world director, Benedikt Podlesnigg, had quite a bit to say.
How Star Wars Outlaws' Devs Made Tatooine as Authentic as Possible
Planets have always played a major role inStar Wars' storytelling, and Tatooine has often been depicted as the most important of them all. Tatooine isn’t just the location of the Skywalker family’s origin, it’s also the origin oftheStar Warsfranchiseas a whole, being the first planet fans laid eyes on in 1977’sStar Wars(later given the subtitleA New Hope). This original 1977 version of Tatooine was packed with some first-class world-building, from its alien inhabitants to its wildlife to its architecture, and every future iteration of Tatooine has continued to push that world-building further.
When it came to makingStar Wars Outlaws' version of Tatooine, the developers knew they had to focus on making the iconic location as authentic as possible. Podlesnigg gave some insight into the development team’s approach to making Tatooine feel accurate and genuine:
“Lucasfilm Games gave us a lot of freedom and worked very closely with us to ensure the authenticity of iconic locations. The team is full of Star Wars fans who really pushed at every corner to ensure we respect the source material, especially when it comes to Tatooine. Being able to really enter the Mos Eisley cantina, walk around in it, and experience it within an open world, is amazing.”
As Podlesnigg mentions, players will be able to visit a variety of memorable Tatooine locations inStar Wars Outlaws, with one of the most iconic being the Mos Eisley cantina, the site of Han Solo and Greedo’s infamous shootout and Ponda Baba’s dismemberment. Players will be able to meet a range of intriguing NPCs inStar Wars Outlaws' Mos Eisley cantinaand potentially play a few mini-games to pass the time in between daring missions.
ButStar Wars Outlaws' developerswent much further than just looking at Tatooine’s most memorable locations. Podlesnigg briefly explained the breadth of sources the studio used to properly capture the spirit of Tatooine inStar Wars Outlaws:
“We spent a lot of time looking at reference material. We tried to look at the things that would have inspired the people who worked on the movies at that time, in addition to looking at Star Wars media.
For Tatooine specifically, we looked at references that were used for the movies, like the filming locations in Death Valley / Tunisia. We also tried to stay true to depictions of some of the locales shown in the books where you see cutaway images of them.”
Though Tatooine has appeared innumerable times across all types ofStar Warsmedia,Star Wars Outlaws' development team has tried to ensure that its own version of the well-trodden location feels suitably authentic. That’s no small feat, butOutlawshas already shown tremendous dedication to doing it justice.
