| Session Name: | Classic Studio Postmortem: Lucasfilm Games |
| Speaker(s): | Steve Arnold, Noah Falstein, David Fox, Ron Gilbert, Peter Langston, Chip Morningstar |
| Company Name(s): | Polaris Partners, Google, Electric Eggplant, Independent, Apple Advanced Computation Group, PayPal |
| Track / Format: | Design |
| Overview: | Before LucasArts, there was Lucasfilm Games. From a small startup within a medium-sized (and very famous) film company, this group grew from 1982 to 1990 to become one of the most popular game companies of its day. It then morphed (a Lucasfilm term!) into LucasArts, which was acquired by Disney, and then shut down shortly after GDC 2012. In the early days, the company was known for experimentation, with early multiplayer (Ballblazer), first-person games (Rescue on Fractalus, Koronis Rift), the first MMO (Habitat/Club Caribe), and of course, some well-loved graphic adventures (Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and more). This postmortem asks the questions, "What mix of creative and business forces shaped this early success story?" and "Could this kind of company be duplicated today?" |
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