Project Ragtag was a video game that EA Vancouver was developing after Visceral Games, the original developers, shut down. Its cancellation occurred in early 2019.
The project's initial concept was an open-world pirate game, unrelated to Star Wars, with the codename Jamaica.
On May 6, 2013, the production of a Star Wars game by Visceral Games was officially confirmed. This followed an agreement between Electronic Arts, Visceral Games' parent company, and The Walt Disney Company, granting Electronic Arts and its subsidiaries exclusive rights to develop Star Wars games for consoles.
EA, fearing competition from Ubisoft's similarly themed Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, chose to cancel Jamaica. Instead, they focused on their new Star Wars game, codenamed Yuma. This game would adapt the pirate concept from Jamaica into a space setting.
However, Yuma's development progressed slowly, primarily because most of Visceral Games was dedicated to the troubled development of Battlefield Hardline. Morale at the studio suffered, leading employees to leave for other opportunities.
On April 3, 2014, Amy Hennig was confirmed to have joined the project as its creative director. Later that month, it was revealed that Todd Stashwick would collaborate with Hennig to write the game's story. They had previously collaborated on games within the Uncharted series. However, Hennig's involvement with Yuma was brief before she was reassigned to assist with Hardline's story. In June 2014, Scott Warner was brought on as the game director.
By the end of 2014, after Hennig returned to the Star Wars team, it became evident that Yuma, the open-world space game, was not the type of game she envisioned. She preferred a more linear adventure, reminiscent of her work on the Uncharted series, a heist narrative akin to the 2001 film Ocean's Eleven. This new direction was codenamed Ragtag, a name that remained throughout the development process. The team embraced this concept with enthusiasm.
EA executives wanted Ragtag to stand apart from the Uncharted series. Hennig's team introduced innovative gameplay elements, such as the ability to play as different team members, with the player controlling one while the AI controlled the others. A key theme of the game was the ability to "sabotage" enemies, like stormtroopers, to defeat them without violence. These ideas were considered highly ambitious.
Following the release of Visceral's Battlefield Hardline, several executives and producers were laid off, and the general manager was replaced by Larry Probst, who announced plans to "flatten" the studio's structure. This involved minimizing management and empowering creative leads. While this was well-received by the staff, the studio remained divided. Half of the team was still required to work on downloadable content for Hardline, while the other half focused on Ragtag. This division negatively impacted morale, as the Hardline developers felt undervalued.
Consequently, the Ragtag team remained small, consisting of approximately 30 people by mid-2015, which was insufficient. The plan was for the Hardline team to join Ragtag after completing their work, but even this would not be enough, as Visceral had fewer than a hundred employees. This was due to Visceral's location in San Francisco, where expenses were significantly higher than at other EA subsidiaries. This issue was partially addressed when Jade Raymond announced her new Electronic Arts subsidiary, Motive Studios, in July 2015, which would collaborate with Visceral Games on the game. Motive, based in Quebec, had lower costs, allowing for approximately 70 more people to join the Ragtag team. They would assist with both the single-player mode and a "second" multiplayer mode, which EA mandated to ensure player retention and generate additional revenue beyond the initial game sale.
At this stage, the game was scheduled for release in May 2018. This date was considered challenging but achievable, with 160 people expected to be working on the game by 2016.
However, the game soon encountered significant challenges. One of these was EA's insistence on using the Frostbite 3 engine. This engine, developed by DICE for their Battlefield series of games, was designed for first-person shooters, not the third-person action game Ragtag.
The second challenge was the Star Wars license. While the team generally found Lucasfilm's approach flexible and permissive, all decisions still required their approval, which slowed the process considerably.
Developers at Visceral worried that they would lack the time and budget to fully realize all the ambitious ideas, such as multiple protagonists and sabotage mechanics. By 2015, it seemed unlikely that Visceral could even create one fully developed companion, let alone the five or six they had planned.
Another issue was EA's dissatisfaction with the game's lack of themes they considered core to Star Wars, based on market research, such as lightsabers or the Force. They also demanded that the game receive very high critical scores, aiming for at least 90 percent on Metacritic, to compete with titles like Uncharted 4, the fourth installment of the Uncharted series developed by Naughty Dog, where Amy Hennig and Todd Stashwick had previously worked. This seemed absurd and unattainable to many on the team, as they were developing their first game of this type, which they viewed as a foundation for future projects, and they were expected to match the quality of the fourth installments of established series.
Designers described Hennig as brilliant but overextended. She wanted to be involved in every aspect of the game, working long hours and weekends. However, some had to wait months for her to review their work, only to have it rejected. Hennig wanted the studio to operate like Naughty Dog, her previous employer, but lacked confidence in the team. Visceral employees were also unaccustomed to such autonomy, a result of the studio's new flattened structure. Hennig struggled to adapt to working with a large corporation like EA. Despite Sony owning Naughty Dog, the studio enjoyed significant creative freedom. EA, however, frequently inquired about the game's potential revenue, comparing it to their most profitable titles.
Around the end of 2015, Motive Studios began hiring for the project and providing limited assistance.
The launch of EA's first new Star Wars game, Star Wars Battlefront, on November 17, 2015, and its critical reception, which cited a lack of content and a single-player campaign, significantly impacted the project. Despite this, the game sold well, guaranteeing a sequel. Motive Studios was reassigned from Ragtag to work on the single-player campaign for the sequel, Star Wars Battlefront II, at the beginning of 2016, further reducing the Ragtag development team.
Only about 30 people were working on the game at that point, with an additional 40 joining after the downloadable content for Hardline was completed. However, the studio was still restricted from hiring more resources due to the high cost of living in San Francisco, where Visceral was located. The "second" multiplayer mode had to be abandoned.
In May 2016, EA laid off approximately a dozen Visceral staffers, and more employees left throughout the year for other jobs. The game still lacked an art director at this point. Doug Chiang from Lucasfilm was brought on board, but like Hennig, he was overextended. Later, the studio hired a new art director.
At E3 2016, EA showcased a brief clip from a larger demo that Visceral had created for Ragtag, highlighting the features they had developed. While some who saw the demo found it impressive, particularly praising its graphics, others considered it underwhelming.
Regaining some confidence in the project after the demo, EA assigned a team at EA Vancouver to work on Ragtag, delaying the project to December 2018. However, EA Vancouver's studio model differed from Visceral's flattened structure, leading to conflicts between the studios. It soon became apparent that EA intended for Vancouver to eventually take over the entire project, not just provide assistance.
Throughout 2017, developers at both Visceral Games and EA Vancouver worked diligently on a "sampler platter" intended to serve as a target for their team and demonstrate their capabilities to EA executives. This included three missions: an AT-ST chase, a Tatooine shootout, and a descent into Jabba's Palace on the planet. However, those who experienced these missions found them too similar to Uncharted, and Visceral Games was shut down, resulting in the cancellation of Ragtag on October 17, 2017.
EA Vancouver assumed control of the project, utilizing as many of the existing assets as possible, but the game's focus shifted entirely to a multiplayer experience designed for player retention. The game's release was postponed indefinitely.
Many former Visceral Games employees were offered positions at other EA subsidiaries. The company stated they were "in negotiations" with Hennig, although she was independently working on other projects. In October 2018, Jade Raymond's departure from EA was announced.
EA officially cancelled the game in early 2019. Star Wars film writer Gary Whitta, who claimed to have seen footage from the game, compared it to Uncharted. Hennig commented, "I wish people could have seen more of it because it was a lot farther along than people ever got a glimpse of. And it was good, you know? But it just didn't make sense in EA's business plan, ultimately. Things changed over the course of that time I was there. So you know, what can you do."
- Project Ragtag on Wikipedia
- EA and Disney Team Up on New Star Wars Games on Electronic Arts' official website (backup link)
- Amy Hennig Joins Visceral Games on Electronic Arts' official website (backup link)
- An Update on the Visceral Star Wars Project on Electronic Arts' official website (backup link)
- The Collapse Of Visceral's Ambitious Star Wars Game by Schreier, Jason on kotaku.com ( October 27 , 2017 ) (archived from the original on August 10, 2020)