Star Wars: Rebel Assault

The narrative centers around a youthful, unnamed protagonist known as Rookie One. Similar to Luke Skywalker, Rookie is depicted as a farmboy or farmgirl originating from Tatooine (with player-selectable gender) who chooses to enlist in the Rebel Alliance. The game's events unfold concurrently with those of A New Hope, commencing with flight training in Beggar's Canyon just prior to the Devastator's capture of Tantive IV above Tatooine.

Subsequently, Rookie is integrated into a squadron tasked with intercepting the Devastator. Following the mission, they return to the planet to thwart an Imperial invasion of Tatooine. The Rebel base suffers destruction, and Mos Eisley endures an attack involving AT-ST's, which the player must eliminate.

The storyline advances to the ice planet Hoth, where Rookie must employ a snowspeeder to halt the AT-AT walkers and subsequently escape Gamma Base (resembling Echo Base), engaging Stormtroopers in a manner reminiscent of the Battle of Hoth.

Ultimately, the player guides Rookie through training on Yavin 4 in preparation for the attack on the trench run preceding the Battle of Yavin. The concluding missions depict the actions of Blue Squadron (ironically, Blue Squadron was the original script Red Squadron of ANH fame), concurrently with Red Squadron as portrayed in the film. These events transpire near and on the Death Star, where the player is tasked with destroying turrets, neutralizing a colossal laser cannon, and ultimately destroying the space station, taking the place of Luke Skywalker.

The game's appeal was primarily rooted in its technical aspects, featuring digitized footage and music from the original films, complete voice acting, and high-quality 3D-rendered visuals, even though its narrative, plot, and mission variety lacked originality and depth. The game's "chapters" were designed to evoke events and battles from the movies.

The game's plot constructs an alternate version of the Original trilogy by reimagining iconic scenes, rather than adhering strictly to Star Wars canon. While it follows the storyline of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, it incorporates elements from the Battle of Hoth erroneously. Furthermore, the Battle of Yavin is depicted differently, and the Death Star is destroyed by a character other than Luke Skywalker.

Gameplay primarily involves spaceflight missions, often confined within looping video sequences. The player's ship follows a predetermined path, and their objective is to target and eliminate enemies (typically TIE Fighters), while also maneuvering to avoid collisions with obstacles and preserve hit points.

In the early 1990s, LucasArts had completed Star Wars: X-wing. Simultaneously, the company capitalized on the burgeoning CD-ROM and multimedia technologies, re-releasing earlier titles in CD-ROM formats. Subsequently, the decision was made to embrace this trend by creating an exclusive CD-ROM multimedia title that would leverage the capabilities of the medium, specifically a Star Wars game. A key departure from previous concepts was the inclusion of flight sequences over planetary surfaces. Initial considerations included platform compatibility and the availability of development systems. Vincent Lee was brought onto the project six months into its development, as his expertise in multimedia would enable versatility and facilitate design and redesign efforts.

Lee's initial task involved creating a hand-drawn X-wing flying through a prerendered fractal landscape. Following several refinements, this concept evolved into the final version of the first training mission, "Flight Training". Initial game testing occurred on hard drives before the project transitioned to CD-ROM burners due to space constraints.

A primary challenge was the limited speed of CD drive hardware, as the game's data requirements exceeded the capabilities of single-speed CD drives. Furthermore, the team aimed to avoid the sluggish performance associated with contemporary multimedia titles. To address this, Lee developed SMUSH, a proprietary data compression and streaming technology. According to Lee, SMUSH struck a balance between high resolution/performance and practical file size. SMUSH eventually evolved into an interactive game design program, managing animation blocks (including pre-rendered scenery, 2D cutscenes, effects, music, etc.) as entities along a timeline. With a satisfactory performance of 15fps achieved, Lee assumed leadership of the project, tasked with ensuring its completion and release by Christmas 1993, two years after its inception.

Early in the project, the team opted against using Silicon Graphics workstations, as employed by ILM, and instead chose to work with PC hardware and software, such as Autodesk 3D Studio. Within six months, Collette Michaud hired three versatile 3D artists, with Ron Lussier leading the team.

The storyline was established six months into the project, with Lee envisioning a narrative parallel to the original story of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, beginning on Tatooine and culminating in the destruction of the Death Star. To this end, the team repeatedly watched the Original Trilogy films to familiarize themselves with the aesthetics, mechanics of the vehicles, and to draw inspiration for storyline events and cutscenes. Lussier and other artists studied commercial model kits, artbooks, production notes, and studio miniatures from the filming of the Trilogy, found in the archives of the Lucasfilm headquarters, for the creation of the 3D models. Daniel Colon is also credited for designing the Star Destroyer and the AT-AT Walker and the levels they appear, before leaving the project. He and another artist had to be replaced by Richard Green and David Vallone.

The levels were generally designed in storyline order, each one requiring approximately 2 months to complete. Initially, the scenario comprised 20 shorter levels, but due to the increased workload associated with animating them, the team opted for fewer, longer levels. Landscapes such as Beggar's Canyon were created using greyscale heightmap techniques. The branching ice caverns of Hoth were created by drawing paths on 3D Studio's Shaper tool, with two halves of virtual bowls built around them. During gameplay, a camera followed a predetermined path, and a vehicle sprite or cockpit was added to the foreground.

Vince Lee created storyboards with instructions for the cinematic cutscenes. Over time, these cutscenes became increasingly elaborate. Artists Bill Tiller and Leonard Robel worked on the 2D character animations during cutscenes. The explosions were based on the same animation effect, changed in orientation and size to avoid repetition. Characters were mostly based on LucasArts employees; animated facial and mouth movements were stored in a "digital-clip library" that were later used to animate a character's dialogues. Collette Michaud's face was used for Ru Murleen; the faces of Associate Producer Wayne Cline and artist Steve Purcell were edited into a screenshot of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back to stand as a commander and a comm officer of a Rebel base.

In certain instances, original footage from the Original Trilogy was converted and adapted into the game's storyline. For example, for the Royal Award Ceremony, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Peter Mayhew/Chewbacca were extracted from the video. The latter two were removed, and Hamill's portions obscured by the other characters were reconstructed, leaving only him as "Rookie One" marching to the aisle.

In one instance, a Star Destroyer model was digitized (a mini camera "flew" around it) for the needs of a certain mission. The X-wing cockpit was borrowed from the earlier Star Wars: X-Wing.

During the initial phase of production, the majority of work centered around art and programming. Playtesting commenced as soon as the first levels were playable to allow for bug reporting, suggestions, and subsequent improvements. Lead tester Brett Tosti noted that the game initially appeared overly difficult and resembled a visual demo, lacking a sense of flight. Tosti was also largely responsible for the difficulty elements for each difficulty level. Due to the multimedia nature of the game, a new Q/A department of technical specialists tested the game in various setups of CD-ROM drives and sound cards; the game was too fast in some machines, requiring an adjustment option (suggested by Tosti).

Following the summer of '93, additional tasks, such as voice recording, sound design, manual authoring, data card creation, and quality assurance, needed to be completed. Later in its development, Rebel Assault became a "high profile" production for the company, and management allocated additional resources to ensure its completion. Artists were provided with faster machines, which compensated for the increased rendering times. Death scenes (animations depicting Rookie One's demise or the destruction of his vehicle) were the last cutscenes to be completed, within one-and-half week, using preexisting scenery.

Sound and music primarily consisted of the licensed musical score by John Williams, originally recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, and sound effects from the Skywalker Sound library. Vince Lee selected portions of the soundtrack that he associated with specific sections of the game and recorded them on a boom box. The sound specialists, Sound Manager Michael Land, Sound Editing and Processing Engineer Clint Bajakian, and Peter McConnell, joined the project relatively late, offering suggestions and refining Lee's ideas. They discovered that Lee's initial "crude" recording was more "punchy, present and visceral," and they intentionally distorted their final work to replicate this accidental effect. Lee edited some music on software runing on an Amiga computer.

Voice acting was directed by Tamlynn Barra, who casted talents such as Bill Farmer and Nick Jameson. The 16-bit recordings were stored on a DAT, edited and processed by Barra, before being delivered to the sound department. Bajakian equalized them and added effects such as "radio chatter". Lee, who incorporated the dialogues in SMUSH, edited the portrait's animations from the existing "digital-clip library", for lip manual synching.

A significant amount of art and sound was produced during the final three and two months of development. Final art arrived a month before post-production. All post-production of the final levels was completed in a month and a half. Associate producer Casey Donahue Ackley oversaw and managed the crisis and alleviated Lee's obligations with art and marketing, facilitating communication between Lee and the art department, rearranging and re-prioritizing the art list. Ackley and Lee authored the manual.

During production, rumors circulated that the new CD-ROM game was a CD-ROM version of Star Wars: X-wing. The Public Relations and Marketing department took steps to dispel these misconceptions. PR ensured that the message was conveyed that it was the company's first exclusive CD-ROM game, unrelated to previous titles. The title, logo, and package layout were designed to differentiate it from Star Wars: X-wing and the contemporary Super Empire Strikes Back, emphasizing its nature as a purely action-arcade game. Game designer and programmer Vincent Lee collaborated closely with PR Manager Sue Seserman in authoring the press release, providing story and technical details.

Rebel Assault was unveiled at the summer '93 CES. The demo received enthusiastic reviews for its full-screen 3D realistic graphics, speech, and authentic digital soundtrack. Casey Donahue Ackley presented a demo of to the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 1993.

A demo disk containing Chapter #9: "Stormtroopers" was included with Mega Power. Another demo disk with Chapter #11: "TIE Attack" was included with Sega Pro.

The game was released mid-November with good sales. Orders and calls for help placed demand on the four people of the Product Support Department stessing out the employees. The busiest times were during Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Fax papers were depleting every half hour. LucasArts receptionist Amanda Haverlock was reassigned to the phone lines for support. She claimed that she received a call from actor Robin Williams, who was enjoying the game with his son, and wished to ask Vince Lee for some hints. Some users reported that Rebel Assault was their first CD-ROM game, or even the first game they purchased.

A common complaint was the third-party DOS extended manager that was crashing on some systems. LucasArts responded by creating a patch, which they uploaded to the company's BBS and other online services, as well as sending in floppy disks over post. As other contemporary games, the game documentation included instructions for making a boot disk to solve some problems, but some users required a walkthrough over the phone, or even returned the game to the stores, making losses for the company. The developers programmed an automatic boot disk maker to remedy this problem, which was included in next releases of Rebel Assault, and the latest online patches.

Rebel Assault was released for Sega Mega-CD. JVC Musical Industries published it in the United States in March 1994, and in Europe the following September. That same month, it was localized and published in Japan by Victor Entertainment, and later in Brazil by Tec Toy.

According to the survey conducted by a collaborating firm among the registered users, it was determined that the gamers of Rebel Assault were predominantly male, more than any other LucasArts product, belonged to all age groups. It was the 3D graphics that excited the games more than anything else, and the game was rated better than other popular CD-ROM titles.

Star Wars: Rebel Assault was produced at a time when less emphasis was placed on ensuring games aligned with established canon. This has led to confusion regarding its canonicity, particularly concerning Rookie One's trench run against the Death Star and the occurrence of a battle on Hoth prior to the Death Star Assault. However, the only aspect of the game officially deemed non-canon is Rookie One's trench run. Nevertheless, numerous elements from Star Wars: Rebel Assault have been incorporated into later continuity, such as Anchorhead Base in Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided and Jake Farrell in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, as well as many elements were also used in the sequel to Rebel Assault, Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire.

Regarding other LucasArts video games, Leland Chee, known as the Keeper of the Holocron, has stated that the "Story is S [canon], but locations, characters, and technology are C [canon]." This policy has never been stated to apply to Rebel Assault.

Concerning level #5. "Tatooine Attack", Chip Hinnenberg wondered whether it would be possible that TIEs can have atmospheric flight, something which however was confirmed in other games and sources.

Rebel Assault marked the first instance of a CD-ROM-only game published by LucasArts.

Concerning the exclusive use of digital musical score and digitized sound effects straight out from the movies, Michael Land considered it a significant breakthrough for the company; he credited Vince Lee for taking a giant step, and the next would be taken by the sound department in future LucasArts products, which will involve digital mixing and streamed digital music.

The game's popularity and the resulting demands on the Product Support group led to changes within LucasArts. The department relocated to a new building (across the company's headquarters) and expanded its staff from four to sixteen. A new phone system directed calls to certain topic. Each expert got his own PC workstation logging and timing calls, and providing a database of problems and solutions. The department was equipped with Mac computers to troubleshoot problems related to that version. The group also started to get involved in the Q/A process of the development of future products, testing them in things they expect future customers will need help about, compiling a list of product support concerns; furthermore, the company decided to develop an improved and simpler configuration utility, starting with Star Wars: TIE Fighter.