NTT
Many of these problems reportedly predated The Skywalker Saga’s development by several years, but they came bubbling to the surface when work on the project began in 2017, following management’s unpopular decision to develop the game in a new engine, NTT. According to developers at TT Games, the engine was initially unstable and missing features, with work taking much longer than in the previous engine with the added risk of losing hours of work if the engine didn’t save properly. Additionally, much of the game’s pre-production work had been done with the old engine in mind, causing further headaches.
Employees at the studio reportedly pushed for TT Games to use Unreal Engine instead, but management insisted on using NTT. We asked Smith about the rationale behind this choice, and about the resulting challenges. “Our in-house engine and tools had enabled TT Games to build and ship high-quality multi-platform console games over multiple console generations, and had been continually updated over those years – battle-hardened, reliable and a source of great pride,” says Smith. “But there was also a level of technical debt built up over that time, and an accumulation of legacy constraints, which made the idea of a fresh start eventually irresistible. We wanted to move to a fundamentally different architecture with more flexible workflows to empower creativity, optimising the integration of art and LEGO assets, with cutting-edge rendering techniques to provide unmatched visuals.
“The goal became nothing less than to improve every aspect of our technical foundations. Our teams had the expertise to deliver all these components to world-class standards, as has been winningly proven in the final game. But we were taking on a lot of substantial challenges all at once – and then committed to this path on a game of independently huge scope and ambition. We staffed up the team with content creators before the new tools were fully baked, which led to understandable frustration.
“In the end, we achieved all our goals, with graphics, gameplay and substantially upgraded audio which have impressed reviewers and delighted players, optimised for six different platforms from Nintendo Switch to Xbox Series X. But a more conservative view of the challenges ahead, and a more patient plan from the start, would have made things a lot easier – both for the project as a whole and for every individual in the team, all of whom cared deeply about achieving the highest-quality outcome.”
FEATURE CREEP The game’s development was a long one, especially so by TT Games’ previous standards. The studio formerly known for its annual releases took five years to develop The LEGO Skywalker Saga.
Given the ambitious scope of the project, this is obviously to be expected. Collecting all nine films in the mainline Star Wars saga into one satisfying whole is, of course, an enormous undertaking. However, staff members told Polygon that development was further frustrated by the issues with both NTT and feature creep - it was reportedly not uncommon for constant revisions to the game’s design throughout development, resulting in months of lost work. “We underestimated the challenges of creating so much that was new, all at once, while also making our biggest- ever title,” says Smith. “We made adjustments where we could to reduce complexity, but it simply took longer than expected to establish and stabilise our new foundations – and then the sheer scope of the galaxy we were building, together with the breadth of testing required, compounded by pandemic disruption, meant that we had to push back our intended release dates in the interests of quality. “That’s never an easy decision to make, and we were deeply appreciative of the support we received from the wider WB Games organisation along with our partners at Lucasfilm Games and LEGO Company. The reaction we’ve had to our most polished and complete LEGO game experience ever, has demonstrated that this was the right path to take.”
Covid, of course, also proved to be a drag on development - as it did across the industry. The sudden and dramatic shift to remote work has (and continues to) cause a number of delays in some of the most highly- anticipated games in the industry, and The Skywalker Saga was not immune to this. “Our IT, Facilities and Support staff were fantastically adept at enabling a rapid and successful transition to remote working towards the end of March 2020, and every individual within the company responded to the new challenges around us with comradeship and courage. I know that everyone at TT has felt very supported by WB
80 | MCV/DEVELOP June 2022
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