The Star Wars Battlefront Planets: Creating Tatooine

Mention Tatooine to a Star Wars™ fan of any age and the first mental image likely to pop up is that of a young Luke Skywalker gazing upon the binary sunset of his home planet – an iconic view, and naturally essential for Star Wars™ Battlefront™. But Tatooine has much more to offer than simply sand and suns.

After trips to some of the original filming locations such as the unforgiving Death Valley of California, the DICE team returned home with thousands of images and impressions, ready to digitally recreate the planet for Star Wars Battlefront. We shot Senior Environment Artist John Troive, responsible for the planet, a few questions about recreating Tatooine in game.

As an artist, isn’t it challenging to make a desert environment interesting?

I actually get that question a lot. You would assume that deserts consist of just sand and nothing much else, but working with desert environments and in particular Tatooine was an easy choice for me. There’s a whole range of interesting geology you can work with within a desert setting, and both in real-life Death Valley and the original Star Wars movies you have a sample of this variation. From scorching salt flats to overarching canyons, there is so much variation in shape and colour. I wanted to faithfully portray the Tatooine landscapes we see in the movies, and also expand on some of the themes.

Each of the Tatooine environments feature a distinct visual theme, based on our extensive research trips. Some levels surround the player with tall, red cliff faces, others with endless rolling dunes. You’ll of course also experience that desolate eroded landscape you see in classic Tatooine shots from Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope™ and the walk to Jabba’s Palace in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi™.

What did you learn from the trips that made it into the game?

When we were onsite at these fantastic original filming locations, we were consumed by the atmosphere and overall landscape, all the way from majestic rock formations to bits of sunlight reflecting off random surfaces – we ourselves were instantly transported to Tatooine. We couldn’t help but comment on the exquisitely detailed minutia of the desert.

The atmosphere of being in a scorching desert is what I hope players will feel when stepping out on to the digital landscape. Intense heat shimmer, native desert creatures, equipment being covered in dust – these are all elements we experienced and have tried to recreate for players.

We read up on geology to understand how the landscape of Death Valley was formed, learning fascinating things like why particular areas such as Artist’s Palette of Death Valley is so colorfully saturated. Using that knowledge, we learned how to best naturally tint the sand, carve in realistic erosion lines, how to add convincing terracing, and even how rocks and geology are deposited in a way that makes sense.

What aspects of Tatooine do people remember that simply had to be in the game?

Twin suns, of course. They had to be in there, and we worked hard on getting the lighting just right – it’s tricky to create natural light from what should in reality be emitting from two sources. You’ll also see classic Tatooine sights such as a sarlacc pit, krayt dragon skeletons, a sail barge, a Jawa sandcrawler, and an escape pod, who’s design was made famous by R2-D2 and C-3PO crashing into the desert. These kinds of elements are visible throughout Tatooine and help sell the fantasy of stepping into a Star Wars world.

Across all the Tatooine maps, is there something you’re extra proud of?

On each of our maps, there’s something majestic from our trips I think we’ve managed to portray. When we were traversing the endless sand dunes it was unbearably windy for instance, and that wind moving across the dunes flowed over in an organic, alive way, and that is something we tried to faithfully recreate in order for players to feel immersed in the environment.

The incredible canyon vistas with dauntingly high drops we witnessed while working our way through the desert is another aspect and feeling we wanted the players to experience. By placing some maps at the high points of canyons with amazing views, we were successful with getting that sense of scale into the environments. Also, I’m really happy about the use of colour and saturation in our interpretation of Tatooine, taking it beyond just a standard desert of sand and sun.

In the Star Wars Battlefront Beta, players could try out the Survival Mission on one of the Tatooine maps. How would you describe that map design?

I think that is probably the most vertical of the Tatooine variations. It has 4 to 5 different floors, bridges, and several spots to make great use of your Jump Pack. The design started with a layout made by one of our designers strictly focusing on gameplay. The level played really well but didn’t feel believable yet.

Positive that we could pull it off we added a realistic vista around the level and from our library of natural desert content, we added elements such as terracing and rock deposits to bring it back to reality while still keeping its intended design. It’s a fun and playful level which works well with the Survival experience.

Be on the lookout for the final game; there are many interesting and unexplored areas of Tatooine waiting to be uncovered!

SOURCE: EA/DICE