• Massively: Interview with Hall Hood on Future Story Content

    In an interview with Massively, Hall Hood discusses writing story for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Most important to fans and players are explanations on Makeb and future content.

    Hall Hood

    Our goal when designing stories for The Old Republic is to ensure that they can be enjoyed both while playing alone or as part of a group, and Makeb is no exception. Players of all classes will discover that their previous adventures have made them bigger celebrities than ever before, with both enemies and allies recognizing the players' characters as some of the most important people in the galaxy. Players will be summoned to Makeb precisely because of who they are and what they've done in their class plots -- and their new adventures will place them squarely at the center of the Great War.

    For the full interview, head on over to Massively.

  • SWTOR Encyclopedia Trailer

    A new video was recently made available featuring the Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia. A hardcover book to be released on October 12, 2012, the encyclopedia promises to provide detailed looks into several aspects of SWTOR. Several of the BioWare writers who worked on SWTOR are credited as authors of the book, including Hall Hood, Joanna Berry, Charles Boyd, Ian Ryan, and James B. Jones.

    Amazon

    Since its release in 2011, the massively multiplayer online role playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic has captivated thousands of gamers and Star Wars fans alike. Now comes the ultimate in-depth guide to the turbulent and fascinating world featured in the game — The Old Republic.

    Created in full collaboration with LucasArts, this in-depth companion covers the spectrum of characters, weapons, vehicles, events, and planets of Star Wars: The Old Republic. More than just an encyclopedia, it is the ultimate guided tour of the dangerous and mysterious universe found in a galaxy far, far away.

     The video can be found after the jump.

    Speaking of SWTOR related books, it's worth noting that Drew Karpyshyn's novel, Revan, became available in paperback this week. The book has several tie-ins with events found in-game and is a must read for players interested in the lore surrounding Revan.

  • SWTOR Encyclopedia Information

    Some updates on Twitter today by several Star Wars: The Old Republic writers have shed some light on a new book coming out in October of this year. The Star Wars: The Old Republic: Encyclopedia is listed on Amazon with a publication date of October 15, 2012.

    Amazon

    Since its release in 2011, the massively multiplayer online role playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic has captivated thousands of gamers and Star Wars fans alike. Now comes the ultimate in-depth guide to the turbulent and fascinating world featured in the game — The Old Republic.

    Created in full collaboration with LucasArts, this in-depth companion covers the spectrum of characters, weapons, vehicles, events, and planets of Star Wars: The Old Republic. More than just an encyclopedia, it is the ultimate guided tour of the dangerous and mysterious universe found in a galaxy far, far away.

     Check after the jump for some of the quotes by SWTOR writers who helped on the project.

  • GDC Online 2011: Day 1 Live Blog Coverage

    Today's GDC Online 2011 coverage kicks off with a live blog of the 'Building a Bridge Between Design and Writing' talk with speakers Hall Hood, Wynne McLaughlin, and Blake Rebouche. Throughout the day we will bring you live blog coverage of all of the various talks at the event. A full schedule follows below.



    Editor's Note: The following panels are focused on the general game experience and knowledge of the following speakers. Little, if any, of the following conversations will pertain information relevant to Star Wars: The Old Republic. I implore all readers to consider this when reading.

  • GDC Online 2011: Final Details on Panels

    The overlords at GDC Online released their session schedule for the exhibition. BioWare Austin will be represented by Damion Schubert, Rich Vogel, Ken Shuck, Erik Olsen, Blake Rebouche, Hall Hood, Wynne McLaughlin and the previously announced, always entertaining Georg Zoeller. Their topics will be:

    • Blake Rebouche, Wynne McLaughlin and Hall Hood - Building a Bridge Between Design and Writing

    • Erik Olsen (with Cody Bye of ZAM, Gordon Walton of Playdom and Donovan Duncan of Curse) - Full Immersion: Taking Your Game Everywhere

    • Damion Schubert - Double-Coding: Making Online Games for Both the Casual and the Hardcore

    • Georg Zoeller - Rapid MMO Content Iteration and Validation with Spatial Analysis in Star Wars: The Old Republic

    • Rich Vogel and Ken Shuck - What's Beyond Agile?


    GDC Online 2011 will occur from October 10 to October 13 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. For the full schedule of all speakers and panels, please visit the GDC Online website.

    UPDATE: Gamasutra spoke with Georg Zoeller about his panel. Head over to Gamasutra to read the full interview.

    The description, date, time and location of each BioWare session follows the jump.

  • GDC Online 2011: Building a Bridge Between Design and Writing Panel Announced

    GDC Online is only a few short months away and the teasing of developers from BioWare holding panels is not making the wait any easier. As you heard before, Georg Zoeller will be speaking at GDC Online. However, a new panel appeared on the GDC Online page with a whole assortment of speakers.

    SPEAKER/S: Blake Rebouche (Bioware Austin), Wynne McLaughlin (BioWare Austin) and Hall Hood (BioWare Austin)
    DAY / TIME / LOCATION: TBD
    TRACK / DURATION / LEVEL / FORMAT: Game Narrative Summit / 60-Minute / All / Lecture

    DESCRIPTION: In the quest to present both compelling narratives and great gameplay, conflicts sometimes emerge between the increasingly specialized and discrete creative visions held by game writers and designers. What steps can we as developers take to bring the worlds of writing and design closer together, even as these two groups are forced into increasingly specialized roles? Join three developers from BioWare Austin with perspectives from both sides of the issue for their thoughts on the topic and a group discussion with attendees.

    IDEA TAKEAWAY: Attendees will take away from the talk a historical perspective on the core conflict between game writers and designers, an understanding of how their two roles have diverged over time due to specialization, and a collection of thoughts and best practices on how to foster healthy collaboration between them.

    INTENDED AUDIENCE: This talk is intended for game writers and designers of all experience levels who work on projects requiring cooperation and understanding between these two creative design forces. No prerequisite knowledge is required, apart from a desire to tell compelling stories married with compelling player interaction.

    As GDC Online reveals more events leading up to the date it takes place (October 10-13), you can expect us to let you know.

  • PAX East: Interview With Hall Hood

    Darth Hater had a conversation about conversation with Hall Hood, Senior Writer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, at this year's PAX East in Boston. Hood is one of the writers involved in the story of the Jedi Knight as well as the Smuggler, and he also wrote the story for the Taral V Flashpoint available for play at the convention.



    As always, the transcript is available after the jump.

  • Developer Q&A Live Blog with BioWare

    BioWare hosted a two Q and A sessions, one at 4PM EST with Daniel Erickson and James Ohlen and another with writers Jessica Sliwinski, Hall Hood, and Daniel Erickson at 5PM EST on the presentation stage. The developers fielded questions from the whole community there at PAX East. We're working to bring you notes on the questions and answers from the event in Live Blog form. For the sake of time we combined both panels to bring you this as quick as possible. Keep in mind that all of these should be considered paraphrased (extremely rough) quotes due to time constraints and a lack of transcription at the moment. We will add lengthier and direct quotes when we are able to. Notes from the event follow after the jump. Check back over the next few hours for notes coming in from the two Q and As.

  • Friday's Developer Blog Update - August 7, 2009

    Today's developer blog is one from Hall Hood on the creation of the smuggler class:

    The Old Republic is the first Star Wars video game to let players truly live the dream of being Han Solo or Lando Calrissian. Other games have let you engage in a bit of smuggling for profit or simulate scoundrels as a collection of stat bonuses, but none come close to delivering the humor, romance and just plain fun of being a wisecracking Smuggler who triumphs against all odds. Every member of The Old Republic team is committed to crafting the defining rendition of the Smuggler archetype.

  • Zam Interview with Bioware on SW:TOR

    Zam.com had the chance to sit down with Jake Neri and Hall Hood from Bioware to talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic. The interview among other things discusses what they talked about at Comic-Con, Lucas, and the story of the game.

    There was one thing that personally struck me in the interview:

    And by the way, the people who are spending time breaking down the game; that's really, really flattering. It's very humbling for all of usI think that sort of passion that people are putting into [analyzing] this game only fuels us more.


    I would like to make a leap on that one but I probably shouldn't. ;)

  • Comic-Con Panel: SW:TOR Behind the Scenes Panel

    After about a month of speculating the Star Wars panel has come and gone at Comic-Con 2009. As everyone is well aware, G4 was unable to attend the event.Lucky for you Darth Hater was there to save the dayWe now have is recording of the panel ready for you.

    1:00-2:00 Friday - Star Wars Day: Behind the Scenes: The Making of Star Wars: The Old Republic Jake Neri (producer, LucasArts) speaks with Hall Hood (senior writer, BioWare), Alexander Freed (managing editor, BioWare), Dallas Dickinson (senior content producer, BioWare), and Jeff Dobson (art director, BioWare), about the making of the new massively multiplayer online role-playing PC game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Join the team to get new behind-the-scenes information about the game Room 7AB