LucasArts

From Monkey Island wiki

LucasArts
Type	Subsidiary of LucasFilm
Headquarters	San Fransisco, California, United States
Key People	George Lucas (Chairman) Darrell Rodriguez (President)
Products	Star Wars games, Adventure Games
Employees	350+
Homepage	Lucas Arts

LucasArts is an American video game developer and producer founded in 1982. It was the video game development group of LucasFilm Limited, the film production company of George Lucas and became well known for adventure games in the 1990's such as the Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango. The company has both developed and published a number of Star Wars games since.

1 Adventure Games
2 Current LucasArts
3 Future LucasArts
4 Footnotes
5 External links

Adventure Games

The first adventure game created by LucasFilm was Labyrinth in 1986, based on the LucasFilm movie of the same name. The second game was called Maniac Mansion and is known for being the first game to use the SCUMM Engine, which was used for nearly all other adventure games developed by LucasArts. Zack McKracken and the Alien Mind Benders was developed in 1988 and the game version of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was released in 1989, both using the SCUMM Engine. The Secret of Monkey Island was released in 1990, created by Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer, which helped LucasFilm build a reputation in the adventure game genre, alongside Sierra.
In the first half of the 1990's Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge,Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and the Maniac Mansion sequel Day of the Tentacle were developed and released, achieving critical acclaim.^[1]^[2]
However, during the second half of the 1990's interest in the adventure game genre started to wane, as consoles such as the Playstation lead to a greater interest in 3D gaming. LucasArts however, continued to produce adventure games and during the mid-to-late 90's more adventure games were released. In 1995, the Tim Schafer game, Full Throttle was released, and in 1997, Curse of Monkey Island was released, continuing with the 2D point n click adventure games. These games achieved moderate success, though LucasArts aimed to bring 3D gaming to the adventure genre and Grim Fandango was released. This was the first adventure game title in 10 years not to use the SCUMM Engine and instead used the GrimE Engine. Because it was 3D, you no longer controlled the game with the keyboard and mouse, and instead the directional arrows were used. Though this was a change from the standard adventure game, it was rated highly in reviews^[3] and even received a Game of the Year from GameSpot. Despite the positive reception, sales of the game were poor. Despite the poor sales, one more adventure game was made. Escape from Monkey Island, released in 2000 was the fourth installment in the series and used an updated version of the GrimE engine, The LUA Engine. It was LucasArts second 3D adventure game and had similar controls to Grim Fandango. Sales were, once again, favourable^[4] though Escape from Monkey Island after this LucasArts appeared to have quit developing adventure games.
Two more adventure games were announced. However, the proposed sequel to Full Throttle was cancelled in 2003. A sequel to Sam & Max: Hit the Road was also in development, though was cancelled in 2004. LucasArts stated that adventure game development was not appropriate in the current marketplace.^[5]Many of the developers of this cancelled game then move on to form a new company, Telltale Games, which was founded in 2004.

Current LucasArts

After the cancellation of the new Sam & Max game, LucasArts were developing no more adventure games. This lead to a focus on the Star Wars Franchise with many Star Wars games being both developed and produced by LucasArts. In 2000, A Star Wars MMORPG,Star Wars Galaxies was released, which received many expansions. A BioWare developed RPG, Knights of the old Republic was also released in 2003 and it received a sequel in 2004. In the same year, Star Wars: Battlefront was released and again, a sequel was released the following year. 2005 not only saw Star Wars: Battlefront 2 but also Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Republic Commando and LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game. LucasArts also published the game Mercenaries in 2005, one of their few non-Star Wars games.
In 2006 the RTS game Star Wars: Empire at War was released, as was LEGO Star Wars 2: The Original trilogy. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released in 2008. The same year LEGO Indiana Jones was released, another non-Star Wars game.

Future LucasArts

Currently a sequel to LEGO Indiana Jones is in development^[6] by developer Traveller's Tales. Additionally, BioWare is currently developing a new Star Wars MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Star Wars: The Clone Wars-Republic Heroes is also due for release on all current consoles.

On June 1st 2009 LucasArts revealed plans to revisit the adventure game genre. A Secret of Monkey Island remake was confirmed for release in Summer 2009 and will include updated visuals and full voice over work. Additionally, Telltale Games announced that they were working in collaboration with LucasArts to develop a new Monkey Island game. Tales of Monkey Island in an episodic adventure game that will be released in 5 monthly instalments. The first episode was released on July 7th 2009.^[7]