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#StarWarsRepublicCommando might be my favorite game dev experience of all time. I started in December of 2002 as the game's "Audio Lead." I was to head up all sound, music and voice-over efforts. "You're responsible for everything that comes out of the speakers." I was 27.
I worked on RepComm for almost 2 straight years, finishing in October '04 at the age of 29. It was the most detailed and personal expression of my love of @starwars to date. I. Was. THRILLED to be its audio lead.
Early on, we first proved out the game with a vertical slice of the Republic Assault Ship: single player only. Later, the squad mechanic came along. It was clear that this Alien-inspired level was a much darker, grittier version of @starwars
We did a teaser trailer in 2003, before we had a composer assigned. In a panic, I asked my manager "who can I get to do the music?" Nobody was available, as our staff composers were booked on other games at the time. So I wrote it.
In the trailer you can hear a diminished version of the Trade Fed March theme over the LucasArts logo. I used a Korg Triton for synth tones at the beginning & end, & had just a few sample libraries to work with. But since I knew what I'd be doing with Sound Design, it worked out.
A short time later, @oogew came on as the composer, and we had the BEST. TIME. His music is perfect for the game. For more on that, check out our podcast with game director @timlongojr and lead programmer @brett_douville https://www.devgameclub.com/blog/2020/6/24/dgc-ep-217-swrc-bonus-interview-with-david-collins-and-jesse-harlin
You can hear @oogew and I talking about music and sound respectively in a great video diary here: https://www.gamespot.com/videos/star-wars-republic-commando-developer-diary/2300-6118482/
The games industry was maturing, & we were able to do things we couldn't do before. I pushed for Foley at @skywalkersound. Seems funny, but it was a novel idea at the time. The producers thought the process was so cool that we shot this bonus video:
My voice acting career was ramping up, & I'd just recorded Trandoshans for KOTOR. As a result, I ended up voicing all the trandoshans in #StarWarsRepublicCommando (I also say, very loudly at the top of the game "OK group B, Let's go! Push those cannons" etc when leaving Kamino)
A lot of sounds from Travis Air Force Base and a Piru canyon gun shoot (for a game called Mercenaries) were re-worked, @starwars-style, for sounds in this game. I love the DC-17 and its attachments, the sounds are so fun. But my fav weapon sound in the game is the Geo Elite beam
My favorite part of RepComm is from the opening through the arena during the battle of Geonosis. Late in development, VP Peter Hirschmann decided we needed to add an exciting opening level to serve as the game's tutorial. Thus, the arena level was born.
This arena level, @oogew and I decided, would be "that one @starwars scene without music." So the sound was really important. There were a ton of background sounds, lots of explos, enemies, etc... but what really made the level work was when I added this:
Radio chatter, THX 1138-style. From the time the gunship first drops to when you finish the arena, there is constant radio chatter. I recorded and ring-modulated my own voice late one night, making some stuff up...
It really made the level come alive. The LD showed me how to script it all up, and help pace it between the dialog. I also placed randomized distant death yells of clones all throughout. It's just battle chaos. It was important because sound was masking what was really a tutorial
Karen Traviss' first RepComm novel "Hard Contact" was about to be released while we were pushing to finish the game. Everyone on the team got a copy, & I had one at my desk. Inspiring!
But the best story to come out of RepComm is this: the clones themselves changed at the very last minute. It was a change George Lucas himself wanted. A step toward what he would eventually do in Ep3 and Clone Wars.
Before ep3, all we had to go on was ep2. Clones were... clones. They looked the same, sounded the same. Our game was edgy, gritty, and the clones were professionals without much personality distinction.
My early pitch on how to voice this was to hire @Tem_Morrison as the main clone (the player), and have three soundalikes accompany him so as to avoid confusion. This was how the game was for over a year. You can hear it in this E3 2004 trailer:
Little did we know that George was working on diversifying the clones in Ep3. He had us do the same: one should be humorous, one should be cold, etc. He suggested Robin Williams play the funny one (we reached out to him and he respectfully declined).
We went into emergency re-cast mode. I got back amazing auditions. One was from @RaphaelSbarge, who had such great humor & presence. Another was Jonathan Cook, who you can hear doing promo work all the time and had a super-deep voice. They sounded great when I cut them together.
We had previously recorded so much for the game, and sadly some actors didn't stay in. But @kidbeyond stayed as Delta 40 (Fixer), and doubles as the Clone Advisor. He was great! Together w @Tem_Morrison, the ensemble known as Delta Squad came together a month before we finished.
Last story: I flew to New Zealand to record Tem at @aucklandaudio in September 04. I was nervous, but he was amazing. I brought him a laptop and showed him the game, launched it right out of Unreal 2. Not only did he crush his lines over 2 days, but he then showed me about town!
Here are some never-before-seen pictures of his #StarWarsRepublicCommando VO sessions.
I'm immensely proud of #StarWarsRepublicCommando. Huge thanks to the amazing team, to our dialog lead and friend Harrison Deutsch (currently at @Respawn on the SW team), and @oogew for the incredible music. It's one of the greatest joys of my LucasArts career. #LucasArtsMemories
This week, #StarWarsRepublicCommando is now available on Playstation and Nintendo for the first time ever. I'm excited for @starwars fans and gamers to discover it, and hope you enjoy it as much as we loved making it!
