Star Wars: Jedi Survivor composers reveal secret George Lucas influence

Items discussed include the secret influence of George Lucas on the project – with Haab and Barton reusing a piece of Lucas's direction during Survivor's development – and the current status of Star Wars Jedi 3.

If you're more of a written person, we'll spell out some of the key quotes after the video.

So, what's it like stepping into the musical legacy of John Williams (composer on the Star Wars films)? Given that the music of Star Wars is so memorable, and carries so much emotional weight for fans, it must be a challenge trying to work in that space.

Haab told us: "It's always a challenge, and I've had the fortune of working on quite a few Star Wars gaming titles, starting back from The Old Republic and the Battlefront series as well. And over my time working on that franchise, I've slowly progressed to sort of putting my own aesthetic in it a bit more.

"And I think, with this game, we've really been able to sort of stretch out, and not necessarily move away from what makes Star Wars so great, but enhance it and bring our own voice to it, so to speak."

One thing we've noticed in Jedi Survivor recently, having revisited the game to polish off those bounty hunter side missions and collect some trophies, is that even the most incidental music in the most obscure corner of the galaxy is caked in emotional swells.

Barton said: "That was one of the things at the very outset that we wanted to do. We wanted to make sure there were no unloved children. Because, you know, there's games where you go off and do side quests and stuff. And you can sort of tell, you know, this was just off-cuts or just some stems from something else. It doesn't really work.

"So we've tried to make sure that there's loads of stuff you can find, and loads of stuff that's unique. There's one area called the Funky Cabins, and there's one piece of music, it only plays there. If you never go there... or if you never do the Rancor, you'll never hear the Rancor music. But that's up to you."

As for George Lucas, the secret influence of his original Star Wars direction can be heard in the Jedi Survivor cantina music, on which Haab and Barton collaborated with a number of indie bands.

Barton explained: "Well, it's really funny because when we went out to the bands who worked on the cantina music, it was really interesting.

"We gave them the same brief that George Lucas gave to John Williams for the original cantina music, of saying like, 'What if aliens beamed down in 1,000 years, and found like a written-down version of your music, but they had no idea what the instruments were, no idea what it was?'

"Wouldn't it be cool if you gave that [brief] to a whole bunch of really interesting indie bands?"

The result is a jukebox full of interesting songs that you can collect for the jukebox in Pyloon's Saloon on Koboh, just one of the many examples of music being used in fascinating ways in Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. The track we've embedded below was by the band Joywave.

As for the heavily rumoured Star Wars Jedi 3, Barton said: "Do you know what? I'm not even sure where we're up to on the official stuff, but it's, you know... obviously, that's something we're very, very heavily, heavily, heavily… you know, it's in motion."

Haab noted at this point: "The story is not complete, so to speak."

Barton added: "I think it's a lot of figuring out where to go next. And it's, you know, the basic arcs are there. But yeah, it's gonna be fun."

In the meantime, it's time to jump back into Jedi Survivor and find those Funky Cabins!

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