A world without Lucas Arts

Working in a game industry for more than few years tends to desensitize one to all the news about mass layoffs & companies going bust. Sadly, it happens so often, we’re slowly becoming used to it. I first found out about Disney shutting down Lucas Arts at work. Sure, I was surprised, it’s a big news after all, but I was busy, so didn’t think twice about it… I finished work, came home, read all the updates and then it suddenly hit me. LucasArts is no more.

It wasn’t the same company as in the 80s/90s and the last LA game I played was The Force Unleashed, but it is an end of an era… So many great memories. I was a huge fan of adventure games when growing up and Sierra & Lucas were probably my favorite companies. I must admit I’m not that crazy about Monkey Island, riddles were a little too abstract for my taste (or perhaps I was too young/my English sucked too much to appreciate it), but finished it and enjoyed it obviously. Indiana Jones, though - oh, that’s a different story. I still remember completing the first chapter, watching the movie-like Indy map sequence and thinking to myself: “best game ever”. Little did I know… My favorite LucasArts adventure game (or maybe the best adventure game ever?) is actually Day of the Tentacle. Surreal, yet logical, just ingenious.

Then there are all the space shooter games… I’m ashamed to admit Tie Fighter was the first game I cracked (in my defense there was absolutely no way to obtain a legal copy of that game in Poland back then and I never released the crack to public)… I loved LA games as a kid and never thought too much about technology behind them. It was years later when I learned about all the cool stuff like SCUMM… Hell, those guys made an MMO running on C64…

LucasArts of today wasn’t the same company and as I mentioned, I no longer followed their releases religiously… It’s still a bit of a symbol to me. Their games provided me with hundreds of hours of pure, unadulterated fun. I can still remember the feeling of booting new game, seeing the logo and getting ready for adventure. It’s a sad day. To all Lucas Arts employees - thank you. /salute.