Get into Gaming talk on the legacy of Lucasarts

The slides from my Get into Gaming presentation on Wednesday 12 June 2013. It is missing all my talking over the top which brings it together, but there are the quotes from David Fox in 1986 and 2013 (this year) about working at Lucasfilm Games/Lucasarts.

Worth noting the Seth Godin quotes were put in as an example of some of the stuff people spout in the "modern world". I went on to compared the LucasArts 'mantra' of "don't ship shit" to "modern" approaches, such as "release realy, release often".

Transcript

10. Christmas, 1986
17. LUCASFILM – LUCASFILM! – MAKE COMPUTER GAMES!
20. DAVID FOX, PROJECT LEADER, MAY 1986 -1 I’d say PEOPLE CAME HERE, OR ONE OF THE REASONS WE ENDED UP HERE, ARE BECAUSE WE’RE ALL VERY MUCH IMPRESSED WITH THE TYPE OF WORK THAT GEORGE LUCAS DID WITH HIS FILMS AND WE APPRECIATE FILM TYPE EXPERIENCES...
21. DAVID FOX, PROJECT LEADER, MAY 1986 -2 ...SO WE DID THAT IN A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO CREATE THAT FEELING AND BRING IT OVER INTO THE GAMES.
23. REPUTATION STRONG STORY TELLING STRONG EXPERIENCES SENSE OF ADVENTURE, EVEN UNIQUE REWARDING HIGHEST QUALITY
24. I WANT TO WORK SOMEWHERE LIKE THAT!
25. ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????
26. HOW?... …because they’re lucasart?
27. ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????
29. DAVID FOX, EX-LUCASFILM GAMES, 2013 -1 When I first started working at Lucasfilm in 1982, we had a heavy burden to bear. How could we create games that were as compelling as the Star Wars films but without mining ideas from the Star Wars universe?
30. DAVID FOX, EX-LUCASFILM GAMES, 2013 -2 While other game companies of the 1980s had to rely on the income from their games to survive, we had the unheard-of luxury of taking our time to get our games right, with years to experiment, try new things, push the envelope, and with no pressure from marketing, focus testing, or even George Lucas.
31. DAVID FOX, EX-LUCASFILM GAMES, 2013 -3 So we’d spend months thinking about our games, brainstorming with the other brilliant designers, refining, reworking, revamping, tossing out the parts that didn’t work (or the entire concept) and starting again.
32. DAVID FOX, EX-LUCASFILM GAMES, 2013 -4 One of our edicts was “don’t ship shit” - and we wanted to make sure we never did.
33. DAVID FOX, EX-LUCASFILM GAMES, 2013 -5 I think one thing that differentiated our graphic adventure games from "the competition" was our goal of creating puzzles that made people laugh with joy when they solved them.
34. DAVID FOX, EX-LUCASFILM GAMES, 2013 -6 We wanted people to have that a-ha! moment when they figured it all out. I think "the competition's" graphic adventures were sometimes mean-spirited, adding barriers to play that sometimes seemed like they were messing with the player.
37. SETH GODIN, Entrepreneur, last weekend -1 Perfect doesn't mean flawless. Perfect means it does exactly what I need it to do. A vacation can be perfect even if the nuts on the plane weren't warmed before serving. Any project that's held up in revisions and meetings and general fear-based polishing is the victim of a crime.
38. SETH GODIN, Entrepreneur, last weekend -2 It's a crime because you're stealing that perfect work from a customer who will benefit from it. You're holding back the good stuff from the people who need it, afraid of what the people who don't will say.
39. SETH GODIN, Entrepreneur, last weekend -3 Stop polishing and ship instead. Polished perfect isn't better than perfect, it's merely shinier. And late.
41. LUCASFILM MAdE COMPUTER GAMES! LucasARTS made some of the finest examples of interactive story telling the world ever did saw.
42. ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????
43. THEY HAD TALENT. They HAD FUN. THEY GAVE US FUN.
44. MUTUAL TIME SWAP THEY TOOK OUR TIME. They took their time.
45. Time ran out.
46. HAS THAT TIME GONE FOREVER?
47. THEIR LEGACY? THEY HAVE CHANGED THE WAY WE LOOK AT CERTAIN THINGS FOREVER
49. THEIR LEGACY? EMBRACE THAT LUCASARTS SPIRIT EVERY DAY.