Following the cancellation of the long-awaited PC game, Obi-Wan, TheForce.net's Joshua Griffin got a chance to speak with the president of LucasArts, Simon Jeffery. Here's part one of our interview, come back tomorrow for the second part which will feature more on Obi-Wan's cancellation, and will touch upon upcoming titles.

TheForce.net: You've been with the company for about a year - what drew you to LucasArts, and what prior experience did you have?

Simon Jeffery: Actually, I have been with LucasArts for nearly for three years. Prior to joining LucasArts I worked in a number of Marketing, Business and Development roles for Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts. I've been in the gaming industry for around 14 years, and for the majority of that time it had been a personal ambition to work at LucasArts. I am a huge Star Wars fan (I've seen A New Hope 93 times), an avid gamer, and list 3 LucasArts games in my all time top 5.

TFN: What systems do you play most personally, and what was the first video game system you ever owned?

SJ: Currently I play games on my PC, Dreamcast and PS2. Personally, PC gaming is my preference. The first system I owned was one of those dedicated Pong TV games, but the thing that really gave me the gaming bug was buying a Sinclair ZX81 with wobbly 16K RAM pack - spending hours typing BASIC programs in so I could play games that involved an invasion of number 8's being warded off by an upside down letter T. I guess you had to be there to know what I'm talking about. No graphics!

TFN: What are your goals for LucasArts, and how active of a role do you play in the decision making processes of making great games?

SJ: The goals we have set for LucasArts are many and varied, but the overriding goal, the goal that everyone in the Company marches toward, is a return to superlative quality in every game that we release. It's still a bumpy road, and unfortunately we are upsetting a few people along the way. However, we truly believe that in a couple of years, all LucasArts and Star Wars gaming fans will look back and say, 'Ah, it was really worth it'. I'm very involved in the game-related decision making processes at the Company. I work very closely with Randy Breen, our new VP of Development, and with the directors and the producers on all major decisions - including the painful ones. Despite what many fans are saying at the moment, I am a gamer, I'm passionate about games, and I spend a good amount of time playing all LucasArts games in development - which isn't easy!

TFN: We know some of the reasons for cancelling the PC version of Obi-Wan, could you elaborate on the decision-making process for our visitors? Many are concerned about the cancellation of such an exciting project and would be very interested in hearing a more detailed explanation that a press release can afford.

SJ: Unfortunately I can't go into too much detail at this point, as there are still some issues which need finalizing with Obi Wan. I can say that Obi Wan was not the game that many fans seemed to believe it was. The decision to make it a console game was largely taken because it was already half way there in terms of what the game had evolved into. The initial design was huge, and some features worked really well, others didn't. For instance, the glyph system combined with mouse-look was proving too problematic for a workable camera - and playability really suffered as a result. We want to make a fun game, and sadly, the glyph system wasn't fun. I am full of admiration and respect for the team that has put so much into this game - they have created some truly remarkable stuff that we are still planning to feature in the final game - but sadly it won't be a PC game.

I also think it's really important for people to know that the Obi Wan team is fully behind the decision to move to console. The decision was not made one by a bunch of management suits peering at their spreadsheets. It was made after weeks of collaborative work between the team, the design directors, and management. I'd go so far as to say that the whole company was involved - we had one of our infamous pizza orgies for the game back in September when around 75 people from the company at large spent time playing the game and providing feedback.

We have a new director on the team, and they are motivated and energized to build a really cool game.

TFN: What does the next generation hardware allow you to do that current PC technology doesn't?

SJ: I think there has been some confusion about this point, and in hindsight, wish that we had made the wording a little clearer in our statement. We do not believe that PC technology has been outdated by the next gen consoles. We do however believe that the array of non-standard specifications associated with PC gaming were proving problematic for the game. The game was running beautifully on a 1ghz PC with a Geforce II and 128M RAM. However, it was really struggling with lower spec machines - and that became an issue for us.