The chance to bring a new character to life in Star Wars Outlaws, set in a galaxy far, far away, was a dream come true for the team at Massive. But as Associate Art Director Malte Jönkers explained at the Malmö, Sweden studio, they first had to learn how to design a character that was memorable and unique, but also “Star Wars-esque.” Creating a character for the open-world adventure in a universe filled with unforgettable characters, from loveable heroes to complex villains to lovable droids, began with thinking about the type of story the team wanted to tell. Once they had their direction set on a rogue fantasy, Massive had to craft a character that not only embodied that, but also expressed what Jönkers and the team believed was at the heart of a Star Wars story.
“Star Wars Story [like in] “The original trilogy is very much about personal stories,” Jonkers said. “You follow people’s personal stories and relationships. It was really important to us to have a character that could take you on this journey into the underworld. We really wanted to see if we could design a character that could embody this rogue fantasy, someone who starts out as a simple thief, and then develops into a villain as he gets to know the underworld.”
“This was a jumping off point for Kay and Nix, because Nix was there from the beginning,” Jonkers adds. “We wanted to include this duo because Star Wars stories are also about relationships and how people interact with each other, and with Kay and Nix as our protagonists, we really have the opportunity to tell those stories.”
Attention to detail
(Image courtesy of Ubisoft)
Similar to Massive’s approach to open-world design and the story of Star Wars Outlaws, the team followed guidelines that “were the backbone of George Lucas’s designs” to ensure the characters were well integrated into the galaxy. For example, most Star Wars characters are recognizable by their strong silhouettes, so legible designs were key. In particular, their approach followed the three-second rule: when you see a character, you can get a rough idea of who they are. Injecting personality and a level of believability through color and shape was also crucial to making each individual character feel relatable and real.
Even the smallest details in a character’s design can tell a story in and of themselves: At their studio in Malmö, Sweden, the art team guides the cast through the design process, paying close attention to small decals and features that further define a character’s personality or depict their life experiences.
For example, many of Kay Vess’ designs offer glimpses into her personality and background. First, her broken nose speaks to her impatient nature and history as a thief in her home town of Kanto Bight, where danger is always close by. Also, the hairpin she always wears is made from a stick of dice and a data spike she picked up in Casino City, which she uses as a makeshift key. Other details include a small tattoo of Nyx on her wrist, which shows her impulsive side and deep connection to little Merkar, and a large star map tattoo on her chest, which hints at her desire for freedom and adventure.
(Image courtesy of Ubisoft)
Jonkers explains that many of these little touches came about over time as the story unfolded, while others shaped who she became as a character. “Because there are multiple teams involved, these characters really develop as we work on them,” Jonkers says. “With Kay, for example, we don’t just design her visually, we design her story. [team]Same with casting. If you find Hanbury [González] She played Kay and added so much to Kay. Suddenly Kay came alive, she had a voice, she had facial expressions in the animation, and slowly but surely, all these little details were added.”
These little touches are meant to make the characters look more authentic, and Jonkers said his approach to the designs was 80 percent realistic and 20 percent exotic to achieve that Star Wars feel.
“It was really important to us that Kay was a relatable character – someone that you could relate to, that you could feel, ‘Oh, I can relate to her,'” Jonkers says. “She’s a little bit impulsive and very spontaneous. I think ND-5 comes in as a counterpoint to that. We combined all these characters together to create some interesting contrasts. We even made a chart to explore how this character relates to this other character. [so we can ask]Do they like each other? Or what’s going on between them? You really get a sense of the different personalities, the web of different interactions.”
New and authentic
(Image courtesy of Ubisoft)
ND-5’s personality contrasts with Kay’s, but many features and elements tell us more about the droid. As a BX commando droid, the dents and damage on his chest show the scars of old battles in the Clone Wars. And his most striking feature is his jacket, which also serves a narrative purpose. “The reason he’s wearing this coat is because he wants to hide,” Jonkers said. “He has a lot of scars, some of which are hidden by the jacket, and that’s because he’s been through a lot. He’s conflicted with his past and he doesn’t really know where he stands, so he uses the jacket to hide. And we made sure that even in his animation, you could see that he doesn’t stand up straight, he’s actually always a little hunched over.”
Despite being a droid, a lot of effort was put into giving ND-5 a personality, and that effort certainly paid off when the character was first revealed, though not in the way the team had anticipated, with many fans bitterly disliking the “hot droid.”
“It was a pleasant surprise,” laughs lead concept artist Samuel de Vos. “The next morning [ND-5’s reveal]Everybody in the office was like, ‘We did it.'”
“That was really shocking to me, because we didn’t really have that in mind when we were designing him,” Jonkers adds with a smile. “Everyone says, ‘Wasn’t Nix just the cute guy?’ And now we have ND-5. It was really funny. But you can see that people understand that we gave him a lot of personality, and that was a big success. Of course, it’s hard to give a droid a lot of personality, but there’s still a lot of possibilities, like scars and a jacket. I think that helped. But at the same time, because he’s a droid, he’s very forthright and goal-oriented. Kay and he will have a lot of discussions about that, because in terms of their motivations, it doesn’t always line up perfectly.”
(Image courtesy of Ubisoft)
“You may not have seen it before, but you feel like you’re part of the Star Wars galaxy, which is something we’re really proud of.”
Marthe Yonkers, Associate Artistic Director
Though ND-5 and Kay don’t always see eye to eye, Nix is firmly with us as we explore the Outer Rim. As a character that’s been with us since the beginning of Star Wars Outlaws, it was important to make Nix appealing, relatable, and a character that expresses herself in many different ways. That’s why Nix has soft fur and large, expressive eyes and ears. Nix is an all-new race that Massive “created from the ground up” in collaboration with LucasFilm Games, and as Senior Concept Artist Yulia Misyul explains, they wanted Nix to be believable by “looking at nature and the real world around us.”
“A lot of the wildlife in Star Wars looks realistic because it’s based on real animals,” de Vos says, “and that’s true for all the new wildlife the team designed. For example, Kijimi has Kor, which means cow in Dutch. Nyx looks realistic because he takes a lot of inspiration from existing animals. Nyx is not as simple as a cow, but he’s clearly based on the axolotl, with his tentacles and scales.”
Through this grounded approach, the team aimed to bring to life characters that feel new and authentic to the universe — a tricky balance to strike, but one that Massive hopes will pay off when you meet the cast of Star Wars Outlaws on August 30, 2024.
“When designing characters and creatures, it was important to us not to necessarily look at Star Wars and think, ‘Okay, let’s make something that looks like that,'” Jonkers said. “We were looking at Star Wars and Lucasfilm Games. They gave us a lot of references and drawings, Ralph McQuarrie’s sketches, which were great, but we looked at that and said, ‘The actual inspiration is [behind them] “It was something else. It was these kinds of creatures, it was these kinds of movies, or it was these kinds of settings or places.”
“And we used the exact same approach to create all the characters, creatures, and places ourselves,” Jonkers continues. “I think we were pretty successful with that, because we managed to create something that feels very authentic, like the original trilogy, but also very new. It’s something you’ve never seen before, but it feels like it’s part of the Star Wars galaxy. That’s something I’m really proud of.”
You can “tinker” with Star Wars Outlaws’ GTA-style wanted system to create the “ultimate open-world Playground-type self-imposed challenge.”
