The Making of Holotactics, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Masterful Mini-Game

For me, there’s nothing quite like being sidetracked from the game you’re playing by an The same but differentIt is a game. The Witcher 3.’s Gwent, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s Orlog, Red Dead Redemption’s Five Finger Fillet, Yakuza – Like a Dragon’s Property Management – all have managed to help pull me away from my epochal quests by offering a totally separate distraction.

When travelling to Star Wars Jedi: The SurvivorHolotactics is one of the best examples I have seen. This mini-game brilliantly pulls together disparate pieces of the main game’s design and offers a pint-sized strategy experience, pitched somewhere between chess, Battle Simulator that is Totally AccurateIt must have been a strange feeling to watch gladiator combat as a Roman Emperor.

As you travel through the game, you can scan enemy units, which acts something like catching a Pokémon – that scan pulls the AI enemy into Holotactics as a usable unit, who can be added to miniature armies. You’re tasked with using a set number of points to put together a force that can take down an opponent’s own army – the twist being that you have no direct control, it’s all guided by the game’s own enemy AI and behavior systems, leaving you to watch and wait for whether your specific line-up can best their aggressors.

The game became addicting after a single battle. I began a quest to acquire as many of the units as I could. By the time I was close to finishing the main game, I’d amassed a coterie of units able to take down my most skilled opponents – an act as satisfying as mastering my lightsaber stances. I wanted to know how Respawn made this amazing mini-game. And the obvious love they put into the source material.

“We had made a small prototype for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order [and]We could now fully understand it Star Wars Jedi: The Survivor.”

Thankfully, I was able to speak to Technical Designer Michel Wong and Technical Design Director Brandon Kelch – and it turns out they’d been thinking about Holotactics for far longer than just Jedi: Survivor’s development.

“We’ve always wanted to showcase our AI vs AI systems, ever since Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order,” says Wong. “You see this in little scenes of stormtroopers getting mauled by local fauna sprinkled throughout both games. We wanted to make a more robust prototype that would engage players. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Unfortunately, it was not in scope of that project. However, we were able to finally realize the full potential. Star Wars Jedi Survivor.”

“A robust mini-game can make the world feel so much bigger in a video game,” continues Kelch. “Early on in development, Holotactics delivered on that Star Wars fantasy I had from Chewie playing Han in the Millenium Falcon during ‘A New Hope’, and I was so excited to be able to experience that again.”

Kelch’s reference is to Dejarik, a holographic game of chess that was introduced in the Star Wars first movie. Fans were quick to notice the similarities between Holotactics and Dejarik, and it’s no coincidence.

“We definitely took inspiration from Dejarik… especially on crafting the look and feel of the game,” explains Wong. “I really liked how tactile Dejarik felt, like playing with your own little action figures, and it was something I wanted to convey through Holotactics.”

The brilliance of Holotactics lies in how it uses what you’re already familiar with – you spend so much time fighting off bandits, Empire forces, and hostile fauna that you’re innately familiar with how they’ll act within the mini-game before you even opt to use them. But making Holotactics wasn’t as simple as plonking AI characters onto a holographic battlefield.

“We were luckily able to leverage a lot of existing tech,” says Kelch, “but of course there’s always snags and hurdles to overcome. A holographic filter caused the entire enemy FX effect to disappear. Droideka’s muzzle flashes were causing white flashes that would fill up the entire screen.

“The Skriton [an enormous scorpion-like boss enemy] had to be modified to not burrow underground; most AI units would just completely stop working when they couldn’t target it underground. Plus it was visually difficult to understand and prolonged the fight too much.”

Holotactics is a game that grows along with the player, and not only in terms of units, but also in the enemies you face. The following are some examples of the use of – it reflects and rewards your progress, like a whole separate upgrade tree designed simply around fun. As Kelch explains, the team also didn’t want you to get bogged down in a single difficult battle:

“The goal was for each opponent to only require a handful of attempts. Because BD-1 allows you to expand the number of units available as you play, we needed many viable configurations that could win each challenge. And the units you unlock later in the story, like Dark Troopers and Droideka, are intentionally more powerful to match against the last few opponents.”

“A robust mini-game can make the world feel so much bigger in a video game.”

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Holotactics is that, if you didn’t engage with the main game’s side content, you might never even see it. Holotactics, which is unlocked via an optional side mission, requires you to invest in order to even see it. This may seem like a bold choice, but the decision was made with great purpose.

“I think that’s actually a ‘design trap’ to overly fear optional content,” says Kelch. “A large portion of players are never going to finish a video game, so early optional content often reaches a larger portion than the final boss fight. I love including that moment where a player discovers an awesome experience that they had to seek out themselves.”

It certainly worked on me – realizing the scale of what I’d unlocked through a simple side quest was one of my favorite moments of Jedi: Survivor Overall, the whole. Only one question remains: Will this be our last look at Holotactics or will we ever see Cal Kestis jump back on the board?

“We don’t have anything to announce at this time,” Kelch replies, “but it’s been awesome to see all the delighted reactions from fans.”

They say you should always leave them wanting more… but I really do hope we get some more.

STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor™

Electronic Arts

☆☆☆☆☆
444

★★★★★

$69.99

$48.99

The story of Cal Kestis continues in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor™, a third person galaxy-spanning action-adventure game from Respawn Entertainment, developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. This narratively-driven, single player title picks up five years after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order™ and follows Cal’s increasingly desperate fight as the galaxy descends further into darkness. Cal is pushed out to the outer edges of the Galaxy by the Empire and will face new and old enemies. As one of the last surviving Jedi Knights, Cal is driven to make a stand during the galaxy’s darkest times – but how far is he willing to go to protect himself, his crew, and the legacy of the Jedi Order?

• Continue Cal’s Journey – No longer a Padawan, Cal has come into his own and grown into a powerful Jedi Knight. As he continues to carry the memory and expectation of the Jedi Order, Cal’s crusade is becoming more dangerous. The Dark Times are closing in – with enemies new and familiar surrounding him, Cal will need to decide how far he’s willing to go to save those closest to him.

• Go Beyond Your Training – The cinematic combat system returns with additional Force abilities and new lightsaber fighting styles. Leverage all the abilities and weapons in a creative way to battle an increased number of opponents, while analyzing their strengths and weakness.

• Explore an Untamed Galaxy – Discover new planets and familiar frontiers in the Star Wars galaxy, each with unique biomes, challenges, and enemies. Learn new abilities, skills and equipment that enhance the way you fight and explore. There are more areas to explore, and there is much to be discovered off the main path.

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