Game Developer Bit Reactor Delves Into Its Vision for Future ‘Star Wars’ Tactics Game
In a new feature interview from PC Gamer, developer Bit Reactor elaborated on its ambitions for its future Star Wars tactical strategy game. The team composed of multiple Firaxis and XCOM veterans also shared how influential and helpful Respawn Entertainment has been (the developers behind the Star Wars Jedi series who are now serving as publishers for this upcoming game).
Bit Reactor is the newly established development studio that is working with Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts (EA) to create a new Star Wars tactical strategy game. The tactical genre is most famous for games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and the rebooted XCOM series. The genre typically features gameplay where the player commands units across a board and orders them around, similar to something like virtual chess.
PC Gamer interviewed Greg Foertsch (co-founder/CEO/creative director) and Hector Antunez (lead animator) about their goals for their upcoming game. Both are genre veterans from developer Firaxis. Antunez emphasizes the team’s desire to make something appealing for those who’ve never played the genre and to help them get into it:
“When we’re talking about growing the genre and expanding it, a big thing for me is going to be getting it in more people’s hands. It bums me out that more people don’t play these types of games, and when we dig into that, we get into hearing these preconceived notions.
So every time we’ve made a game, we’ve focused on, ‘What are going to be inviting things, for others that know nothing about this?’ Because everybody that does play [this genre] does end up finding something new, something fresh, right? They may be used to more standard fare, shooters, all these games that are awesome… but I’m just like, ‘You have no idea what you’re missing!’ There’s this genre with this very specific type of gameplay, with new ways to experience stories and characters.”
Antunez is correct in his claims, as 2022’s Marvel’s Midnight Suns — one of the most recent and prominent entries in the genre — was praised highly by critics, but was a commercial flop. The game likely did not reach the larger, general audience of Marvel fans it was expecting but was enjoyed by those who did play it.
When speaking about Respawn Entertainment and EA and their larger roles as publishers, Foertsch’s comments were entirely positive. He explains that Respawn has been pretty hands-off with the game’s design:
“Respawn really treats us like an internal team. They’ve been really good to us. They encourage collaboration and communication between teams. And so they’ve been just flat out the best experience I’ve ever had in publishing …
They trust us to make the kind of game we know how to make.”
Lastly, Antunez shared his optimism about the genre. Even though it is still relatively niche, he reinforces the team’s passion:
“The future of this genre is bright … Don’t worry, some of us are going to make tactical strategy games for the rest of our careers!”
Hopefully it won’t be too long before we get to see some of this Star Wars tactical strategy video game for ourselves.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
