Jedi Outcast 20th Anniversary Developer Retrospective

[Circa]

It's been 20 years since Jedi Outcast launched in 2002, if you can believe that. This masterpiece of a game truly defined what it means to be Jedi in a video game, even to this day, with its intricate lightsaber combat and Force powers. Continuing the Dark Forces story, Outcast follows the mercenary turned Jedi, Kyle Katarn, after he shuts himself off from the Force and returns to being an agent of the New Republic.

With such a milestone anniversary, I really wanted to do something special here, and unfortunately I did not get this published in time for the actual day, yesterday. I'm hoping I will be forgiven for being late with how great this project turned out.

I got a chance to sit down with 5 of the developers of Jedi Outcast over a Zoom call and not only did they take time to talk with me about this wonderful game, but they talked to me for nearly 3 hours. I cut it down to just 2 hours. It's clear from the very beginning that they were truly passionate about this game and consider it their proudest achievement. Take a look at the video below and listen as they reminisce and chat about development and that era of their careers!

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[RJA]

That's totally AWESOME.

 

Those men made my childhood. I am not exagerating.

[Bubbles]

Good Job Circa.

[MagSul]

Thank you so much for the work that you put into this, Circa. Some interesting questions and interesting answers. It's been great listening to these guys chat about the game. 

[CansecoDev]

Awesome job, awesome interview! This brings me a tear of joy I'll never forget.

I knew something was stirring from that green banner the other day, and absolutely the wait has been worth it. Thanks you all for this, it means a lot and is always inspirational to see the original JK team talking about the game.

May the force be with you. Always!

[Teancum]

Thanks for this -- listened to it like a podcast. Those guys were chatting like old friends being reunited after years apart. No wonder these games are absolute gold.

[Maksman]

Jedi Outcast is and always will be my number one favorite game and Jedi Academy is part of that placement for me. Outcast got me into Star Wars and I love the Bryar Pistol to death. Happy 20 jk2.

[LusoJedi]

Pretty cool to know all that trivia with how the floor reflections were achieved, and the origin of the names (Lenico, Kejim, etc).

Can't wait for next year's Jedi Academy reunion.

[OCD2]

Interesting to hear the anecdotes of the creating of the game, wish they had more - why dont they remember every little detail of 20 years ago!!!   *sarcasm*

Good of you to put this together, nice to see all involved had good memories of the experience.

Six hour, 20 year Jedi academy anniversary video next year!    

[Futuza]

I love how we learn that Desaan's origins were one of Eric's RPG characters from a tabletop game.

[Circa]

22 hours ago, Futuza said:

I love how we learn that Desaan's origins were one of Eric's RPG characters from a tabletop game.

Yes! And Kejim is literally just Kevin + Jim.

[Circa]

If you were waiting on the subtitles to go up, they are up and working. Sorry for the wait. For some reason YouTube took forever to process it and then they didn't automatically publish them when they were done.

[RAILBACK]

Nice to meet you Circa. 

[Sentra]

Dope! Great job partying the folks from the dev team. 

[Midtaurus]

Happy B DAY JK2 ... Thanks Circa

[skew]

What a great idea. Thanks for doing this, Circa.  I watched a portion but will check the rest out over this week. 

Thanks to the staff and the community for keeping this site vibrant. It's much appreciated, even by sporadic lurkers like me!

[{JoF} Atlas]

Wow what a gift this was, thank you.

[theNEMESiS]

20-25 guys making a game in 10 months, then patching it once, VOILÁ :-))
absolutely great you caught them! 

[LusoJedi]

Any chance of doing something similar this year for Jedi Academy?

[Circa]

5 hours ago, LusoJedi said:

Any chance of doing something similar this year for Jedi Academy?

Yes!

[LusoJedi]

Oh, nice!

Let us know if/when you're taking fan questions.