[STEAM] Creating the world of Star Wars Outlaws: An Interview with Bogdan Draghici, Jason Cook and Michael Hollenbeck

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Just a few weeks ahead of the launch, I had the chance to visit Ubisoft Toronto to get a look into a bit of the behind-the-scenes of Star Wars Outlaws.



The media event featured a series of presentations from the story team, the realization and animation team as well as the performance capture crew.

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During this same event, I got the chance to speak to some of the crew that works on the game including Bogdan Draghici (Realization Director, Massive Entertainment), Jason Cook (Associate Animation Director, Ubisoft Toronto) and Michael Hollenbeck (Associate Realization Director, Ubisoft Toronto).

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Bogdan Draghici has worked in the film, TV and video games industry over the past 20 years. He currently works for Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment (based out of Sweden). He has previously worked for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and worked on films such as Solo: A Star Wars Story, Aladdin (2019), Avengers: Endgame, Ready Player One and more. He’s also worked on previous Ubisoft titles such as The Division 2 and Far Cry 3.

Jason Cook has worked at Ubisoft Toronto on several titles including, Watch Dogs: Legion, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Far Cry 6 and more.

Michael Hollenbeck has been at Ubisoft Toronto working on titles such as Watch Dogs: Legion, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Far Cry 6.

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Star Wars Outlaws TheCanadianTechie: Can you please introduce yourselves and your roles?

Michael Hollenbeck: I’m Michael Hollenbeck, I’m the Associate Animation Director at Ubisoft Toronto.

Bogdan Draghici: I’m Bogdan Draghici, I’m the Realization Director and Animation Director on Star Wars Outlaws.

Jason Cook: I’m Jason Cook, I’m the Associate Realization Director at Ubisoft Toronto, working on Star Wars Outlaws as well.

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Star Wars Outlaws CT: What’s your personal history with Star Wars, did you grow up watching the Original Trilogy or the Prequels, watching some of the shows, playing with the toys etc?

JC: I started with the original trilogy, I started with Empire when I was probably a little bit too young to watch that, but it sucked me in and I think I wore that VHS tape out watching it over and over and over and over again. And from there, it just kind of branched out into the rest of the trilogy and then, you know, when I was a teenager, I was lining up for the prequels, all that kind of stuff. You know, lifelong fans throughout.

BD: Same for me, I mean the original trilogy is a part of my childhood and of course, had an impact on me, which led me to continue watching everything that came out after that. But I also had the opportunity to work on a couple of the films for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). So I’m pretty familiar with it all.

MH: For me, I would say that it started with the original trilogy and then, definitely was in line for at the theatre for the prequels, as those came out in the theatres. And then onto the final series of films and all the supplementary films as well. 

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Star Wars Outlaws CT: If you could explain in the simplest terms, what is like does realization director does, and what does that process entail?

JC: Realization is all about that connective tissue, the narrative beats that happen between cinematics and gameplay. In that way, we form cohesive and immersive experiences that are totally seamless throughout, in order to better serve the narrative in any way possible.

BD: It’s worth mentioning that [realization] from studio to studio may differ a little bit. For me, my role as a realization director is to support the creative with an extensive focus on cinematics, dialogue, scenes or realization of the game and all the unique moments that need to be customized for it.

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Star Wars Outlaws CT: What’s the process of translating the world of Star Wars from film to video games?

JC: I think one thing that we mentioned in the presentation is the archives right? That Lucasfilm had made available to us. Then of course we have the films as a source. We have the shows as a source, but being able to access those volumes and volumes of references from Lucasfilm has been really helpful to build out our world in a more accurate way.

BD: I would say that the story for us is the most important. We try to focus on the story and deliver an experience that is unique, and grounded in the universe of Star Wars. And we don’t want to break anything that was created before, we want to add to that universe and we want for the player to get a unique experience.

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Star Wars Outlaws CT: For Bogdan, I know you’ve worked in the film industry, how has that helped with your role working on Star Wars Outlaws?

BD: It helped in a sense that of course of familiar with the documentation. My familiarity with the approach of the filmmakers who worked on Solo: A Star Wars Story, a project that I worked on. But also, my previous role as a generalist, where I used to create shots by myself. The way I work is that I tend to work with my team as if they are an extension of myself.

BD: In theory, I would be able to create the whole cinematic myself but because I don’t have the time, I don’t have the resources. Then I give notes in a way of how I would make it, if I had to create it.

Star Wars Outlaws launches on August 30th for Xbox Series X & S, PS5 and PC.

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