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Upcoming intergalatic dogfighting shooter Star Wars: Squadrons has released a new CG mini-movie in the run-up to the game’s launch created in collaboration with developers EA Motive, LucasFilm and acclaimed Hollywood effects studio Industrial Light and Magic.
The short, entitled “Hunted” is set before the events of the upcoming game, introducing us to Squadron Leader Varko Grey as he finds himself as the last TIE pilot on the battlefield, being hunted a dogged New Republic X-Wing.
The short has been in the works since March, and includes visual effects work from one John Knoll who had previously worked on the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Mandalorian TV series to name but a few.
In an article on the official Star Wars website detailing the short, Knoll said he was excited to work within the different medium of games, saying “When we’re working on the feature films, there’s a style book. A kind of shot-design grammar that we need to adhere to because it’s part of a franchise and you want a consistency there. There was an opportunity on this to depart a bit from that. To do shot designs that wouldn’t really fit into the cinematic design of the feature films. Go-Pro mounts and that kind of thing. It was really fun to get into.”
In related news, Star Wars Squadron’s Game Designer Ian Frazier revealed via Twitter that HOTAS support—which stands for Hands On Throttle And Stick— will be patched into the console releases of the game on launch day, so all formats including PC will be able to play with a flight stick, should they so choose.
Check out the Hunted short for yourself below. Star Wars: Squadrons releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on October 2.
