As the release of the highly-anticipated LucasArts video game, Star Wars: Battlefront approaches, LucasArts.com treats gamers and fans alike by publishing a series of Designer Diaries that give a real behind-the-scenes look at the game development process and tracks the progress of the team as they get closer and closer to shipping the game.

The monthly diaries include commentary from key members of the team including LucasArts Executive Producer Greg Borrud, Lead Animator Juan Sanchez, Lead Programmer John Northan, Lead Artist Dean Betton, Sound Supervisor and Lead Sound Designer Nick Peck and Lead Designer Jens Anderson.

Executive Producer Greg Borrud kicks off the Designer Diary series explaining the back story behind Star Wars Battlefront.

"We started working on Star Wars Battlefront here at Pandemic Studios in November of 2002," Borrud writes. "We established our goal for the game right away. We wanted to create an online shooter title for the Xbox, PS2, and PC which would allow for team strategy and would feature battles and worlds from every one of the six Star Wars films. The game would be the ultimate Star Wars fan's dream. It would allow you to do nearly everything and anything that you had seen in the movies, from fighting in the trenches on Hoth to manning a Republic Gunship on Geonosis."

Once the team engaged in various brainstorming sessions, they finally narrowed down the game goals to the following requirements. The game should encourage team play, be fun to play in Single Player mode, must fulfill the Star Wars fantasy, and finally "players must be able to kill Ewoks and Gungans," Borrud says.

Lead Designer Jens Anderson writes about his method for designing Battlefront using modified engineering specs, technical writing, and of course, setting goals for each given feature.

"Technical writing is very different from creative writing and requires careful reasoning and planning," Anderson explains. "The first thing to remember is to never assume anyone knows what you are talking about. Even if it is the most basic and ancient of game mechanics, don't assume you don't need to define it for the purpose of your document. Define everything."

Lead Artist Dean Betton, with Co-Lead Matt Palmer, work together to direct the art team in creating a vast array of unusual worlds and characters that have appeared in the Star Wars universe.

In his diary, Betton takes the reader into the step-by-step process for a landscape creation starting with a flat plane grid then using terrain manipulation and texturing tools. Of course, he also goes into in-depth explanation of how they populate the landscape with various characters and vehicles.

"We have created vehicles for Star Wars Battlefront that people are going to love to play such as the AT-ST and AT-AT walkers and the speeder bike," Betton says. "Although we were able to delve into the Lucas archives to draw upon their vast reference libraries, some vehicles have never been seen in three dimensions before. In these situations, we had to call upon the talents of our concept art team to create drawings to use as reference when creating ships such as the CIS MAF or the Rebel Walker."

"The best part of the job for me has without a doubt been the opportunity to create all the characters that will be available for the game," Betton confesses. "There is such a wide variety available that the player is really going to be spoiled with who they want to play...it's been a fun process in creating them."