New Details on EA's Next Star Wars Game from Amy Hennig

07/16/2016 02:39 pm EDT

Writer and video game visionary Amy Hennig made a surprise appearance at the EA Star Wars video games panel, ready to reveal more than two seconds of footage and a couple pieces of concept art, which was all we saw when the Visceral Studios game was officially revealed at E3 2016 in June. She took the stage to talk about the new game, which she's working on with actor/writer Todd Stashwick, revealing all new details, including some new concept art and screen shots.

The game is a third person action-adventure game, set in an unknown period of the Empire's reign. Original Trilogy Stormtroopers and Empire insignia can be seen in the concept art and screens from the game so far.

"We've been working very hard on it," Hennig said. "It's critical that we have this really close, collaborative relationship with Lucasfilm. Doug Chiang is essentially our art director, so we're really lucky. We work really closely with the Story Group, Kiri Hart and her team. We're creating an all-new Star Wars story with new characters, and it's important that we honor it."

Hennig said that her process isn't too different from what it was on the Uncharted series, drawing applause. "Oh good, they'll like this game, then," she said, hinting at the games being similar.

"We want you to finish playing the game and feel like you just saw a really good Star Wars movie," Hennig said. She mentioned her writing partner Stashwick calls the tone "breezy urgency," with some "swashbuckling, humor," but then some real stakes.

"In these stories, they're always underdogs, they're outnumbered and out gunned. The player needs to feel that they're part of the story," she concluded. The game is due in 2018, so they'll "go dark" for awhile on this, then "really blow things out next year," she teased.

EA's Star Wars license, a ten-year console AAA game exclusive, kicked off with Star Wars Battlefront, and goes on with the game from Hennig and her team, as well as a game from Respawn Entertainment, and BioWare's continued support and development of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

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