Why wasn't there any Star Wars point and click game?

[Tyree_Cooper]

It just occurred to me to realise that LucasArts never made a point and click game based on Star Wars. Why? I can't imagine a game like that not being a big hit, even if it turned out to be an average game. Star Wars was made into all sorts of games by LucasArts and third parties -- why no point and click?

From vikipadia
"Freelance Police was abruptly canceled in early 2004, just a few weeks before the game's marketing campaign was about to begin. LucasArts cited "current market place realities and underlying economic considerations" as the reasons for their decision.[16] Commentators, however, felt that the move was representative of a perceived decline in the adventure game genre, and that LucasArts was moving to maintain its position with low business risk Star Wars-themed titles instead of the high risk graphic adventure games that had brought success in earlier years. "

But that's late already, I can understand. I mean in the 90s there was no reason to not do it.

 

[PopetherevXXVIII]

I don't know if that's something anybody would have wanted. Do you think Point and Click when you think Star Wars? or do you think intense battles and lore?

 

[Greg2600]

Yoda Stories was kind of the only one, and that was a reskin of Desktop Adventures.

 

[Arcadia]

Were P'n'C big sellers though? It'd be far more profitable to make the action games that they did produce.

Speaking of which, were there Indy platformers back in the day, or just P'n'C?

 

[cta]

"Do you think Point and Click when you think Star Wars? or do you think intense battles and lore?"
Do you think Point and Click when you think Indiana Jones? or do you think intense minecart action, boulders, whipping and gunplay?

I for one believe a SW adventure would've worked pretty well. The story could've focused on a new, blank-slate, not-too-action-oriented character invented just for the game to manage expectations, like they did with most of the action titles. Or take a look at what the (unfinished) fan game "Han Solo Adventures" did.

Re: Indy platformers, there were a few, e.g. this Amiga one. The SNES had one too I think, and some arcade titles (and/or more home computer games with "arcade" in the title, not sure. I always prefered the adventures.)

 

[Tyree_Cooper]

Just because it's not the first thing you think about doesn't mean much... Besides, sci-fi/cyberpunk/galaxy themes have always been popular with PnC and slower-paced adventure games.

Like cta said, look at Indiana Jones, and to be fair when you think about anything, a PnC is never the first thing you think about, like the pirate world of Monkey Island would fit any game better than a PnC, at first thought. Star Wars Episode I Racer turned out pretty good too, at least the home version did (never played the arcade version).

I think there's so much that could have been done with Star Wars as PnC game, or a series of PnC games. Maybe they didn't want to mess with the licence and create non-canon stories? Which they did anyway.

You could take any important character and make a story out of it, like Disney is doing with their movies, that would have been amazing, with side stories that interwine with the main story, on different planets, with different playable characters also. Peppered with LucasArts humour and Star Wars inside jokes for die hard fans to enjoy even more, I don't see how it could have failed.

Maybe PnC have never been profitable anyway. So what wiki says sounds like a good enough reason (low risk action SW games instead of high-risk PnC games, no matter how good).

Yoda Stories was sort of a PnC game... but then it was some kind of mini-game running in a small window in the middle of your desktop, with small random-generated stories that you could repeat over and over, and true it was a 1997 "port" of the 1996 Indiana Jones Desktop Adventures. I played it a lot until each new game had nothing new to it, then I stopped. It had lots of silly humour which is something a PnC has, that was fun.

 

[Greg2600]

I think Lucas Arts wished to keep Star Wars separate from their original adventure game lineup. Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Ron Gilbert, Garry Winnick, the icons of that age, rarely if ever worked on any of the SW offerings.