“So that’s really the inspiration, he was a copperhead
C-3PO. His personality is what really carries the day, but
his physical personality has to reflect his disposition.” The
similarities to C-3PO didn’t stop at the physical. In a nod
to the more famous droid’s origin story—that he’d been
built by young Anakin Skywalker long before he became
Darth Vader—HK-47 is revealed to have been owned by
none other than Darth Revan himself.
Of course, the artists and designers working on the
game didn’t always agree with one another, and they
weren’t afraid to say so. One contentious character was
Darth Malak, the Sith Lord hunting the player throughout
the game. At some point, Malak suffered a lightsaber blow
to the face—his most striking feature is a metal prosthesis
where his lower jaw used to be.
“I gave James s**t about [the Malak design],”
Gallagher admits. “Because I thought it looked like Mort
from Bazooka Joe and His Gang. I was like, ‘What the
hell is that? You should just have a turtleneck [covering
“I probably did 20 iterations of each character,
essentially, if you did a head count,” Gallagher says. “As I
recall, we were creating by chapter, so the people we meet
first in a meaningful way, in terms of story, are the first
ones you take a crack at.
“Once you break the neck on the core design, and
you’re honoring the Star Wars aesthetic while trying to
add your own flourishes, you cut your teeth on Revan and
the Sith. Because it was Star Wars, and we were following
the Star Wars methodology, where you offer a multitude
of variants on each [character design]. It’s subtle
permutations, where you go ‘Okay, that’s the one’. Or
‘That head combined with those legs, and that works’.
“I was drawing it all up with marker at that point. I
wasn’t working digitally, it was too slow. I was just
grinding out analog art.”“I PROBABLY DID
20 ITERATIONS OF
EACH CHARACTER,
ESSENTIALLY”
his mouth]. He got his mandible cut
off?’”
“I was outvoted, obviously,”
Gallagher remembers. “And I didn’t
go away and sulk or anything. I said
‘I’m not gonna design Malak because
I think it’s a terrible idea’. I was
designing other elements for the
game, and there was a shit-ton of
stuff to do, so I was just like ‘Derek
probably has a good handle on this’.
And we ended up with the Malak
concept. It doesn’t bother me. It
doesn’t insult me. I just don’t think
it’s a very well-realized design.”
Malak aside, Gallagher’s
fingerprints are all over the art design
in the game. He designed the vast
majority of the characters—as well as
many costumes, props, and vehicles.(^1)
This concept art
channels Cloud
City from The Empire
Strikes Back.
(^2)
Concept art for
Endar Spire, the
capital ship where the
tutorial takes place.
3 As well as stats, your character’s
clothes are also
dictated by class.
Knights of the Old Republic
FEATURE
3