So grab some blue milk, hop on your speeder and join us as we have a look at the process for creating our dream Star Wars game!
Hi DeityVengy, I know you’ve been very busy (more on that in a bit!) so thanks for chatting with us. First of all, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?
Hi! I'm a YouTuber that's recently gotten into modding. Normally I make PvP content for MMOs but I've branched out a little for this project!
You have just released the Version 6 of the monumental Star Wars Genesis, but how did your journey into modding begin?
Honestly I was just bored! Since there are no good MMOs out right now, I tried my hand at making a video where I turn Starfield into Star Wars. Originally, it was a simple mod-list of around 100 mods that took me a couple days to make. I uploaded gameplay on YouTube and the rest is history!
The video blew up and is actually my most viewed video at the moment. It was featured on IGN, PC Gamer, Kotaku, and pretty much every other media outlet. It was supposed to be just a one-and-done type of video but I had so many people join my Discord and ask for details on how to recreate the mod-list I made a guide and then got into making V2. After it got more and more popular, I eventually incorporated the mod-list into Wabbajack for V4 to essentially automate the install process for everyone.
That's when things really started to get serious: Tons of new modders entered the scene and specifically started making mods for the mod-list, testing the mod-list for me, donating to me, etc. so that's when I started developing the Main Story Conversion.
Tell me about that, what is the Main Story Conversion project?
It essentially converts the entire faction of Starborn into an alien group from Star Wars that is invading the galaxy. Over 5,000 lines of Starborn and NPC dialogue is completely rewritten and it's basically used as an overarching explanation to this Star Wars modded universe.
It has many other changes as well such as reducing the amount of different endings from 3 to 1 and even adding new bosses!
And what made you pick Star Wars, and Starfield at that?
I’ve just really liked Star Wars ever since I was a kid and always dreamt of an RPG where I could be whoever I want in the Star Wars galaxy.
I was too young for Star Wars Galaxies and so the closest thing to that experience I got was SWTOR, which unfortunately is an MMO and so comes with its own limitations. From the previews of Star Wars Outlaws, I could tell that it wasn't the type of expansive Star Wars RPG I was interested in so I did the only reasonable thing anyone else would do; I made it myself!
I’ll also have to ask, Jedi or Sith? Who’s your favourite character?
I've always been a fan of morally grey Jedi: Basically, people that want to do good but don't mind doing bad things to attain it. Probably the closest thing to that (and my favorite character) would be Clone Wars Anakin. Aside from him, one of my other favorite characters would be Revan from Knights of the Old Republic.
Genesis is quite an expansive project, are you working on it alone or alongside a whole team?
So I'm actually working on Star Wars Genesis alone but it is a mod-list, which means I use other people's mods. I basically pick and choose Star Wars mods (mainly from radicalclownfriend, Crozzbow and Bonepunk) and usually edit it to my liking and make it compatible with the list.
I don't tell them what mods to make or anything, but we usually always follow the same general idea. There are many mods from them I use, but also many that I don't use or just edit completely into something else. On top of that, a lot of the mods in the list are also created by me, so it's a bit of a unique situation for a mod-list. I like to label it as a "modlist made by a mod author" rather than simply a mod-list, since I'm doing many things other mod-list owners don't.
While I do work alone, there are a handful of people that make mods coinciding with the lore of Genesis. People like TexanWarlord with their ambience and sound mods and then droc81yo and Squarebeard who have replaced over 10,000 voice lines on top of my 5,000 voice lines for the main quest. The Additional Credits section of my website goes more into detail and has a few other names in there that have directly assisted in the development of Genesis.
You've mentioned you've made a lot of mods for the project yourself, alongside working with others. Can you give some insight into which mods in the list are ones you've made, which were the hardest to make and if you're working on anything at the moment that you can tease?
You can see them all on my mod page, but the biggest and most impactful ones I’d say would be the Yuuzhan Vong main story, Expanded Cities, Music and Ambience Overhaul, and the Environmental Immersion Project.
The hardest to make would probably be the main story, as I had to sit down for weeks and basically map out the entire Starborn dialogue tree from the start of the game to the end and come up with my own story. Expanded Cities would be the second hardest I'd say and that took me around a month to make and is currently being used by many non-Star Wars users as well: It basically adds a giant skyline and changes the entire appearance of New Atlantis and Neon since they're Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa respectively in Genesis.
Obviously there's a lot of work that's been put into this mod-list, how do you divide the work up between versions and decide what to work on next?
So since I manage the mod-list alone, I make all the decisions and do all adding, compatibility patches, edits, etc. and then during downtime, I create or update mods such as my Expanded Cities mod, Environmental Immersion project, Music and Ambience Overhaul, Yuuzhan Vong main quest, etc.
I sort of give myself 1 or 2 big projects for each release of Genesis. V5 was the Main Story conversion. V6 is going to be Expanded Cities. The only thing I don't do is make my own armor or port my own models. I leave all that to the pros and instead dictate where that armor goes, what NPC wears it.
The biggest limitation I've had so far is the mod index limit of Starfield, which I've gotten around by doing countless merges and compatibility patches. I think this is actually the largest functional Starfield mod-list in existence as of now, since it technically contains over 250 plugins and 400+ mods. Luckily, this is confirmed to be fixed in the latest Beta version of Starfield, so huge props to the devs!
Once again, congratulations on the release! For those who want to give Genesis a go, can you give a quick summary of the story and lore of the world and where it sits in the bigger Star Wars universe?
The lore of Star Wars Genesis is essentially a fanfic timeline that takes the best from all Star Wars eras, including Legends. It gives me the creative freedom that otherwise wouldn’t be possible with the current modding limitations of Starfield.
It's very similar to the canon timeline with some major deviations that occur in 18 BBY and beyond (after Revenge of the Sith). It's also deliberate in that I'm more focused on a "cool" and "fun" lore rather than a completely accurate (and boring) one to canon. I don't think we'll ever get a modern Star Wars RPG that lets us fight the Yuuzhan Vong, the Sith Empire, the Shadow Collective, etc.
So, what’s next for Star Wars Genesis? What should fans expect to see next from your team?
So V6 was just released last weekend, and it's pretty big. Many bug fixes, new overhauls such as Droids and Expanded Cities, and overall a much more immersive experience with my refined voice lines for my main quest.
I went ahead and basically removed any vanilla Starfield reference from all the companions and side characters and replaced them with world building stuff for the overall Genesis story. It's still a WIP but I'd say the entire main quest is like 90% converted now.
So, when you’re not releasing massive modpacks that completely change the game, what do you get up to? Anything you’re interested in aside from modding?
I work from home so I have the luxury of having a lot of free time. During weekends I'm usually out with my girlfriend so most of the work is done during the week. Usually, I always have a "main" MMO I play and make YouTube videos on and am competitive in, but there's been a bit of a dry spell lately so I've pretty much only been modding.
Things will change on September 25 though, because there is an MMO coming out I'm interested in playing, which is actually why I've been in a bit of a rush trying to release V6 before then.
I tend to put a lot of hours into these types of games so it's gonna be a bit hectic managing the mod-list, working a job, and playing an MMO but hopefully I'll manage! MMO's are actually what kickstarted my channel these past few years. I was at around 500 subs back in 2021 and am almost at 80k now! So I definitely don't wanna abandon all my MMO subscribers for this mod-list but I also don't wanna abandon all the mod-list users for an MMO. I just hope I don't stretch myself too thin!
Is there anything else you’d like to share with us today, or any shoutouts you’d like to make?
Honestly just a shoutout to radicalclownfriend, Crozzbow and Bonepunk. Their mods are the foundation to everything and is the entire reason I even started this project in the first place. Without them, none of this would be possible.
Thank you so much DeityVengy for today’s interview, be sure to check out Star Wars Genesis, and as always if you have any recommendations for future mod author interviews, send SlugGirl a message or drop them in the comments below!
18 comments
One question isn´t edited as a question and seems to belong to the answers of the mod author.
I love this modlist, thanks for your and the other modders work.
I really think that this work could be one of the main reasons, Starfield staying alive in the future and inspire more modders to implement mods for the vanilla game and other Universes like Alien, Starship Troopers...
Even if many people don´t like Starfield - the potential for a much better game with endless content is bigger than in any game before, especially with AI tools.