Following Lucasfilm's announcement that it will lay off the staff of its videogame unit LucasArts following a $4 billion acquisition by Disney, game developer Raven Software said that it has released the source code for the single-player components of Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.
The games were published jointly by LucasArts and Activision in 2002 and 2003.
In a statement to Kotaku Australia, a Raven spokesperson said that the company is releasing the code "as a gift to the persistently loyal fanbase for our Jedi games and in memory of LucasArts."
“We wish the best for all the talented people who were let go and hope they find good work in studios in the industry," the statement read.
I did a little digging in the code, and some of the programmers' comments make the files worth reading even for fans who can't program.
After one huge pile of code involving lighting, one programmer writes "yes, this is completely ridiculous." Another, commenting on a piece of code for a particle class in Jedi Outcast, noted "Man, this just seems so, like, uncool and stuff..."
In a piece of code related to camera control, one programmer sternly advises another, "we're doing a cut, so just go to the new angles. none of this hifalutin lerping business."
The source code for Jedi Outcast (my favorite Star Wars game) and Jedi Academy can be downloaded from SourceForge.net.
