GameCentral sat down with Greg Foertsch, director of Star Wars Zero Company, and co-designer James Brawley to discuss the upcoming turn-based tactics game, their experience with the genre, and the challenges of working with an established IP. The pair, both former Firaxis developers, shared insights into the game's design philosophy and its place in the Star Wars universe.
From XCOM to Star Wars
Foertsch spent 22 years at Firaxis, working on titles like Civilization and XCOM, where he served as franchise art director. Brawley was at Firaxis for eight years, handling mission design on XCOM 2, War of the Chosen, and Midnight Suns. The duo left Firaxis to form Bit Reactor, with the goal of creating a tactics game that pushes the genre forward.
The project began when Foertsch, seeking an established IP to build upon, received a call from Vince Zampella, then head of Respawn Entertainment. Zampella asked if Foertsch could turn his ideas into a Star Wars game, leading to a pitch and eventual greenlight. 'Four-year-old Greg is sitting there cheering. 40-plus-year-old Greg was, at that time, ready to have a heart attack,' Foertsch recalled.
Designing for Star Wars
Adapting the tactics genre to Star Wars presented unique challenges, such as reconciling cover mechanics and multiple shots to defeat enemies with the franchise's typically fast-paced action. Foertsch noted that Lucasfilm was supportive, helping the team find answers that fit the IP. 'There's pretty much an answer for everything, conceptually, that we tried to do in Star Wars,' he said.
The game is set during the Clone Wars, a period the team felt was ideal for a tactics game. Foertsch explained that the focus is on an ensemble of characters rather than a Jedi-centric story, drawing inspiration from the original trilogy. 'For me, Episode IV was about the group of characters, only one of which having – well, besides Obi – having Force powers and it's about the ensemble of characters and how they support each other,' he said.
Balancing Depth and Accessibility
When asked about making the game appealing to casual players without alienating hardcore fans, Brawley pointed to XCOM's success in streamlining its interface while maintaining depth. Foertsch emphasized the distinction between depth and complexity. 'You can make a really complex game that people just will never understand, but you can make a game with a lot of depth that is still accessible,' he said.
The team hopes that Star Wars Zero Company will introduce the genre to a broader audience. 'With this game, and with the IP, I think we truly actually finally brought this genre to new people,' Foertsch said. Players can adjust difficulty to suit their preference, from experiencing the story to engaging with deeper tactical challenges.
The game features a story with missions that cannot be delayed indefinitely, offering a flexible window of about 10 to 12 in-game cycles. This replaces the doomsday mechanic from XCOM, providing a different kind of pressure. The developers also confirmed that there is no undo button, emphasizing commitment to decisions, though save-scumming remains possible.
Characters and Customization
Players can create their own characters, a feature Brawley highlighted as unique to Star Wars games. 'To be able to create your own group of characters, your own found family, and inject them into the Star Wars mythos is, like… that's not something that I think any Star Wars game has ever actually done,' he said. The game also includes authored characters, such as the Rodian Disha and a sassy medical droid, offering a blend of pre-written and player-generated stories.
Regarding multiplayer, Brawley explained that a tactics game with multiplayer would require the entire design to center on that experience, making it difficult to coexist with a single-player focus. 'Trying to make a single-player tactics experience and a multiplayer tactics experience coexist on the same language of gameplay is going to be phenomenally difficult,' he said.
The interview concluded with a discussion about the variety of alien species in the game, which is limited by production constraints. Brawley mentioned an early document listing 32 possible species, but the team had to pare down to those that could be realistically delivered. 'I would love a situation where we make a Star Wars Zero Company 2 and I can get all 32 of those species,' he said. Star Wars Zero Company releases on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 27th August 2026.
