Lawrence Holland

Lawrence Holland, also known as Larry Holland, is a video game developer best known for the X-wing computer game series. A graduate in Anthropology and Prehistoric Archeaology, he entered a career in game development in 1983 before starting freelance work with Lucasfilm's games division, now LucasArts Entertainment Company, in 1986. There he worked on several games, including the X-wing series, starting with Star Wars: X-wing and Star Wars: TIE Fighter. After incorporating Totally Games in 1994, he continued to develop Star Wars: X-wing vs. TIE Fighter and Star Wars: X-wing Alliance for LucasArts. He still develops games with Totally Games, serving as the company's President and Creative Director.

Early life
At an early age, Lawrence "Dutch" Holland developed a passion for music, instilled by his mother during his childhood, and began playing trombone during fourth grade. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cornell University in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in Anthropology and Prehistoric Archeaology. After graduating, he spent two years participating in archaeological expeditions in Africa, Europe and India, after which he planned to return to university to study for a doctorate in Anthropology. He has since commented on the irony of studying man's evolution and the development of the most primitive tools, only to later embark on a career in computing. When Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was released in 1977, Holland saw the film twice in the cinema, and only a handful more times before he came to be involved in Star Wars several years later. Over the years, Holland would also come to develop an interest in hawk watching, which is now among his favorite hobbies.

Developer
Holland's change of career happened almost accidentally. An encounter with an Atari 800 owner who was attempting to program a game for his computer first caught Holland's interest. After buying his own computer, a Commodore 64, in 1982, Holland quickly became enthralled and devoted much of his time to understanding how the computer worked. His curiosity led him to start programming games and he found that, unlike archaeology where he had studied others' inventions, programming gave him the opportunity to create something himself. Seeing it as a chance to combine his professional and personal interests, Holland decided to embark on a career in game development.

Holland got his first opportunity in early 1983, when he was hired by Human Engineered Software (HESware) to program for the Commodore VIC-20 and C-64 computers. Much of his early work involved converting arcade games, such as Super Zaxxon, to run on the home computers. The first game he worked on was the "green ooze" based SLIME, and he was later involved in Spike's Peak, a game which he now mentions only reluctantly.

In 1984, Holland established his own development team, Micro Imagery, in Marin County, California. Still working in collaboration with HESware, he was soon given the chance to be creative, when he designed his first original game, Project: Space Station. The simulation gave players the chance to design and construct America's first space station and was based around accurate models of NASA technology. From Holland's perspective, the game began his interest in simulating complex worlds. Around the same time, he composed the music and programmed the music interface for the C-64 and Apple II versions of The Bard's Tale (1985), an early roleplaying game. He also provided music for Music Box, a game which he also designed.

Lucasfilm Games
In mid-1986, Holland learned that Lucasfilm Games (now LucasArts Entertainment Company) was looking for a programmer to convert their first simulation game from the C-64 to the Apple II. Holland had experience in programming for both systems, as well as with simulations due to his recent work on Project: Space Station. He was eager to pursue his work on simulations, but wanted to continue working freelance, and the Lucasfilm Games contract allowed for both. After joining Lucasfilm Games, Holland was one of less than a dozen staff based in George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch. His first project was working with Noah Falstein to convert the modern naval simulation game PHM Pegasus, developed for Electronic Arts since Lucasfilm Games was not yet a publisher, to the Apple II. The project, in which combat revolved around the hydrofoil developed by the United States Navy in the 1970s, furthered his growing interest in military history and inspired him to start thinking of worlds he would like to simulate. PHM Pegasus was the first Lucasfilm Games product to sell more than 100,000 copies and, in 1987, Holland worked as lead programmer on its sequel, Strike Fleet (also for Electronic Arts), in which players controlled entire fleets during the Cold War. The game was considered one of the first real-time strategy games.

Much of Holland's early work involved programming but, with the relatively small teams assigned to each game, he soon found opportunities to work in other areas, including game design. From 1988, he took on full game design and project management roles, in addition to his programming work and, together with his team, began working on a series of flight simulators set in World War II. The first of these, Battlehawks 1942 (1988), saw players control six American and Japanese planes during a series of battles over the Pacific and received praise due to its historical accuracy. The game was also named Action Game of the Year by Computer Gaming World and Program of the Year by Computer Entertainer. The sequel to Battlehawks 1942, Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain (1989), transferred the action to British and German planes fighting over the English coastline. Like it's predecessor, Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain achieved the Action Game of the Year title in Computer Gaming World as well as entering the magazine's Hall of Fame. It was also awarded a Game Players PC Award of Excellence and named Best Thinking Man's Game by Forbes Magazine. The third game in the series, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (1991), allowed players to control either American or German planes and followed the 8th Air Force's campaign against the Luftwaffe towards the end of the war. The game allowed players to explore potential scenarios by including planes that were still under development at the time and would later be followed by four expansion packs, providing additional campaigns and aircraft. The game was PC Magazine's Best Pick of 1991 and Best Simulation of the Year in Computer Game Review. The successful series helped Holland to gain a reputation as one of the industry's best simulator developers.

X-wing and TIE Fighter
By the time Battlehawks 1942 was released in 1988, Lucafilm Games had already given some thought to the idea of a space combat simulator. The obvious subject matter was Star Wars and then-general manager Steve Arnold was keen for Holland to produce such a game. However, the license to produce games on the series was held by Brøderbund at the time and the idea was put on hold. When Brøderbund's license expired, the idea came up once more and, in February 1991, Lucasfilm Games asked Edward Kilham to begin work on the project. The game was in its planning stages while Holland was still working on Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and the original intention was for Kilham to lead the project himself. Kilham, however, felt that producing the kind of simulator the project required would need Holland's expertise. Encouraged by Lucasfilm Games' Brian Moriarty, Holland decided the time was right so, after Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe was completed, Holland's team joined Kilham in working on the project.

As the exclusive holders of the Star Wars license, the team did not have to worry about competition as they had with their World War II efforts and found that they had more freedom in the project. Holland and Kilham each led on different parts of the game, working on design, programming and project management, with Holland focusing on the flight engine, while Kilham worked on the front-end. Inspired by the storyline elements of Wing Commander, and a desire to create a flight engine which was more engaging and allowed players flexibility in approaching missions, the two began combining Holland's technology with Kilham's cinematic approach to storytelling. With Peter Lindcroff developing a 3D engine which went beyond the one used by Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, the game would be technologically advanced for the time, moving away from bit maps to use polygons. Holland's flight engine complemented this by increasing the number of potential craft in missions from around fifteen in Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe to around twenty-eight.

The developers watched all the films in the Star Wars original trilogy, paying close attention to the style and performance of the ships, as well as looking for potential situations for the game. They also tried to tie in some elements from the growing Expanded Universe of books, comics and the West End Games roleplaying game. One of the most important elements was attempting to balance the game to ensure that the player remained central to success, in the hopes of recreating the heroic scale of Luke Skywalker's adventures. The initial design was elaborate but, with a desire to get the project moving quickly, they were soon able to trim it down to something achievable.

Star Wars: X-wing was released in February 1993, the first Star Wars game published by the now LucasArts. Players controlled Keyan Farlander, a new recruit in the Rebel Alliance, whose story was told by the accompanying novella, The Farlander Papers, by Rusel DeMaria. Through a series of three campaigns, the player flew X-wing, Y-wing and A-wing starfighters against the Galactic Empire, culminating in the attack on the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin. The game went on to become one of the best selling games of the year and received awards including Simulation of the Year in Computer Gaming World, Best Simulation of 1993 in Computer Game Review and Best Game of 1993 in Electronic Entertainment.

Later that year, the game received two expansion packs, each of which added an extra campaign to the game. Imperial Pursuit told of the Rebel's flight from Yavin 4 following the destruction of the Death Star, while B-wing covered the establishment of Echo Base on Hoth and the development of a new playable craft, the B-wing starfighter. The game was re-released in 1994 on CD-ROM with the expansion packs included as Star Wars: X-wing (Collector's CD-ROM).

By the time of X-wing's release, Holland and Kilham were already contemplating a sequel and were "looking into the dark side." The 1994 sequel, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, saw players take the role of Imperial recruit Maarek Stele, whose story was again told by a DeMaria novella, The Stele Chronicles. The game's story saw players fight not only the Rebel Alliance, but a variety of smaller factions as well as traitors from within the Imperial Navy itself over the course of several campaigns. The game featured an improved graphics engine and a wider variety of controllable craft, allowing players to fly the TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor and TIE Bomber from the films, as well as the new TIE Advanced, TIE Defender and Assault Gunboat. An expansion pack, Defender of the Empire, released later the same year, provided additional campaigns to continue the story and added the new Missile Boat as a flyable craft. In 1995, the game was re-released on CD-ROM as Star Wars: TIE Fighter (Collector's CD-ROM), which included both Defender of the Empire and the concluding expansion pack Enemies of the Empire.

TIE Fighter was awarded Best Action Game by PC Gamer and, in 1997, was the magazine's Best Game of All Time. It was also named Best Game of the Year by Strategy Plus and entered the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame. Michael A. Stackpole was influenced by X-wing and TIE Fighter while writing the X-wing novels and acknowledged Holland and Kilham in the books.

Totally Games
The years following TIE Fighter's release were busy for Holland as his team became officially incorporated in California in 1994. Though originally called Micro Imagery, the company changed its name to Peregrine Software, before settling on Totally Games in 1995. He also married former Lucasfilm Games' Product Marketing Manager, Robin Holland, around this time, something which helped put an end to nights spent sleeping in his office. Holland's vision for Totally Games was the creation of more engrossing worlds which would lead to the "total involvement" of players in their games. As the Founder, President and Creative Director of the company, he oversees the direction of the business. With the larger teams working on modern game titles, Holland found himself increasingly devoted to design and project management, with less involvement in programming. His work now largely consists of originating the concept and vision for games, working with a design team to produce a design document, and overseeing all aspects of development including staff, schedule and budget. Even so, his childhood love of music remains and he still takes an active interest in how music is used in the company's games.

Holland soon returned to the X-wing series with 1997's Star Wars: X-wing vs. TIE Fighter. The game was based around taking the previously single-player only action of X-wing and TIE Fighter online, allowing multiplayer battles across a LAN or the Internet. This departure from previous games in the series was prompted by Holland's desire to allow players to experience both sides of the Galactic Civil War, similar to his earlier World War II games, and a feeling that the technology had reached the level required to make a multiplayer game possible. The decision, however, necessitated a major shift in the series as individual players could no longer be the center of the action and teamwork would be required for success. Fulfilling Holland's vision, players could fly nine different ships from either the Empire or the Rebel Alliance and either cooperate with up to seven wingmates or compete against each other in a series of skirmishes and campaigns. The game featured a new engine, making it the first in the series to use hardware accelerated graphics to provide a smoother, more detailed experience. The Balance of Power expansion pack, released later that year, added the B-wing as a playable ship and a single-player campaign which could be approached as either the Empire or the Alliance. Like its predecessors, X-wing vs. TIE Fighter was critically acclaimed and was named Best Science Fiction Simulation Game of 1997 by CNET as well as topping the 1997 Hot Holiday 100 List in Computer Gaming World.

In 1998, X-wing and TIE Fighter were re-released once more as part of Star Wars: X-wing Collector Series. Updated for Windows 9x and to use the X-wing vs. TIE Fighter engine, the games were bundled with a cut-down version of X-wing vs. TIE Fighter itself, called X-wing vs. TIE Fighter Flight School.

Holland's most recent contribution to Star Wars was 1999's Star Wars: X-wing Alliance, the final game in the X-wing series. Envisioned as "Star Wars meets the Godfather," the game saw players taking on the role of Rebel recruit Ace Azzameen, flying the Rebel fighters from previous games in action against the Empire. However, the game also had a more personal story, giving the player a chance to fly YT-1300 and YT-2000 light freighters in missions for the Azzameen family. Along with an updated graphics engine, the game featured several new features such as being able to dock the ship and multiple hyperspace jumps during missions. In addition to the over fifty single-player missions, the game built on X-wing vs. TIE Fighter by including a multiplayer mode. Totally Games was able to significantly increase the number of ships in any one mission, allowing the epic Battle of Endor to be recreated with the player controlling the Millennium Falcon during the attack on the second Death Star. X-wing Alliance continued the series' critical success and was given an Editor's Choice award in PC Gamer as well as being named best Star Wars game by the Chicago Tribune. The game was re-released in 2000, packaged with the 1998 versions of X-wing, TIE Fighter and X-wing vs. TIE Fighter Flight School as Star Wars: X-wing Trilogy.

Later works
Totally Games gave Holland further opportunities, though not all were successful&mdash;he conceived of a game based on European civilization arriving in the New World during the late 15th and early 16th century but found little interest from publishers. He did, however, work on another major science fiction franchise, producing the Star Trek-based game Star Trek: Bridge Commander in 2002. Totally Games was approached by Activision while finishing work on X-wing Alliance and asked to develop a Star Trek space combat game. After many years spent working on Star Wars-related games, Holland and his team were enthusiastic about the new challenge and their idea was accepted by Activision a few months later. The game put players in command of a Starfleet starship, with responsibility over all aspects of its crew and operation, and represented a departure from the style of the X-wing series, with the larger ships involved in battles providing more of a tactical feel to the combat. Although Holland was proud of the game, feeling they had captured the essence of Star Trek, and it was well received by critics, with awards including Best Simulation Game 2002 on IGN and Best Game in Class on GameSpot, it was not as commercially successful as he hoped, something he later attributed to declining interest in the space combat genre combined with the decline of the Star Trek franchise.

Holland also had the opportunity to return to his love of World War II flight combat, as well as to renew his involvement with LucasArts, when Totally Games developed a new historical simulator for the company. The idea of returning to World War II was suggested by LucasArts' Randy Breen when he met with Holland to discuss working on a project together. Holland ultimately pitched Secret Weapons Over Normandy, a game which combined the concepts of his earlier historical simulators with the story driven experience of the X-wing series. In it, players took on the role of an American pilot in the Royal Air Force fighting against the Luftwaffe's latest weapons in the skies over Europe. Players who completed the game's fifteen campaign missions and twenty-one challenge missions could unlock the X-wing and TIE Fighter as playable craft.

In addition to continuing commercial game development, Holland has led Totally Games into new areas. In 2005, the company linked up with Digital Mill to develop an unmanned aerial vehicle simulation for DARPA. The company has also developed two advergaming projects for Walt Disney World Resort. The games, Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters and Expedition Everest, were made available on Disney's website and designed to tie-in with attractions at the company's resorts.

After more than twenty years in the industry, Holland is still enthusiastic about creating games and recently completed work on 2007's Alien Syndrome, an update of the 1987 game, produced by Sega. The design attempted to expand the original's science fiction action with roleplaying elements in order to satisfy a modern audience and involved a major redesign, rather than a simple graphical update. The game also represented a new direction for the company, away from their flight simulator roots and into the action RPG genre.