At GDC 2025, Star Wars Outlaws composer Wilbert Roget delivered a fascinating talk on the game’s bold reimagining of the franchise’s musical soundscape.
“Star Wars Outlaws at its core is a heist story,” he explains. “It isn’t a romantic Sith vs Jedi or Empire vs Rebels story like the vast majority of previous Star Wars games and movies.”
In the game, protagonist Kay Vess crosses paths with crime syndicates on several planets in the Outer Rim, navigating a dangerous world of smuggling, arms shipments, treachery, and double-crosses. This narrative shift from the traditional hero story allowed composer Wilbert Roget to break away from the franchise’s orchestral tradition. Out went the exclusive reliance on sweeping strings and heroic brass. In came world instruments, gritty bass riffs, synths, and foley percussion.
“The dev team at Ubisoft Massive realised early on that it was fair game to use sounds and instrumentation that weren’t previously explored in the Star Wars films,” he says. “So with this in mind, Ubisoft reached out to me for a demo. And because I was no longer interested in writing traditionally orchestral Star Wars music, I intentionally focused on these non-orchestral elements.”
Criminal Motifs
Each faction in Star Wars Outlaws has a unique musical identity. These choices are not merely aesthetic; they also serve a functional purpose. Musical motifs indicate the presence of enemy factions, enhance the atmosphere of stealth gameplay, and contribute to a dynamic sense of place.
“Each faction had its own signature sounds and its own melodic motif, which helped to differentiate them from each other and gave unique flavours to the gameplay when fighting or sneaking through their respective compounds,” Roget says. “As a happy accident, this also gave players clues as to which faction’s enemies might be nearby, foreshadowing some surprise encounters.”
The Ashiga Clan, for instance, features traditional Japanese instrumentation, thanks to composer Kazuma Jinnouchi. Roget explains, “Kazuma, who is our composer for Kijimi and the Ashiga Clan, wanted to work more with Japanese traditional instrumentation. He’s Japanese himself, and he also worked on the Metal Gear series, which is the main reason why I really wanted him on Star Wars, because it had so much stealth.”
Instruments like shakuhachi flutes, koto, and taiko drums created a sound world that matched the clan’s aesthetic and the icy terrain of Kijimi.
For the Pike Syndicate, Roget focused on deep bass textures and percussive momentum. The music leans into a murky, aggressive palette that underlines the syndicate’s role as drug-runners and mercenaries. Meanwhile, the Hutts get a more grotesque, brassy motif with sleazy saxophones and low brass hits, a musical nod to the cartel’s criminal opulence.
“The guiding principle between me, Kazuma, and Jon Everist, the other composer on this project, was that it has to be bass-centric. You have to have a cool rhythm, a cool bass riff. Start with that, and then it’ll have that crime feel,” Roget says.
Stealth and Skirmish
Each suite of combat music in Star Wars Outlaws is adaptive, shifting based on the player’s actions and the responses of the criminal factions Kay Vess encounters.
“Each suite has three layers of combat intensity, low, medium, and high, and three levels of stealth, or what we call combat-ready,” Roget explains. “Lastly, we have a hiding layer, which was in between combat and combat-ready. And this was used for enemies that had recently engaged in combat but have lost sight of the player and are actively searching.”
The medium-intensity combat cues in Star Wars Outlaws introduce orchestral elements – strings, brass, and winds – with layered percussion, synths, world instruments, and designed sounds. While the music retains a distinctly “Star Wars” feel through subtle rhythmic and harmonic nods to the original scores, the guiding principles allowed Roget and his team to approach the orchestration from a fresh angle.
In a game where sneaking is often more important than shooting, the music also had to adapt to moments of tension and near-silence without disrupting the experience.
“These are quiet and suspenseful and rather static, with just one basic vibe or orchestration throughout for easier transitioning,” explains Roget. “Like with combat, there are three intensity levels to combat-ready based on enemy difficulty.”
These stealth cues were harmonised using the octatonic mode, allowing randomised overlays and one-bar musical gestures to shift seamlessly over evolving textures. “We didn’t have to worry about harmonic clashes,” he says. “Almost any chord that fits into one octatonic mode will fit anywhere else in the mode.”
This flexibility ensured that as players moved between cover, tracked enemies, or prepared to strike, the music could build or retract in real time.
Soundtrack Systems
Roget and his co-composers also worked to ensure that urban and environmental themes reflected the galaxy’s geographical and political influences.
“The city themes also reflected the dominant faction of their respective planet,” he says. “For instance, Canto Bight has a brief reference to the Zerak Besh theme, Mos Eisley states the Hutts theme, Kijimi uses similar instrumentation to the Ashiga Clan, and so on.”
This strategy created an audio identity for the locations that players could intuitively associate with gameplay threats or alliances.
The Orchestra Strikes Back
When the action intensifies, during high-intensity battles or space combat sequences, the game draws more directly from the classic John Williams style. However, even when returning to traditional orchestration, Roget was intentional about which Star Wars films served as inspiration and reference.
“Outlaws takes place in the original trilogy between Episodes 5 and 6. But since this is the start of Kay’s journey, A New Hope was my main inspiration,” Roget says. “It had a clearer orchestration and drier recordings than all of the other Star Wars scores, especially when compared to the prequels and sequels.”
This had a direct impact on how the recordings were structured.
“Harmonically it stuck closer to the predictable octatonic and diatonic modes, which would make transitions and crossfades potentially more seamless,” he explains. “And Episode 4 had more of a melodic focus than the prequels as well, which seemed appropriate for Star Wars Outlaws as we really wanted to establish several character and faction themes.”
This led to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra bringing these elements to life. “Their playing style closely resembled that of the players in the original Star Wars films,” Roget adds. “So we used the RSNO for the more epic cues and the ones that were closer to Star Wars tradition.”
The final result is a textured and varied score that both feels at home in the Star Wars universe and steps into new territory. Along with games like Doom (2016) and Hotline: Miami, it’s an excellent example of how video game music can be much more than a backdrop. Music can be a world-building tool, a gameplay mechanic, and in Star Wars Outlaws, a character in its own right.
“Our goal for the interactive music system was to elevate the player’s experience with music that still felt like Star Wars,” Roget concludes, “but expanded greatly on the sonic palette, and gave the impression of it continuously evolving to underscore the player’s actions and situations.”
In a galaxy of smugglers, scoundrels, and syndicates, the music of Star Wars Outlaws reminds us that listening is just as vital as looking.
Read more reports from the 2025 Game Developers Conference.
