Ron Cobb is a Hollywood production designer perhaps best known for creating the alien creatures in the original Star Wars Cantina Scene. He was also the production designer responsible for Alien, Aliens and many other classics.

Like Star Wars’ cantina, The Space Bar is set in a distant spaceport bar - you play a detective whose job is to track down a dangerous criminal hiding somewhere inside. One interrogation technique allows you to perform a sort of “mind-meld” with the various exotic aliens inside the bar - in turn you to play out various puzzles through their eyes on their home planet. Some of the aliens you

When I started on the project it had gone through 2 producers, was seriously over-budget with no end to the schedule in sight. Rocket Science, based in San Francisco, was acting as both publisher and collaborator while most of the core work was being done in Boston at Steve Meretzky’s Boffo Games. In an attempt to hit unrealistic schedules, additional work had been outsourced to companies in San Jose and Los Angeles with voice acting and audio being done in New York. Later Segasoft came on as publisher. Somewhere in the mix of all the companies the core focus on the game had been lost and competitiveness and infighting had crept in.

Once I was up and running at Rocket Science I arranged for a one week visit to Boston to evaluate the team on the ground - I ended up staying Boston for over a year.

One of my first actions was to order a complete code review. That was extremely helpful in identifying which members of the team were doing the heavy lifting and which were struggling to keep up. I had the creative team take a hard look at the game and identify which game elements were essential and which were expendable - Boffo’s creative team had come up with lots of great material so each cut was painful but necessary.  Then, I revised the milestones and kept members of the team on track while giving the execs at Rocket Science a clear view of what was realistic and attainable. Mostly I tried to serve as a bridge between the many great people working on the project - essentially to keep the team focused and aware that even through many different companies were involved in the project, we were all on the same team.

In the end the product was delivered on budget and within the revised schedule. I’d love to say that I was solely responsible for the turnaround but the truth is that there were some incredibly talented people working on the project - especially Mr. Meretzky and his partner Mike Dornbrook and the rest of the team at Boffo, Darren Atherton, Bill Davis and the team at Rocket Science.