Music, audio, webcomics and more: It is super-reveal Friday for SWTOR's fans

With Comic*Con less than a week away, BioWare is passionately preparing for the stellar event. And to tease us into wanting more, the development team threw us a gigantic Fan Friday for Star Wars: The Old Republic. What secrets were revealed in the newest issue of the Blood of the Empire? What can be divulged in a Developer's Blog about audio? How do we discover this secret the SWTOR Community Manager wants to tell us? And music in an MMO? Is that important? The Developer's Dispatch wants to show us.

All of these and other important questions will be answered if you click the little "Read more" button below.

First, in the new issue of Blood of the Empire, Teneb Kel has crash-landed on the surface of the barren planet Lenico IV, although it does not seem to be as devoid of life as assumed. In searching for wreckage so he can possibly repair his ship, Kel runs into a tribe of Ortolans who seem to be led by none other than the person responsible for the crash in the first place, Exal Kressh. The strangest part: we cannot tell whether this is real or just a vision. At the same time, Kel's companion Maggot meets a mysterious Jedi who seems to speak his own language. What does this Jedi want? It seems we will have to wait for the next issue to find out. Blast it all!

Second, Orion Kellogg, the Audio Producer at LucasArts, gives us an in-depth look at what it takes to create the sound for a storytelling masterpiece like SWTOR. Part of what Kellogg explains involves finding just the right speech pattern and voice work for the different characters and species. "To cast the characters, we've scoured film, television, theater, and beyond to make these characters feel as unique and interesting as they deserve to be," Kellogg assures the readers in the blog. Then he continues to explain that the feel of a game comes not only from the voice work, but also from music and sound effects. Be sure to read the whole blog here.

Next, Sean Dahlberg tells us in the Official SWTOR forums that the developers want to reveal something extra about Comic*Con, but they need your help. SWTOR wants 200,000 "likes" on Facebook for the fan page, and 30,000 followers on Twitter, before July 23rd. Currently, it stands at 138,574 "likes" and 18,928 followers. It seems like an accomplishable goal -- can it be done? The secret should be huge for this much build up.


Finally, the team revealed a new documentary video called Music of the Old Republic. As the name suggests, we are shown just what it takes to create the music behind this epic game. "This is, without a doubt, the biggest music project I have ever worked on," explains Jesse Harlin, LucasArts Music Supervisor, in the video. "The game is shipping with five and a half hours of original music. Which is gigantic. Then, in addition to that, we are including the music from the original KOTORs and music from John William's films." Be sure to catch the whole behind-the-scenes video below.