When LucasArts set out on the trailblazing journey of creating The Force Unleashed, they had multiple objectives in mind. One of the key ones was to tell a compelling story worthy of the Star Wars saga in the hitherto unexplored territory between Episode III and Episode IV. This story — the epic saga of Darth Vader’s  Secret Apprentice, was recognized for excellence yesterday.

Congratulations to Haden Blackman, Shawn Pitman, John Stafford and Cameron Suey who were honored with the WGA Award for outstanding achievement in Writing for Videogames. The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) announced the winners of the 2009 Writers Guild Awards yesterday in categories including screen, television, radio, news, promotional, and videogame writing. Here is the list of the 2009 winners.

When people think of video games, they usually think of button-mashy, time-draining bits of visual flair. Usually, the writing does not live up the fun of the game. I mean, really, stomping turtles isn’t exactly a brilliant metaphor for world suffering or the trials of a hard life. It’s just stomping turtles, Freud.

But some video games can have those deep undertones. Gamers sat up and took notice with Bioshock in 2007, amazed at the story within the game. They weren’t alone. The Writers Guild of America were so moved that in 2008 they created an award for Best Writing within a Video Game. Dead Head Fred won for the 2007 span of releases – deservedly so, in my humble opinion. For the 2008 year, things hit a bit closer to home.

LucasArts is quite proud to have received praise from the Writer’s Guild. Regardless of what the critics said about The Force Unleashed, they all agreed the story is brilliant. And why not? Expanding the storyline of our beloved mythology, blazing ahead into previously unexplored dark times – who wouldn’t love that – gamers were hooked by the story as well as the brilliantly-crafted voicework and well-directed cinematics.

So, we extend congratulations to our friends Haden Blackman, Shawn Pitman, John Stafford, and Cameron Suey. Give them some love – they worked incredibly hard on the game and deserve every bit of honor they are given.