Welcome aboard,

The DFGangstas were a group of level designers from the Dark Forces Fan Club who made the DF96 multiple level add-on for Dark Forces. I was a proud member of that editing group which also consisted of: Carlos Gomez (our chief programming guru and the man who gave us our title), Rich Snodgrass (editor of the Crow Calls Dark Forces Zine and level designer), Rick Schmidt (DFFC commander in chief and level designer), Jason Terhune and Richard Gold (level designers), and a few other talented individuals and friends.

Our main goal was to make Dark Forces levels for everybody to play and hopefully enjoy. We didn’t set out to make the greatest levels in the world or gain lots of praise. We loved Dark Forces and we loved to edit and create and give to the community that we started and also adored. We were the first Dark Forces editors, along with close friends Don Sielke and Paul Nemesch and some familiar names still involved in the Dark Forces and Jedi Knight world.

Our first group project was Bespin: Reclaiming Cloud City, and after this test run, we started forming the ideas for what would become DF96, the only multiple level set of missions released for Dark Forces. It was a great time and turned out to be better and more warmly accepted than we’d ever dreamed. That was the first and last time we released something under the title of DFGangstas.

Now, it has come time to pass the torch to a new batch of level designers that also includes a few of us old timers. The talent is there, and the ideas are there, and soon we’ll see if the JKGangstas can live up to the fun and quality that were presented by their namesake. Keep your eyes peeled and may the Force be with you, always.

Jason Burton