Killing the Emperor doesn't kill an Empire.

That was the core belief guiding Kabam's early story development on Star Wars: Uprising. The game picks up in the months following the destruction of the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, and its focus — at least for now — is a sector of space that hasn't actually caught wind of the big, evil Sith Lord's death.

"What you're seeing in Uprising is a lot of the seeds of what's going to come later. And a lot of the wrap-up of what happened in those moments right after [the end of Jedi]," Kabam Senior Director of Design Daniel Erickson told Mashable.

Star Wars: Uprising is a mobile role-playing game that models its action after lootfests like Diablo. You head off to some mission environment, blast up a bunch of baddies and make off with their sweet, sweet loot. More loot means more power, and more power means tougher missions. But it's the wrapper that matters for most gamers: this is a Star Wars tale.

Life after the Empire's death

Like many of the stories coming out in the run-up to The Force Awakens, Uprising exists in a strange place. There's 30 years of history separating Return of the Jedi from the December film, which is a lot of time for any one piece of fiction to cover.

"We're definitely not as much a place to bridge the gap as we are the first stage," Erickson said. "For [the first chapter] of Uprising, we have a fully secluded sector. During chapter one, the people of the Anoat sector are not aware of the Emperor's death."

That's all thanks to Governor Adelhard, a diehard Imperialist who refuses to let go of the past. Upon hearing the news that his beloved leader is dead, Adelhard locks down his political domain behind an "Iron Blockade," establishing a corps of political Purge Troopers to snuff out deniers of his fabricated truth.

Elements like the First Order, a revived Imperial force that serves as one of the major threats in The Force Awakens, aren't even a factor in the galactic landscape when Uprising's early stories play out. Erickson and his team get to play around in completely uncharted territory now that Disney and Lucasfilm have hit reset on the established "Expanded Universe" canon.

"That gives us a chance to go back and sort of cherry pick all the little bits and pieces from the EU that were really interesting," Erickson said. "And we're getting to recanonize those things. So we're actually getting to take those, go through the story team with Lucasfilm, really figure out how they fit into the world and how it's evolving now."

Reforging the Star Wars story

Filling the empty timeline between two films isn't a solo effort. Kabam works closely with Lucasfilm — and vice versa — to keep the bigger picture coherent. That's a major part of the reason why the EU was retired, but it's also why much of that material is fair game for adaptation.

"Lucasfilm loves their history. But they realize the history of the EU is kind of fragmented and doesn't make a lot of sense," he said. "So every time we came at them and said, 'Here's something we love. We'd like to reinvent it this way,' They were very open to it."

The only hard stop for Kabam, then, is what comes next. With Uprising serving as the first canonical story after Jedi, there are lots of future-looking questions Erickson and his team can do no more than hint at. Shaping the Jedi-to-Awakens timeline is a process that Kabam is part of, but it's a group effort.

"Anytime we were dealing with what was going on in the future, what was really happening in the Republic, those were the times I would get to go into [Lucasfilm's] 'white room' and read like four pieces of something that I wasn't allowed to take out," Erickson said.

"The discussions about Leia [for example] went all the way to the top, to several different authors. And we all had to get together and figure out, 'Okay, lets talk about timeline. Exactly what's happened.'"

The road to an Uprising

More than anything else, the wide open narrative playground that fills the months after Jedi is a benefit to the game in Uprising. Erickson, who previously led much of the work on Electronic Arts' massively multiplayer online game Star Wars: The Old Republic, understands how to leverage that kind of freedom in fun, group-oriented ways.

"Coming from SW:TOR, there was definitely a lot of stuff left on the table as full communities work," he said. "One of the original things we wanted to do with Uprising was make something where the entire community is involved."

You'll try out many of these group activities once the online-required game arrives on Sept. 10. From player-run criminal cartels to sector-wide battles, the mission grind in Uprising is influenced by community efforts. The planet Hoth was recently unlocked inside the game because the so-called "endgame" players — those who were furthest along — contributed to a group effort to make that happen.

"Not making the endgame something that happens necessarily at the end, but something that happens for the most driven players [is very important to us]," Erickson said. "For somebody coming in now, Hoth is not the endgame for them. They're just going to roll right past it.

"But those same endgame players that unlocked Hoth are now trying to open up [the planet] Anoat. And they're on a totally different cycle."

That's the magic that Erickson hopes fans come to find in Uprising. The mentality that a group effort breeds group rewards.

"Having a goal where the entire player base got together and said, 'You know, we are going to push the borders. We are going to open up this game. We are going to decide what is happening in our world.' [Our driving focus is on] making the 'M' part of the MMO much clearer and much more a part of the core game."

Star Wars: Uprising comes to iOS devices in North America on Thursday, Sept. 10.

UPDATED Sept. 8, 2015 1:34 p.m. ET: The text of this article has been changed to correct a small factual error; the span of time between Return of the Jedi and Uprising is roughly 30 years, not 20. Also, here's an official comment from Kabam's Daniel Erickson on Uprising's status as the "first" canonical work post-Jedi:

"As far as I know we were the first post-Jedi, pre-VII canon approved by Lucasfilm. The book, Aftermath, beat us out the door worldwide but we were first out anywhere and Aftermath starts, canonically, before we do. So either one can claim to be the first, from a certain point of view."