StarCraft 2 Lead Designer Reveals Juicy Details

October 27th, 2009

The highly anticipated StarCraft II has left fans starved for details. If it weren’t for Gamasutra’s recent interview with Dustin Browder, the lead designer of the Blizzard gaming sequel, we would still be sifting through reams of speculative information about the release date.

However, Browder has been kind enough to shed some light on the challenges that he faces as the lead designer, which include the unavoidable complications that accompany the updating of a decade-old game, while also trying to avoid feature creep.

In terms of deciding what stays and what goes in the StarCraft sequel, Browder has admitted that big debates are a common occurrence among members of the team. Some say that all the units should be cut and that the design process should start from scratch, while others feel that nothing should be touched because everything is perfect as it stands.

Browder stated that the process of elimination is a combination of mechanics and conceptual elements. Things that are vital to the overall experience of the game, like the defining creep element of the Zerg or the Siege tanks of the Terran, will definitely stay. However, Browder did say that the popular vulture and spider mines are not defining elements, and that he could envisage the Terran forces without these things.

While keeping essential elements, Browder and his team still want to give players a fresh experience. He alluded to crazy, new and interesting stuff in the solo play and Battle.net areas.

Asked about the differences between single-player and multiplayer in StarCraft II, Browder admitted that there will be differences in terms of the units available. His team did not want to be limited to the multiplayer units, because a lot of gameplay would be lost in the process. In the end, this allows for a more gripping solo play experience, designed with all of the different units and upgrades, without the design restrictions of the multiplayer set.

To assist new players in making the shift from single-player to multiplayer, Browder said that they’ve got a lot of tools that they intend to use – improved replay screens, an improved score screen, a challenge mode and tutorials.

Dustin Browder comes from a 15 year, strong background of Real-time strategy design before his career at Blizzard. In response to a question about how much he looks at what other developers are doing, Browder said that his team, made up of hardcore PC gamers, is constantly looking to other games for inspiration. They look at what is and isn’t working for other RTSes to see what they can learn from these games.

In particular, Browder has really enjoyed playing Relic’s Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, and he claims to have learnt a lot of interesting things about RTSes through playing this specific game.

As for the outcry against Blizzard for their decision to integrate single-player and multiplayer experiences and implement online authentication processes, Browder made the same conservative remarks that we’ve heard before – that broadband usage is widespread and that there are not as many people using dial-up as there were during the time when the first Starcraft was released.

Of course, there are many players who wholeheartedly disagree. While it is great that Blizzard has chosen to implement a lot of online functionality, fans of the game are not happy that it’s being forced on them using the pretext that everyone has access to broadband.

As part of his closing remarks, Browder stated that his team is still working on StarCraft II, although they wish that they were already shipping it – that’s our wish too of course.

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