How they developed Starcraft

Today we will recall the cultural strategy created by Blizzard Corporation at the very end of the 90s, when they were still a standard of quality, made only good games and never failed.

That game that was so popular that even became an official religion by the national cyber export of one Asian country. Bearded legends say that the fathers of this state gave their daughters only for the grooms who were able to beat them in the multiplayer one on one.

This game sunk into heart all fans of suitable RTS, because it needs to be calculated in it every step, as in chess.

In general, you have to play it, it’s nice to remember and talk about it.

Especially if I calculated correctly, the game has been hit today for 25 years (At the time of writing, March 31, 2023). In a word, a holiday!

But at first, the word to the veteran of the first galactic war, who fought at once on two fronts – both against the grains alien to earthlings, and against our temporary allies of the protoses.

War? The war never changes. Когда нас просто бросили в жвала зергов, думаешь, много мы понимали? You just shoot a rifle and wonder that cartridges never end. GOGS A rush on you in a crowd, and you click a gashter. What heroism is there – pure meat.

So let the generals are now swinging from pride, and I will tell you that – we were not ready for the first galactic war. Here is not half a hundred (shows how little, fingers of the hand-tethes). There were not enough rifles for everyone – the doctors ran unarmed and could not even shoot back. Funny, ridiculous. Why couldn’t they give them a rifle? Either “not supposed”, or the graternity of the usual.

And bunkers for four people? They say that this is the old tactics – “individual cells”. Tin, not tactics. Is it really impossible to make shelter more serious, a person for fifteen to twenty? To the finals of the war, the egg -headed tensed, the furniture inside was moved, and it became possible at least six people to shove. Like herring in a barrel, of course, but at least so.

This is only in the commercial armor of the armor are so beautiful. And you try to drag them for eight days without removing, and even in the trenches. And if it is impatient … (waves the cult of the left hand).

At first there was a joke

There is a legend on the Internet that before Blizzard became Blizard, its founders, students Allen Adam and Mike Morheim, studied programming at the University of California. One fine day, one of them got bored and decided to join the classmate, a training computer. A terrible panic and a ton of Lulzes was expected from the victim of the prank, but … nothing happened. “Victim” as if nothing had happened continued to work at the computer. A little later, the reason for the failure became clear: the joker, by strange chance, changed the password exactly the same that stood before that – “Joe”. So met and filed. Beautiful and funny, you can’t say anything.

Having studied, Allen, Mike and another comrade, Frank Pierce, decided that we had to become successful and open his office in order to make business and cut cabbage. For the sake of the common cause, Alain threw himself a tens of thousands of dollars and appointed himself as president. Company, of course. Mike Morheim also wanted to be president or someone important, but there was no money, and therefore had to borrow from his grandmother-as many as $ 15 thousand. Frank had no money from the word at all, even relatives, and therefore had to become a programmer. A little later, another dude joined the brigade – Patrick Whayette.

So, in 1991, the Silicon & Synapse startup (a combination of silicone and brains, and more precisely-silicon and brains), which young guys with light faces, who loved their lives, drive in used cars, holidays and loud laughter, the dust of roads and winds ..

They also dreamed of a great future. But you won’t be full of dreams, it was necessary to cut down the money, and the guys to order begin to porten other people’s games and release second -rate remakes. In general, they survived as they could, along the way, the Farmers are. The background guys did something of their.

For example, this was, for example, Rock N ’Roll Racing-a toy for Snes and Sega Mega Drive, which became a hit.

“It was a joint project with the InterPlay studio,” recalls Adam, ““ before that we were engaged only in converting and ports. We ported games from one platform to another in those days when there were still Commodore 64, Apple II, Amiga, and the like. But RPM was our first full -fledged project “.

Released at the end of 1991, RPM Racing, which took 6 months to work, was the first game Blizzard, entered the market, as well as one of the first games of Western developers for a completely new Super Nintendo console (SNES).

“All the documentation that we used in the development of RPM was in Japanese. And without any translators, we somehow were able to understand what and how to do.”

Or, again, for example, The Lost Vikings is a very original platform game with a claim for the development of logical thinking. Has an extremely delusive gameplay and a certain amount of peculiar humor. I saw the light in the distant 93rd.

Blizzard and The Lost Vikings team. Mike Morheim (extreme on the left), Allen Adam (third in a white shirt)

“The Lost Vikings, like many other Blizzard projects, for example Warcraft or Overwatch, began with love for a certain style or game before becoming an independent, individual project, with their own mythology and history. The Lost Vikings has become a turning point for us, ”Adam explains,“ this was the first time we took up the creation of our own IP (Intellectual Property – Intellectual Property. Ed.), with its own history and diverse characters.”

Over time, our companions have swept and changed their sign because they were confused with the office that produced the chest implants. They called proudly – “chaos of Studios”, but it turned out that the office with this name already has, and therefore demanded from the future “blizzard” $ 100 thousand moral compensation and the right to maintain the name without trial.

The guys decided that it would be cheaper to change the name, so as not to offend anyone, and therefore became “Ogre Studios” (Ogre Studios). The main president remained unhappy with the name and demanded something else ..

No one invented anything, because Alain was forced to take the business into his own hands, sensibly reasoning that “if you want to do well, do it yourself”. So, having read the word “Blizzard” in some dictionary, he came to the conclusion that it was this most fashionable, stylish and youth name for their brainchild.

Now this is not some kind of “Sharashkina Office” with games of the “Be” category, it is a solid company under the proud name Blizzard Entertainment. And at the same time sold – not to anyone, but by Davidson & Associates for $ 10 million. And where there is a lot of money, conflicts begin to arise.

Programmer Patrick Wyette recalls that, together with investors, Allen tried to build a clear development plan, force the studio to do several projects at the same time and achieve maximum revenue.

“The developers primarily moved the desire to make awesome games, but Allen wanted to build a clear plan with predictable releases dates. Sometimes projects were pushed out by the guys opposed, for example, Warcraft Adventures and Diablo Hellfire. And once everyone unanimously rebelled against the idea of ​​creating a mini-golf franchise and arranged a mini-bunt.”

Be that as it may, games games, but business is business. After that, the owners of Blizzard changed several more times – from relatively harmless uncles to serious collars, who literally laundered the grandmas and wanted to go to these games. In the end, the “Metelitsa” departed to the French-they were taken under the wing “Havas, and the French bought” Vivendi “. So the guys lived until Activision was squeezed out. But this is a completely different story ..

And in these troubled times, when the studio passed from hand to hands of large and influential uncles, the developers managed to create something. In general, Blizzard was lucky. Material Bati strategies in real time – Westwood Studios – in 1992 released Dune 2, which became a chitara of its time. And … on this they relaxed the rolls, leaving the radar for three years to make Command & Conquer.

Когда же разработчики метелицы допилили Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness, фанаты от такой годноты офигели и разобрали полмиллиона копий, а игра стала заслуженным хитом и ныне считается платиновой классикой. Against the backdrop of such a success, President Alain Iron decided that it was necessary to forge the iron, so far hotly, and appointed the next release exactly one year later-just for the Christmas holidays of 1996.

So the company decided that it was necessary to transfer actions to a different plane – for example, into space. Starcraft development has begun.

At first there was Starcraft

No pixel was injured when creating this game … as far as we know.

“Starcraft? Is it true? Warcraft, Starcraft?!”

– Chris Metzen

The idea of ​​creating Starcraft belongs, according to various sources, Chris Metzent – to the designer, animator, artist, giku, actor of voice acting, screenwriter, writer (in their free time) and just a glorious guy from Blizzard Entertainment. As you can see, comrade is universal. Funny fact – getting up to work in Blizzard, the man thought that he was in the design studio where they make creative for sites and other advertising, but it turned out that the people are busy with a serious business – they create games.

“When we created the first part of Starcraft, I was a scriptwriter. What the hell, at that time, the writer did in the video game industry? There were no such precedents yet. It was necessary to prove their need “

– Chris Metzen, screenwriter.

Having evaluated the situation, Chris realized that he was at the address. According to Metzen, his dad then twisted at the temple. Everyone now wants it in Gamdev, and then they looked at this matter suspiciously and with distrust, as if some fierce adventure and work, not worthy of a serious man. Few people understood that the games are not only entertainment for uncomfortable kids, but also a cool, promising, and most importantly, profitable business.

Perhaps, already during the employment, Chris had the idea of ​​adventures in deep cosmos, where war and hopeless reigns (no, this story is not about Warhammer 40,000), but at first it was necessary to wait and attach a hand to such hits as Warcraft Orcs & Humans (1994), Warcraft 2 Tides of Darkness (1995) andDiablo (1996). Before all this platinum, the citizen managed to work with the superhero fighting game – Justice League Task Force. The toy was made for the “sega” and was remembered only by the fact that she managed to take ninth place in some top there “10 worst fighters”. According to other versions, the toy was quite anything.

Be that as it may, in 1995, after the release of Warcraft 2, the company thought tightly – we must continue to do RTS, if there is such a demand. True, craft Warcraft 3, even if it is logical, the guys did not want, wanting to put their hands on something else. Moreover, the task was to make a game that exceeds Warcraft 2 as much as possible. So that you can “rob cows” and “stuffing”, screwing the multiplayer to all this. As time will tell, the first did not deal with it, the second is excellent. It is a pleasure to “stuff” in multiplayer – the whole race is imprisoned for this task.

Here it is worth making a small digression-the idea of ​​Starcraft in 1995 was formed only partially and for the most part vaguely. Blizzard parallelly developed other projects, the experience of which, ultimately, led to the formation of Starcraft as everyone saw it as a result.

One of these parallel projects was https://anadol24.co.uk Shattered Nations-a post-apocalyptic RTS in the spirit of the old-fobed Fallout, but with a bias in science fiction, where 20 years after the nuclear war, the people’s faction fight for women, bread and water, using a rich heritage in the form of ultramodern helicopters and fur. Yes, the war never changes. This “Folych” in the form of RTS was planned for the release in the first half of 1996, but the project was eventually turned off, and the team was transferred to the creation of other toys – to finish the same Warcraft 2 Tides of Darkness. True, infa about the canceled strategic still leaked to the media after the announcement of E3 in 1995, where they made different analytics and assumptions based on entertaining arts and roller.

By the way, in some releases of the Korean PC Champ magazine, Render Furs “Goliath” was found – later it was published as a model from Starcraft.

It can be assumed that the developments of the Shattered Nations have become the basis for the future franchise about the battle of terraces, protosss and grains, but there is no confirmation of this. Blizzard herself says that Shattered Nations is an simply canceled project and nothing more, a regular workflow. Be that as it may, the abolished game is considered the first important milestone in creating Starcraft.

Another parallel project was Pax Imperia 2 (1995-1996) and, unlike the Shattered Nations, it was brought to some logical conclusion, selling profitably … but no, not the game. Rights to her. PAX IMPERIA 2 was going to release by the Christmas of 1995, it was created with Changeling Software cooperation, then there was a transfer, then more … And then in 1996 Blizzard sold the rights in THQ and apparently crossed themselves.

The game was a cosmic RTS with elements of a 4 -step strategy and Online component. The gameplay resembles Master of Orion, but includes direct control of the troops in battle. There were several races in the game, the task of which was to build their space empire with Blackjack and other joys.

As a result, the game came out under the name Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain. It is believed that from this project in Starcraft, for example, some ships, the animated icons of units and their stylistics, but this happened later, and at first Starcraft was completely different – a black sketch and a heap of certain ideas.

But Starcraft was the story of the wars of space vampires and cyborgs.

“It was just a complete separation. The idea is purely in the spirit of the nineties, ”Kris Metzen recalls,“ but the colleagues did not appreciate and said, they say, I don’t know, dude, cosmic vampires are too hard. Maybe we’ll come up with something simpler, on a wide audience?”.

So the idea was rejected and removed in a box until better times.

In general, returning to development, the team set the task of doing at least something. Somewhere at the same time, a thought sounded on one of the brainstorms, they say, let’s “redo Warcraft 2 into a cosmic game”, why not? It literally became a motto. Moreover, E3 stood on the nose. In short, this responsible mission was entrusted to Bob Fitch – the technical director of Blizzard Entertainment and the leading programmer “Almost all Games Blizard”. Also, as you can see, a universal uncle.

“I remember very well how it was:“ Damn it, E3 very soon! You can’t go without anything at all! He recalls. -I urgently had to blind at least something “

-Blizzard art director Samuaz Didier.

“After the release of Warcraft II, Allen needed to release something in 1996. The Shattered Nations project collapsed, and a gap arose in the schedule. Plug this hole at least something was the main task “

– Patrick Wyette.

So, without thinking twice and taking Warcraft 2 as a basis, the guys scored Starcraft – his most early version. We went to E3 with her, grabbing at the same time Diablo.

“For the sake of the possibility of twisting in the backstage of the industry, we saved and stacked with stacks in cheap motels at a great distance from the center of the conference. Our hotel was so far on the outskirts of Chicago that some guys carried knives for steaks with them – suddenly they will try to rob us in the gateway?”

– Patrick Wyette.

The “Diablo” eventually appreciated the people, but in the case of Starcraft everything turned out sadly – it turned out that if you mix Varcraft 2 with the Cosmos, it still turns out “Warcraft 2”, only with the multipleor. Moreover, due to the extractive color scheme made clearly under something fun, the people dubbed the game “Violet Warcraft”. As a result, if at the beginning there were six computers at their exhibition stand, divided equally between Diablo and Starcraft, then by the end the space strategy remained only on one, they say, this is so hacking, our villagers indulge in. However, this cannot be called a failure, because in those days there was no social media yet.

“We showed this game, and many said:“ Oh, it looks like orcs in space!”This was not at all the reaction that we counted on”

– Mike Morheim, general director and co -founder Blizzard.

But the one who does nothing is not mistaken. Thus, having taken criticism of information, and at the same time looking at competitors (they became an order of magnitude more during the development – one of these was Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 from Ion Storm), Bliazzard, according to Patrick Waitt, “realized that Dominion Storm was undergoing our weak attempts. Which was humiliating, because Starcraft was already our third work in the genre. Ion Storm put our ass on each item “.

The developers realized that expensive players need to offer something other than the updated Warcraft and we need to redo everything, making it beautifully and cool.

Coolness was born in agony and from fragments of unpromising ideas. This competitor to the horizon would not arise, perhaps the comrades would have released “space orcs” as it is, in the same year, but probably it is for the better. As a result, the guys launched all their strength to Diablo, which came out in 1996, providing the company with honor, respect and money rain. Starcraft was paused, but there was no long -awaited honorary rest, a fog of war was waiting ahead ..

The same inspirational Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 will be released only in 1998, after the finalized version of Starcraft, and the comuter Gaming World journalists will write that the graphics in it are “at the 1995 level”, and the plot is such that “at least for a minute to be distracted from Starcraft for the sake of this”.

A few years later, Blizzard settled two former Ion Storm employees who told that in fact there was not a demo of the game on E3, but a renounced video that spent, and specially trained people only clicked with the mouse, and clarified the faces, showing the overlaps in the game.

But you should not think that Chris Metzen Zereg-Rashem conducted the development single-handedly, and Bob sat somewhere against the background and even programmed. It would be a wonderful story, but, you see, short and boring. And we love meat and details. There were other people.

One of these comrades who made a feasible contribution to the development of the project was the artist Brian Sose. Legends go that he received his position thanks to the resume that his mother sent.

Specifically, I did not find its concepts on Starcraft, but there is a little on Warcraft I.

It was like that. Once, a novice creator walked somewhere and saw a creative leaflet in the computer class of college: “”And you can draw “Viking”?”. Brian accepted the challenge and was able to draw some bikes and even print them, but at the last moment changed his mind to send to the competition. Two weeks later, Allen called him – Blizzard President with his own person. “We received your application. Maybe you will go to our office?“. Mom, in general, was fussing and attached her to her son-in-house to the house. The comrade did not refuse the proposal by itself and became an animator artist, who immediately, literally from the first day, outlined the front of the work-approximately it sounded like this-“”man, nifiga is not ready yet, do what videos, the main thing is that it is beautiful and cool, good luck“.

But before making it beautifully, you had to assemble a table for yourself. This is the first quest that meets the newly -minted worker “Metelitsa”.

“When we started, there was no definition even with units! There was nowhere to see how terrane cars look like. What to do – I had to come up with ourselves “

– recalls the Soza.

There was no plot either. Animators painted the scene torn from the context, inventing heroes and developing events. According to Brian, the script of the video excavations was born in about such dialogs:

– What are you doing?
– I want to draw how a man rides in the desert and meets the grabing.
– Okay, then what?
-Uh … Well, then several more grains appear.

At first they took the Sosa for a two -week internship, and then for permanent work. Then Silicon & Synapse worked on three projects: The Death and Return of Superman, Blackthorne and Warcraft. There were many plans, and the team is small, and the studio reminded the crazy house rather.

“I worked constantly then,” says the Soza, “and I liked it. In general, everyone constantly worked there “.

Through an announcement in the newspaper (people were literally recruited by the announcement), the future art director of Blizzard Samuise Didier got into the team. It turned out to be easy to join the team – a couple of stops and forward, towards the peaks.

“I saw an advertisement in the newspaper. It said “draw for video games”. And nothing more. Very inventive. I suspect, the programmer wrote, ”said Sam Didier. – I came in an interview, and the first thing I saw in the reception room was a nice little secretary. His name was Frank Pierce “.

Before we move on to the development of Starcraft, we will explain that at the very beginning of the work, the leadership of the “nearby” in the person of Adam suddenly came the idea that parallel development is cool (the war on two fronts is not cool). Another sweating over the first part of Warcraft, he met the leaders of the small Condor California studio, which was just working on Diablo. The budget for such a large-scale project was small even by the standards of the 90s-a little more than a million dollars. And the chances of bringing the matter to the release independently strove to zero. However, Diablo liked the Blizzard management, so the company quickly absorbed Condor and renamed Blizzard North. And then, in the midst of creating Starcraft, began to transfer people to California.

“Diablo was growing, and over time, everything in Blizzard – artists, programmers, designers, sound engineers, tesers – began to work on this project. In the end, there was no one left at the Blizzard headquarters who would deal with Starcraft “

– Patrick Wyette, developer

Development

The first thing that started working on Starcraft after the exhibition was to throw out all previous developments in the trash and began mockery of the engine, or rather, began to create it from scratch, trying to redo a flat strategy to isometric. And, as a result, they wrote a new algorithm for artificial intelligence, processed all the schedule, the logic of the unit movement, the editor of the maps and much, much more, from which the head could burst and all morality could burst from. It took all this business for two months. Then they gathered again, began to intensely “Dumon” over all kinds of ideas that should be shoved into the resulting engine, how to breathe life into it.

“I compiled a list of things that we lacked, say, before processing, the characters could not move in one direction, while looking at the other. And then I rewrote the engine, and everything that was on the list became possible. “

– Bob Fich

The severity of the situation was added by the fact that the lull, because of which Blizzard generally chose the RTS genre as the main one, disappeared somewhere. According to the Computer Gaming World, at the time of restart Starcraft in the development of more than 80 real -time strategies were at the same time. Carefree working weekdays were replaced by a terrible “crush” from all sides.

“Twinnot began in August 1997: then I first began to linger in the office. At first, this boiled to work 50 hours a week instead of 40. Then I was working on 60 hours a week, then 70 and 80. Then it turned out that I did not leave the office at all – others bring me food, I sleep on the couch. But, in spite of everything, I still want to play Starcraft “

– Bob Fich

Meanwhile, the art department tried to master the isometric picture. Samuise Didier recalls that first of all the artists remade the Goliath model. A dirty goner came out with details of 1-2 pixels. I had to look for a solution to the problem.

“At that time, everyone sought to photorealism and correct proportions. And we decided that it was not cool. We started making models larger in Warcraft, and when developing Starcraft went even further: instead of one gun, they began to draw three at once, and all – hefty. In general, the so -called “Blizzard style” was a pure necessity – we just tried to achieve the desired effect ”

– Samuise Didier, artist

Technical restrictions determined the art design of the game in other aspects. For example, for each model you could use no more than 15 colors. Nevertheless, Didue did not bother.

“You know how in some cafes children bring paper and a pack of wax crayons so that they can pass the time for drawing? In such cases, you have no choice, you have to use only what they give. But the result is usually very interesting – and all because you have to combine colors in an unexpected way for yourself. “.

In addition to writing an engine from scratch, the work was complicated by the lack of analyzing: at the end of the nineties, all work and its organization was built on a bare enthusiasm and purely like tears of an improvisation, worked according to the principle of “the same, and older”. There were no training systems for novice programs in the company. For each new employee, they put a wagon of tasks, offering something to drink and figure out everything itself. Modern games do not create this. Well, or at least try.

The workflow of other departments was also not organized. The chief composer Glenn Stafford admits that he personally voiced most alien units. “You sit at the microphone, pull your cheek with your fingers and begin to pull it. Khrrrschshch!“.

The votes of many units in Starcraft are the votes of the company’s employees, not specially hired actors. Yes, the developers voiced their characters before it became the mainstream in Russia. For example, Chris Metzen, who worked on the world and script of the game, voiced the cruiser (the famous “Battlecruiser Operational”), Marine and Ghost, and the composer Glenn Stafford – KSM Terranov and the Airman Protossov. A real actress was taken for the role of Kerrigan – Glinis Tolken Campbell, but a ridiculous story came out with her. Having worked for some time in voice acting, at the beginning of the zero she switched to writing love-historical novels. Since 2005, Glinis Campbell has been published under the pseudonym, excuse, Sarah Mckerrygan without any complaints from Blizzard. But the role of real Kerrigan for Starcraft II did not ask: the company first recorded the voice of Campbell, then it was rejected and replaced with Trishia Helfer from the Star cruiser Galaxy.

I put the voice acting of terrane from Fargus with a bonus.

And, most interestingly, all this mess did not in any way interfere with production, rather, on the contrary. At least the creators assure so.

In general, a couple of months before the release of the game, 24-hour working days were the norm. We slept on the floor, ate-saw in the same place, in the office.

Programist Jeff Strain did not postpone the work even due to the fact that in the process he became his father. In December 1997, his pregnant wife began to fight and Jeff took his wife to the hospital. There he patted her on the shoulder and wished good luck, after which he went back to the office and, while his wife gave birth, spent 6 hours, programmed the editor. When his wife came to his senses after childbirth, he was still sitting behind a laptop. In the Chinese media, the bike still walks that the wife was angry and screamed: “Your daughter was born! How can you sit behind this damn toy?“To what, according to legend, Jeffrey replied:”This is not a damn toy, Annie. This is Starcraft“.

At first, while they threw up ideas for the ceiling, they wanted to limit themselves to two races (though Bob will subsequently refute this), but with different sets of units, simultaneously trying to move away from the chess scheme when the troops of the warring parties differ only in flowers. But in the process of work, the idea developed.

“We initially wanted to do more than two races. In my opinion, we did not immediately confirm three. We even thought about making five races – however, not for a very long time. In fact, everything was quite simply solved there. “Hey, how many races do we want to do?” -” Well, I know for sure that more than two!” -” Lada, this is at least three “. – “It’s clear. So three, or four, or five?” -” And what ideas do we have?”. And then we began to fill up ideas. Of course, we wanted terrible aliens in the game, some other aliens, but more smarter, some people-well, and more ideas did not occur to us. Thus, we quickly came to the idea of ​​playing with three races “

– Bob Fich

So, it was decided that there will be three races in the game.
The first race of the protossa is ancient and high -tech, like elves.

“Our aliens are 2.5-3 meters in tall and are not very similar to subtle tadpoles,” explains Didier. – Protoses wear huge golden armor. A typical skinny alien, they would simply crush!”

The second is terraces, guys who can give a bad bazaar for a bad bazaar.

“We made the terrane rude, uncouth. I wanted our cosmic landing to inspire thoughts of the mafia, “Rednecks”, and sometimes about crazy scientists. Everyone has seen enough of the fed residents of any galactic federations – we decided to make the heroes of criminals and former prisoners “.

Well, the grains (in the early version (and even earlier-Nightmarish Invaders, that is, the nightmarish invaders, which you agree, is such)-the Sorgi, but the name was changed after the Pixar announced the “History of toys 2”, where the emperor Zurg was supposed to be the main villain), should be scary and numerous, as some alien or some kind of alien or some kind of alien or some kind of alien or some kind of alienArachnids. There should be a whole swarm!

“The creators of the video grogs had alone, the developers of the gameplay had – others, in the portrait – in general, the third … In general, when it was time to draw graiglings to manage the user, I also came up with my own option. By the way, my drawing sagged for several months at the Smithsonian Institute, at an exhibition dedicated to computer games, so I believe that my version won ”.

Somewhere there should have been orcs, but the idea quickly abandoned the idea as soon as someone from the team sober up and gained clarity of thinking. In general, races became the main chip.

“Honestly, we were not fond of long reasoning, but added everything that we wanted. Siege tank? Great! Cruiser? And let’s. When we discussed the races, we just took an armful of ideas and threw it to the ceiling. That stuck is ours and ours “

-Blizzard art director Samuaz Didier.

“I remember, I also said: this will quite pull on the arsenal, let’s add a smoke pipe! – recalls Didier. – But this looks like barracks. In general, of course, it is rather like a toaster, but we will assume that nevertheless to the barracks. “.

Yes, in the process of working on Starcraft, the guys not only drew inspiration in all kinds of films and books, but also took it so great on the chest. The thing is that the outfits were very tired, consider, they were bloodless work on Diablo and almost immediately after that they were sent to storm the height of a new (paused) project. So they relieved stress, as they could. It is worth noting that the guys did not complain and withstood this test stoically, as the warriors should, on whose shoulders there is a heavy burden.

Needless to say, in the end the written code was far from the perfect? Wyette claims that at each stage there was a fundamental problem, due to which the issue was postponed.

“Although I implemented such important Starcraft components as a fog of war, the search for ways and a clash of flying units, voice chat (carved from the final version) and much more, my main achievement was the capture of bugs. Their account went on thousands, ”he says.

Then a special atmosphere reigned in the company and a lot of bright personalities, which was reflected in the working process. Trevor Jacobs – one of the first artists Blizard, told how he received diametrically opposite instructions from his superiors:

“I remember, I’m sitting in my closet, drawing, and then my boss comes in. He looks at what I get, and says – cool, just let’s replace it into gray, and also, perhaps, we will make it higher and thinner “.
At the exit, the boss is faced with Sam [Didier] and gives him five: “Like a division?”
“All the way!”
My boss leaves, and then Sam comes up to me and says that he likes everything, only needs to add paints, shorten and expand!”.

As a result, overcoming all the obstacles, the developers were able to bring the game to mind. Initially, it was planned to be released in 1997, but testing and polishing dragged on. The exit took place only on March 31, 1998, exactly 25 years ago.

Korea, money, e -sports

After the release of the game, the developers were finally able to relax and enjoy successful success-suitcases of money, spacious offices, insurance for those who survived this production hell and have not gone crazy.

Starcraft diverges in million circulations, and in some places a phenomenon acquires a cult status-this “in some places” happens in Korea. Everything there – from the schoolboy to the official – literally prayed for the game, which very surprised the developers.

Since 1999, large professional e -sports matches began to be held, with the beginning of the new millennium, such commercial giants as Samsung began to fit into tournaments.

“We came to the event in honor of the sale in Korea of ​​the two -millionth copy of Starcraft and Brood War. The plan indicated the match on Starcraft. When we arrived, there were incredible crowds everywhere. At first we did not understand what all these people are waiting for. Thought that some more event is taking place nearby.

But they came to see the match, – smiles, – there was a full hall. I was especially struck by how well the audience understand the game. I remember how they reacted when someone lost KSM or destroyed a scientific ship ..

I have never seen anything like it in my life. Imagine: they played our game, in the game that we made – and how we played! And the audience watched this, understanding how difficult it was to learn how to play at this level!”

– Mike Morheim, head of Blizzard Entertainment about its first Starcraft tournament in 1999.

What is noteworthy, the game was never translated into Korean – Koreans with a high played the English version.

Before the release, Blizzard made a rare thing at that time-a beta testing of multiplayer for 1000 people, according to which the gamed-designers corrected the capabilities of the queen of Zerg (it was deprived of direct damage) and the archont of the protosss (he was removed control of the mind, for which they later made a separate unit-a dark archont). But the first version was only a workpiece for the future masterpiece. For example, when playing for graves against protosss to win, it was enough to build a crowd of mutualisk. This is not surprising: they worked on the balance last, and four months before the release was not ready, for example, the economic model. It took Starcraft’s extension: Brood War and several years of work on patches to build a complex, well -balanced and long -term discipline.

Results

The whole secret of success is work on wear and verified balance (which, however, they achieved several patches later, but this is already a lyrics), which became the very highlight that the players were waiting for. The plot is also quite suitable. All concepts that the game used, in fact, were already. Yes, and the game itself could not be called some new word in the RTS genre, but everything was done in the highest category-this is a story about the case when if you take it, then do it as it should, and not as it turns out.

“I think this is because in Starcraft, like chess, it is very easy to start playing. Anyone can do it. My children played this game when they were 4 years old and 5 years old. It’s very easy to just take – and start playing. But if you look at the difference in the level between those who have just started and professional players, then it will be huge. It is like chess – anyone can play, the moves are simple, but the strategy can be very deep. It is thanks to the tactics used by the Grand Master who leave everyone far behind. It is easy to learn to play this game, but it’s hard to become a master here.

There is a certain group of people who are known and who inspire other players – just like in ordinary sports, where children watch their idols from serious teams. In Starcraft, players looked at professional players in the same way. Thanks to this, communities appeared in which different people were able to find a place for themselves – just like students find a place in various clubs at school. I went to the French Language Club. And the Starcraft community has simply become another club, part of which could be.”

– Bob Fich

As for the Blizard itself, now the legendary company is going through not the best days. Someone will say that she was completely dead. Most of the team ran away, Bluezard now is a symbol of strange game design and aggressive monetization.

But then, in 96 … Then the “Metelitsa” was really a real rock and chip among game studios. And as we know, a real rock and cutter burns very brightly, but not for long.