Blizzard: Three-part StarCraft II single-player campaigns equals freedom in story-telling

April 27, 2010

Blizzard clarifies why they opted to make StarCraft 2‘s single-player campaign into three different segments. While you may find it a bit opportunistic and unnecessary, Blizzard explains that it’s one choice they had to make if only to ensure that they achieve freedom in storytelling.

Chris Metzen, VP of Creative development, explains in an interview with That VideoGame Blog that “ultimately, the decision to split the campaigns into separate boxed expansions bought us tidal waves of freedom in terms of really letting the story breathe and letting these characters breathe.”

He furthered, “Like in the StarCraft 1 or the Warcraft 3 vein where you had pretty much all the race campagins crammed into a single box, in those products you’ll have some pretty good themes and some clever bits, but it’s all kind of hyper-compressed, and sometimes strangely decompressed in a weird way in terms of the level flow.”

The three campaigns for StarCraft II are StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (probable Q2 2010 release), Legacy of the Void and Heart of the Swarm.

“And each of them really has its own themes and characters, and really has its own identity. And it doesn’t feel rushed. We’ve never developed a campaign at this scale before and it’s been awesome.

The big trick is too much freedom, they talk about feature creep, it’s kind of like story creep. You know, you still have to try and pull it back in and construct something that is achievable and not let it spin out too far into space. But it’s been good. And it feels good. It feels like a rich experience.”

Via [That VideoGame Blog]

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