“I'd still be going to see Zombieland as many times as I could – I'm just fortunate enough to work in a business where that has huge benefits”
Dustin Browder: Lead designer of Starcraft 2. Former lead designer of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Generals.
Dungeons and Dragons inspired the game director of Starcraft 2, Dustin Browder, to work in the gaming industry, and he's constantly getting inspiration from movies and TV-shows such as Starship Troopers, Aliens and 300.
Dustin Browder explains that he watch movies, other games, and TV-shows to get inspiration for Starcraft 2. Even one of the missions in Wings of Liberty is greatly inspired by the movie 300, something that might sound odd.
“the passion and knowledge this community brings has been a huge benefit working on the game”- Dustin Browder
Developing Starcraft 2 is a long process, and ideas are discussed back and forth, and are developed into new ideas before they are added to the game. Discussions with the art- and the loreteam has to be done, and it might even turn into something totally different than what the original idea was in the first hand. But Dustin says that's just the way it works at Blizzard.
“you guys have taken over the balance for us in many ways by doing the map balance which I think is glorious and I think you do a great job” - Dustin Browder
Many consider a certain map pool for the ladder made by Blizzard a problem if we compare progaming in Starcraft and Warcraft 3, and Dustin Browder is aware of how good the balance has turned out due the creative mapmakers in the Starcraft community. They are however planning on keeping it pretty much the same as in Warcrat 3, having a map pool with maps that are pretty much balanced for all three races, and later expand the pool with new maps, but it's not really certain how it will be done yet though
- "We'll might change our minds".
“Like if Blizzard gets hit by a meteor tomorrow and we all die, at least StarCraft II was awesome” - Dustin Browder
The game needs to be perfect and awesome, and Dustin explains they don't want anything left out that would make the game better - and they don't have any plans on leaving something out for an expansion.
- "Ofcourse if there are ideas that we just can't squeeze into the game we'll add an ear mark, and maybe look over it again for one of the expansions, but first of all we're trying to make the game as complete as possible, without leaving anything behind".
The future of E-sports is also in Blizzard's hands, with a dedicated E-sports team they have plans for Starcraft 2 as well without mentioning anything specific other than comparing it to the World of Warcraft Arena.
Read TeamLiquid's entire interview with Dustin Browder by following the link below.
Links
Teamliquid.net - source
