Help Wanted [January 28, 2004, 12:42 pm EST] - 1 Comment
The Blizzard Entertainment Employment Opportunities Page has word that: “Blizzard Entertainment is looking for a talented level designer with experience building levels using any of the popular 3D Real-Time Strategy game toolset (Warcraft 3, Age of Mythology, Command and Conquer, etc).”
So now they’re looking to hire someone who’s good with RTS level design tools. I get the impression Blizzard is gunning for a new RTS, and since War 3 was just released and they aren’t known for creating new properties very frequently (if at all), I think it’ll be Starcraft 2. Or maybe (Much less likely, IMO) they’ll do Diablo 3, since one would assume it to be an isometric game, possibly with tile based design tools that are similar to those of an RTS game.
An interesting game will be a synthesis of both. To be played by 1 peron or 2 people.
You’ll have a leader on the ground that can be played (with a Diablo view and play style) and a God character can be played (with an RTS view and play style). Each can influence the people to gather food, build buildings, fight wars. The God, of course, will have more power (such as perform miracles), that will be the God’s advantage, but the human player character will have an easier time influencing people because he’s somebody the people can actually believe; the human player character has to get everyone to believe in him but he doesn’t have to prove his existence first. Of course, the God and human player character can work together too.
It will require quite a bit of play balance, but, I think it could be an interesting game.
They spent years denying their intent to make a Starcraft 2, but I believe (I could be mistaken) that one of the execs said something lately that led a lot of people to believe that there would be one.
I don’t recall Blizzard every denying an intent to make Starcraft 2, just that it was actually in production at the time of any interviews. Starcraft is way to big too burn any bridges by making blanket statements about never making a sequel.
Blizzard has never made more than one expansion pack for a game, have they? So w/ that in mind, it’d lend more credibility to it being a new RTS game and not just a War3 expansion.
My guess is that StarCraft 2 has been in the works for a while now.
That, and WoW, is all Blizzard South. Who knows what Blizzard North (the Diablo studio) is up to. Either Diablo3 or something entirely new…
Considering how popular Starcraft is in Korea, the sequel would be a veritable won printing press!
I wonder what their design goal will be for SC2. Warcraft 2 and Starcraft were fairly similar in principle and gameplay. With Warcraft 3, Blizz moved to a Hero system and more micro-management (intense focus on individual unit control and commmands) oriented gameplay. I wonder if they’ll focus more on Starcraft’s macro-management (army building, base management, and large scale battle tactics) traits. I’ll really be neat so see how divergent these properties become due to their very similar roots.
On an unrelated note, I fully expect to see World of Starcraft and World of Diablo if World of Warcraft becomes a huge hit.
As often as Blizzard’s games appear to be delayed, you could argue they’ve become one of the most predictable devs in the business, especially in recent years:
1994 - Warcraft
1995 - Warcraft II
1996 - WC2: Beyond the Dark Portal
1996 - Diablo
1998 - Starcraft
1999 - Stracraft: Brood War
June 2000 - Diablo 2
June 2001 - Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction
June 2002 - Warcraft III
June 2003 - WC3: Frozen Throne
Now they’re doing two AAA titles simultanously – World of Warcraft and SC: Ghost. Who knows? Maybe they’ll be out in June as well. :)
If they’re serious about continuing to do two AAA games at once going forward, it’s not hard to see one of them being StarCraft II (targeted for June '05, of course). If I ran Blizzard and needed to greenlight two products, I’d certrainly have SC2 as one of them. :-)
