For a game like StarCraft 2, 10 years started out feeling like an inevitability. Born out of one of the progenitors of esports in StarCraft: Brood War, a title that took professional gaming to heights it had never been before, it felt like a sure thing that StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty would release in 2010, restart the entire process, and sit comfortably on the throne, ruling over a new generation of other competitive RTS games. Fans know how that played out, though - suddenly, League of Legends was a thing. Then, Dota 2. Esports began branching out even more and, eventually, even Blizzard was championing games from other genres, most notably Overwatch.
At times, it felt like StarCraft 2 was suddenly living on borrowed time. Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void were both solid expansions, but the RTS genre as a whole was becoming more niche with each passing year. Somehow, though, StarCraft 2 curiously and deliberately began acclimatizing without losing its sense of identity. Fans came back. Pro leagues, though smaller than at their zenith, have returned and brought with them some of gaming's best narratives today. Now, 10 years after it first launched, StarCraft 2 has gone the long way round but come out of its journey with a similar sense of stability and identity to when it started.
With the 10th anniversary celebrations for StarCraft 2 well and truly underway, it's as good a time as any for the people who made its particular brand of sci-fi magic happen to reflect on a decade of experiences. Screen Rant conducted an interview with Matt Morris (Game Designer), Ryan Schutter (UI Designer), and Chris Fugate (Game Designer) covering the past, present, and future of StarCraft 2, and the result is one of the most expansive and thoughtful discussions of the game in (we hope) quite some time.
What has been the biggest change in the development team’s approach to StarCraft 2 over a decade of experience with the game? Anything from the early days - a philosophy of design, or an approach to updates - that got thrown out as time went on?
Matt Morris: There are several things that I can think of that changed over time. In Wings of Liberty, the campaign mission mechanics were built around introducing new units. An example of this was the mission “The Evacuation.” In this mission you were given Firebats. The mission was built around these units being very effective against large swarm of Zerglings. The Firebats excelled at destroying Zerglings, and this allowed the design team to really crank up the Zerg threat without really putting too much danger on the player. However after we shipped the game, we received lots of criticism over this direction because the following mission didn’t allow the player to use their new toy, and that’s because the next mission mechanics were built around the next unit. We also departed from alternate story arc endings, we thought having alternative story beats and different content would really change how we approached story telling in RTS campaigns. The reality is players picked an ending and never went back to try the other option. Some did, but not enough to warrant the time and effort that went into those missions.
We also changed the campaign meta system, where players earned additional credits by completing secondary objectives, and credits were used to purchase upgrades for the units you’ve unlocked. But what we found players doing is they would bank their credits and make a purchase later down the road, which is not what we wanted. With Heart of the Swarm we had our mutation system, where we created missions where the player would playtest both new mutation upgrades, and after about 10 minutes of wreaking havoc the players would decide which mutation they liked the most. This allowed players to modify every unit they earned, without worrying about using credits that might take away from an upgrade down the road.
During Legacy of the Void development the design team was really humming along. We had all the knowledge from the two previous products, and we were able to focus on features that emphasized fun gameplay! We created more missions that we internally called “siege missions” which typically meant, “build a big army and destroy the enemy.” This allowed the player to approach many missions with their favorite unit, instead of the mission dictating what unit to use. Another adjustment we made along the way were the RTS controls, time after time we watched inexperienced players struggle with, what we thought were simple missions. So things like simple command cards, select all army button, and not being able to select enemy units really allowed everyone to play any of the missions and have fun doing it.
Ryan Schutter: I didn’t join the team until 2014 personally, but I have seen some pretty significant changes during my time here. I think player expectations for how games are supported change over time, and the team had to change with it. People expect a constant stream of content instead of just big drops every year or two, and you really have to adjust how you approach development in order to account for that.
So we have created a recurring program called the War Chest, which helps support StarCraft II development and esports, and delivers new cosmetic content to players. We have created the Co-op mode which gives us the opportunity to explore new ideas and provide new content without breaking competitive play. And of course we continue to support the game with balance updates for multiplayer, as well as finding opportunities to fit in new features and quality of life changes.
But we also have to be very cautious these days, because each system we add incurs some amount of ongoing maintenance, and after ten years of active development StarCraft II is such a large game with so many systems to maintain that it can be challenging to find the time to fit new features and content in between making sure we add new ladder maps, balance updates, weekly mutations, Co-op Commanders, War Chests etc... So we have to be even more careful these days about the kinds of things we add, to make sure they aren’t going to add too much to our already pretty substantial list of features that need constant support.
Another constant factor in development of a product as old as StarCraft II is that a lot of the tech that operates the game is starting to age. This means a constant, ongoing effort to migrate systems to new technology to maintain compatibility with the Battle.net platform, or player expectations. This is something players really don’t see, but it is something that requires a significant part of our effort. We often find ourselves making very significant changes with the primary goal being that players don’t notice the change at all.
Building off that train of thought, if you were starting StarCraft 2 today instead of ten years ago, what would you change about the development process - and would there be any major changes to gameplay you’d like to explore given what you know now?
Matt Morris: There would be a bigger emphasis on player accessibility, that’s for sure. I would also look at StarCraft II Co-op and look at how we were able to tell a narrative and bring social engagement to the experience. Traditionally, RTS campaigns are a solo experience. Imagine that every movie you ever saw was done alone in the theater. The movie is still great, but what lacked was the audience, your friends, strangers, laughing or screaming depending on the movie you are watching. But if you can share that RTS experience with a friend or a stranger, and still enjoy the game, then I think I you’re doing more for the game. So, if I was doing StarCraft II now, then I would tell that same story, using a balance of mission mechanics, and allow more players to experience those moments together at the same time.
Chris Fugate: I’d probably advocate for ways to play alongside your friends as well against them. That could look like earlier development of a cooperative mode, a greater emphasis on status and progression for teams, or the development of official arcade maps like the periodic Warcraft III Blizzard maps. One of the great things video games have the power to do is enable friends to create epic, memorable moments with each other; something I feel that StarCraft traditionally achieves through esports.
Ryan Schutter: I definitely think there would be more emphasis on Co-op, not just because we see great engagement in the mode, but because it is fun to develop for, and I think there is still a ton of untapped potential in it. Especially if you can redesign it from the ground up.
Additionally I would like to make some significant changes to the user experience. There are a lot of awkward things about the way players engage with StarCraft II that don’t make a huge amount of sense, but that players would probably not want us to change at this point. There are additionally some changes I would like to make to lower the skill floor of StarCraft II without impacting the ceiling, to make it more welcoming and easier to just sit down and have fun with as a new player. That is a delicate operation, but I think it could be done.
How do you keep StarCraft 2 looking good from a UI standpoint? It seems like a tricky balance, given how familiar players are with it now. Is some of that down to having a great base to work from?
Ryan Schutter: Sorry, I am obsessed with StarCraft II UI and I never get to talk about it in interviews so I am going to use this question to tell the story of StarCraft II UI as I see it. My role on the team has evolved a lot over time, but UI has been my focus for most of it so I have some insight, at least into the last 6 years of UI development. When I think about UI for StarCraft II I think of three main areas that people engage with. The game menus, the in-game UI, and the spectator UI. Each of these has their own challenges and design philosophy and you must be conscientious about changes to any of them. I have worked on game menus and spectator UI pretty extensively, but we have barely touched the in-game UI during my time on the team, but I will break down each with some of how we approach them and what we have done to support them.
With the game menu, or what we call “glues” internally, we have evolved the game across multiple major updates. Wings of Liberty launched with this gorgeous blue skeuomorphic UI with these awesome metal borders. Every button had its place, and I think it really did a lot to establish the feel of StarCraft II UI that continues to this day in some regards. It was also clearly designed for 4x3 monitors, something that is obviously less of a concern today, though they still exist out there and we still support them. I think this UI started to be problematic as the team found themselves adding more features to the game and realizing the UI did not really accommodate adding in new buttons or features very well. One problem with a UI built to feel like everything has its place, and every place has its thing, is when you suddenly need to add new things there is no place for them. They also started working on an expansion that was Zerg themed, and the Terran feeling UI was not going to be appropriate.
Enter the Heart of the Swarm glues. This menu was much more flexible than the original Wings of Liberty design, allowing the team to add new content or features without being problematic, and it had a nice purple feeling to it which would feel great with the new Zerg expansion. This UI moved away from heavy skeuomorphism and integrated more flat design, which was a big part of what enabled that flexibility. It also unconstrained the UI, so it no longer felt like it was designed for 4x3 even though it still supported it.
With the Protoss expansion coming, there was debate within the team about whether the UI needed another revamp, or if the Heart of the Swarm UI would be fine. This is also around when I joined the UI team, and one of my first jobs on the team was to design a new glues for Legacy of the Void. I was soon joined by Crash Reed, and together we designed something I am very proud of to this day. In reality, the Heart of the Swarm UI would probably have been fine, but there were two main problems we wanted to fix, the first was navigating the UI in Heart of the Swarm could leave you clicking deep into a territory you would need to eventually back out of, and it was easier to lose your place in UI than we would like. And second, the UI art while gorgeous, felt very static, and we really wanted to “put the stars back in StarCraft” by integrating cool space scenes and 3D models into the UI to make it feel more alive, and a bit more rich an experience. We overhauled the Campaign screen to be a nod to the original game with its 3D characters acting as the buttons for selecting which campaign to play. We added 3D characters for Co-op and Multiplayer to change the feel of the UI based on what your selections were. Jesse Brophy and his team did an amazing job with all of these 3D “cutscenes” we used to build this UI, and our UI artists Junho Kim and Elaine Yang did an incredible job overhauling the styling of the UI art itself to match the new direction, and to build a more race-agnostic UI that could stand the test of time a bit better.
With Legacy of the Void we also had access to UI animation tech which had been built for Heroes of the Storm. This served to add a new level of polish and liveliness to the UI which I think made a huge difference. Technology is something we don’t talk about much with UI but it is obviously a huge factor in what you can do. UI animation is not the only tech to arrive, there have been a huge number of additions over the years, and working with StarCraft II UI today is wildly different than it was in 2014 when I started. We can build bigger, better things, faster than we could before, and usually with less reliance on the availability of engineers to support us.
The Legacy of the Void UI was awesome just as the two before it, but we had a new UI Artist named Bailey Kalesti join the team in early 2017, and he had a vision for how we could overhaul it once more, though with more nuanced changes this time to really unify the feel and crispness of the UI and to improve consistency across the board. So we embarked on the final (so far anyways!) major change we would make to the StarCraft II glue screens, and Bailey has a nice blog where he covered much of this work. We targeted this change for a series of updates around Patch 4.0 (Free to Play). While this overhaul was more subtle than the others, it was still a very large amount of work, and I think it made a huge difference in the feel of the UI. To this day it drives me crazy the only main section of the game menus untouched by this update is the “Replays” section of the UI, which we have art ready for, but the underlying engineering behind the section would require some significant changes to make it happen and we have been focusing our engineering efforts in other more critical areas since.
Over the years the many amazing UI artists who have worked on the glue screens have established an incredible vision for the UI, and when we need to build something new we have so many amazing templates and existing examples of UI to pull from that it is pretty easy to maintain that standard.
But I know your question was probably more focused on the in-game UI. This is the area I have touched the least, because as you have said players are so familiar with it that it can be very tricky to make changes. The simple answer to how to tackle that problem is mostly just to not make changes. But we have done a few things over the years. Most recently as part of our 10th Anniversary Patch 5.0 we added a countdown timer to the start of Versus matches so players have a little bit of time before the game starts after the loading screen. This is particularly valuable for making sure players don’t miss a beat and start off on as even footing as possible. We also added console skins to the game, which completely overhaul the look of your in-game UI. But they all follow a strict standard on where elements are located and how they behave, so players won’t feel any difference between them. We also try to make sure any consoles we add have similar sizing so that players don’t have to choose which console they use based on whether they cover up too much of the game or not.
Something that has happened a few times over the years for me was the need to recreated an existing UI element while having trouble finding the original source files for it. After 15 years of development it can be difficult sometimes to locate the PSDs for some of the older assets, or sometimes an artist or designer may not have stored them in the right place. When this happens it is our goal to create the asset to be as close to the original as possible, so much so that the change is not noticed by players. I had to do this back in late 2018 or early 2019 with the ability buttons on the in-game console. Each race has its own specific color for their buttons, Terran have green, Zerg has orange, and Protoss have blue. I needed to recreate these as part of the process of adding meaningful console skin support, and while they changed one patch I don’t think anyone every noticed, because we matched them very carefully.
We also add new in-game UI for Co-op pretty regularly. These days pretty much every Co-op Commander comes with a unique “Top Bar” that has a handful of abilities on it for the player to utilize. We have started to have a lot of fun with these, integrating them more into the gameplay of each commander. For example, Stetmann has a mechanic where he can switch between three different modes. So when he switches, a slider moves back and forth between the three options, indicating which one you have selected. All of the little lights on his UI change color to match your selection, to help you know which one you have selected just using your peripheral vision. For Tychus, a commander that utilizes 5 of a possible 9 Hero units each game, the UI morphs and changes as your heroes become available, or die, or upgrade. For Zeratul the UI is a swirling cloudy crystal ball of sorts that lights up when an artifact becomes available for you to collect, and then the UI itself will expand to allow you to make selections about how you want to utilize that artifact. Co-op has really been the place where we get to play with in-game UI and general design for that matter without worrying as much about breaking what players are familiar with. We are there to do something different, and I think players appreciate that contrast with Versus where we try to keep things as standard as possible for the integrity of competitive play.
Finally, there is spectator UI. StarCraft II isn’t just a game people play, it is a game people watch as well. StarCraft II has a long history of esports, and as part of that history we have worked to created as strong a spectator experience as we can. Spectator UI is an interesting area to work in, because it has a very large number of customers. You have the tournament organizer, who wants to show their logos and make their tournament “feel” branded and different than other tournaments. You have the commentators who need to have hints about information they can talk about, and bits of information to give context about what is going on in a match such as how many workers were killed in that last fight, or what upgrade timings are about to hit. You have the observer who acts as the cameraman for these events, who needs to have some idea of when and where something important is happening, like a nuke, a nydus worm, or a medivac drop, as well as tools to help them tell the story of the game like graphs of income over time and displays showing what units are in production. You have the players who want a way to help build their brand for themselves and their team. And finally you have the viewers. Viewers come in so many different forms it is a real challenge to please all of them. You have new viewers who can be overwhelmed by too much information, hardcore viewers who want access to every piece of information under the sun, you have viewers watching on their phone or living room TV who want large text and icons to make them easier to read, and you have viewers watching 10 inches from their computer screen who are annoyed by large icons and numbers and just want as much room for the game as possible. And of course, you have people watching from all over the world who speak and read different languages, which is going to have an impact as well.
Supporting spectator UI is tricky purely because of balancing these many customers. But it is an area we have evolved over the years. And in fact we have built a new spectator this year which debuted at IEM Katowice and has also been featured in the War Chest Team League which is ongoing as I write this. This UI features larger information and icons to make it easier to read on their phones and televisions, as well as more robust capabilities for introducing players, and a more international-friendly UI for tournaments with one feed being broadcast to multiple regions. Hopefully we can get this spectator UI shipped as part of the game in a patch in the near future, but for now it will just be in some of these events.
Spectator UI is actually how I joined Blizzard, after building a mod that enhances the spectator experience Blizzard brought me in to make it an official part of the game. These days the changes made back then are just standard, and for the most part people are very positive about the spectator experience. But at the time many of the changes were quite contentious, and this is an example of an area where we were willing to rock the boat a bit to build something better for the future. Humans in general are actually pretty adaptable, and while they can get used to something being in one place, or working one way, it actually doesn’t take long for them to adjust to something new.
With that said, we will continue to walk that tight balance for the in-game UI, especially as it relates to competitive multiplayer.
For a lot of people, StarCraft 2 is a game that they are interested in but can be intimidated by its complexities. How has the team combatted that belief over the years, and are there further plans to widen StarCraft 2’s accessibility even more?
Matt Morris: I can’t speak to the plans for StarCraft II moving forward, but this has been an uphill battle from the start. When we were in early development of StarCraft II, one of the main design pillars behind the project was to stay true to the original game. Which I think we did - really well - but it also comes with the criticism of, “I love the game, but I am not that good” or, “I love to watch the game, but I’m afraid to play.” It was these continuous comments that lead me to pitch StarCraft II Co-op, something that allows multiple players to experience RTS campaign missions together in an environment that was safe to fail. I think the big takeaway from this mode was players from all skill levels loved playing StarCraft II Co-op and new players were being drawn to the mode – players that don’t typically play RTS games. I believe that the StarCraft II team is aware of this, and they really focus on StarCraft II Co-op because it’s a mode that shouldn’t intimidate anyone. Typically there are fewer units to command per Co-op Commander, the player gets help from their ally, and you’re not playing against other players, so that takes some of the pressure off playing an RTS.
Chris Fugate: Versus, to some, can be seen as a very intimidating space that asks a lot from players in terms of skill and game knowledge at all levels of play. This allows great players to showcase their skill and knowledge which is an important aspect of StarCraft - that incredible sense of competition!
As an average RTS player myself, I believe that the introduction and development of StarCraft II’s co-op game mode was great for accessibility. In co-op, you can play with a friend or an experienced player to combat Amon’s forces at an appropriate difficulty level. It’s a great playground for learning about RTS controls, production, supply limits, upgrades, expanding, macro, micro, and many other core mechanics of the game. Having a partner rather than an opponent means that you’re more likely to be able to learn from watching (without having to dig into replays) or from tips that the other player may share.
The mode is also great for anyone who may struggle with ladder anxiety. Maybe not for Amon – but in the grand scheme of the infinite cycle he’ll get some wins eventually.
Ryan Schutter: Honestly, I don’t think we have done a very good job to combat that belief. But we also somewhat accept StarCraft II for what it is, and we don’t really have a goal to change that at a fundamental level. But I don’t believe the problem is that StarCraft II is a complicated game. Many other games that people happily dive into are much more complicated. MOBAs, for example, are incredibly complicated games with hundreds or even thousands of abilities and interactions you need to understand to play at a very competitive level, but that hasn’t slowed them down.
I think the wall people hit with StarCraft II is that it is much more of a physical game. That might sound funny, but man do you have to be fast to play StarCraft II at a high level! You need incredible speed, precision, and mechanics on top of all the strategy and lightning fast decision making. To put it mildly, competitive StarCraft II is not a relaxing game generally.
If I were going to make changes, I would like to lower the skill floor for the game. I would like to make the general mechanics of StarCraft II faster and easier to do for lower level players, while keeping the ideal way to play as it is now so at the highest competitive level things are relatively unchanged. We have some ideas around how to do that, but they are controversial even within the team, and they would definitely be controversial within our community. Similar to how unlimited unit selection or producing from multiple buildings at the same time were controversial when StarCraft II launched. Not sure if some of these ideas will ever make it into the game.
What we have mainly done to improve the accessibility of the game is to provide people with ways to play it that don’t necessarily require as much mechanical stress as competitive play. That includes our Campaign content, as well as Co-op Missions. But I want to be careful here, because I have seen our community say these are steppingstones to multiplayer, and I want to be clear that we do not see them that way. If you want to play Campaign, or Co-op, then play them. I don’t want players feeling like we only put those in the game with the expectation they will eventually move onto Versus. If that makes you happy then do it, but playing Co-op is its own game with its own fun and I think it stands very well without being a steppingstone to something else. So come try it out if you haven’t.
At the end of the day while many players are intimidated by the speed and mechanical requirements of competitive StarCraft II, the game has incredible matchmaking and will put you against opponents appropriate for you. So if that is what has been holding you back, don’t let it!
StarCraft 2's campaign is a bright spot that often gets undersold as people focus on the multiplayer component of the title. Are there any plans to continue the story in future updates at all?
Matt Morris: Again, I’m not on the project anymore but I agree with your statement, that the campaign is a bright spot. The competitive scene gets a lot of the glory, as they should. The skill of the pro players is truly amazing to watch, and I think ten years later, that the pro scene is still very strong and producing great matches to watch. In terms of telling new additional StarCraft stories, I’m not sure there is an internal desire to do so… but you never know! It only takes a good idea from someone – to get that ball rolling. Do you have an idea that we should explore?
Chris Fugate: We wouldn’t rule anything out! Currently, we’re focusing on creating tools and content that provide players with enduring experiences. This includes multiplayer balance updates, co-op content, and custom arcade improvements. There’s a lot of awesome community-developed campaign content out there and, with the addition of the custom campaign category in 5.0, that content can be brought to Battle.net for a larger audience to enjoy.
Ryan Schutter: Never say never, but it hasn’t been our focus in recent years. But most people who play StarCraft II play the campaign. Many play only the campaign. I think it is a big part of the game, and we have tried to add a little something for those players mostly interested in campaign with the new 10th Anniversary achievements, where we added one new achievement to each mission in Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and Nova Covert Ops. That is 83 missions in total!
We also launched a few short stories alongside the 10th Anniversary to give players interested in the lore something to sink their teeth into. We also release a new set of free comics alongside each War Chest as well.
Additionally, for the 10th Anniversary we have also launched the Custom Campaigns feature, which will allow players to add their own campaign content to the game. And some of it has been incredibly high quality, like Odyssey from Luis Rocha. I highly suggest people go check it out.
Having developed StarCraft 2 for so long, you must have some interesting stories. Are there any that stand out in your mind as a particularly difficult or enjoyable time?
Matt Morris: I was on the team for over ten years. I was the Lead Level Designer for all three instalments, and the original Lead Co-op Designer, and I feel as if I saw everything that could happen to a development team, happened to the StarCraft II development team. I imagine that creative development is an attrition on every development team, and the StarCraft II development was no exception. Just to stand the game up and begin testing was incredibly challenging, and my hat goes off to the engineering team that dealt with our design team asking for everything under the sun.
Blizzard has a culture of polish, which adds to the attrition, where the development team continuously reiterates on good ideas, then polishes the implementation and execution from the start. We don’t wait till the end to polish and we playtest the game… all the time! And our feedback sessions after playtesting sometimes changed the direction, which meant starting that process all over again. Once you think you have something good, you let the rest of the team play, and repeat all those steps again. It’s a lot of work and it’s much harder than most people understand, but at the end, you release the game into the wild and we get to enjoy the players reactions. It’s these moments that make you forget the challenging times, and I would say it’s worth it every single time.
In terms of fond memories, I recall many team bonding events. With a high functioning development team like StarCraft II, we tend to put on blinders and overly focus on the tasks in front of us. But there were events along the way where the team got together to celebrate our progress, and these moments really helped balance the team out and give us a moment to breathe! Of all the events I remember the most I’ll never forget going to Korea for the StarCraft II announcement with the entire team. To me, this memory will live with me forever, hearing fans cheer in unison as we announce StarCraft II to the world.
Chris Fugate: One of the first StarCraft II features that I worked on was the original BlizzCon War Chest. The feature was driven by our UI team, but it was such an enormous undertaking that it required constant communication across all the disciplines. We needed to make significant updates to the menu screens, keep gameplay concerns under consideration, create a ton of skins and cosmetics, and build out some progression tech among other things. It was a great team effort and, for me, important lesson in attention to detail and clear communication. It was also a great opportunity to make a lot of friends in production, art, and engineering!
Ryan Schutter: Just being here has been an interesting ride for me. Ten years ago, I was watching GSL as a fan, on a totally different career path. Just a few days ago, I got to congratulate the GSL on their 10th Anniversary on behalf of the StarCraft II development team in a video message. It is a bit surreal!
10 years of balancing means a lot of missteps along the way - though I think fans understand it’s impossible not to have those over this period of time. Are there any moments in time that stand out to either of you as a period where the game was as close to perfectly balanced as possible? How challenging is managing live game support over a decade, and what have you learned during?
Matt Morris: I was not directly involved with game balance, but I have sat in many of the balance meetings and had a great relationship with David Kim to have a vague idea what went on. Early on the focus was about counter gameplay, meaning when a player sent their units against me and maneuvered them in a way that would crush me, the balance team focused on ways a player like me could counter that attack. Focusing on the individual units, that if I use correctly, can overcome what looks like a defeat. There was a lot of talk around those moments, that really helped drive StarCraft II esports, as something players enjoy watching. It’s sort of like tennis to me, the ball goes back and forth, with each player doing something amazing. And as a spectator, I know I can never do that, glued to the screen waiting for one player to make a mistake. At their skill level, there were not many mistakes, and that is exciting to watch! Later the meta changed here and there, and each time you saw different units being played more. I think by the last time I really paid attention to balance, the game evolved into multi bases, which really was difficult for average players to protect and maintain multiple bases, while also trying to take out their opponent. From an esport perspective it became clear, that the top players and the top matches to watch were revolved around controlling multiple bases and attacking simultaneously. It’s almost dizzying to wrap my head around, watching the players strike with precision while maintaining a clear view of the battlefield.
Chris Fugate: Providing balance updates to a game as long-lived and well-explored as StarCraft II poses some real challenges. There’s a lot to consider when judging balance: what are the matchup win rates, what does the map pool look like, which tech paths and units are underused or overused, how’s the community sentiment on the matchup, etc. It can be daunting to look at all the parameters and attempt to figure out what changes to make to the game.
One important lesson in balance design that I’ve learned while working on StarCraft II is that it helps to very clearly define the reason a change should be made. If you can determine that and develop a consensus, you can throw around design pitches targeted at the problem and explore how they address that problem and how they affect areas of the game that aren’t viewed as problematic. It also helps to be familiar with the game that you’re attempting to balance and to gather outside feedback to confirm that you’re on the right track.
That being said, I am a big fan of the era of the hit-and-run Battlecruiser!
Legacy of the Void was a shot in the arm for StarCraft 2 and really helped shape the game into what fans know today. Are there any things either of you would have done differently leading up to that expansion in retrospect? Any unforeseen fires that needed putting out after?
Matt Morris: Legacy of the Void was rather smooth sailing. We were primed and ready to execute on any direction, in fact I think this was the game where we saw more internal experimentations. We tried a multiplayer mode where it was impossible to raid the main base for the first ten minutes of the game, to trying Archon mode for the campaign, but I feel what the players see today are the best ideas that came out of those experimentations. Knowing what I know now, I would have liked to have started StarCraft II Co-op much sooner, more time would have allowed us to launch more missions and commanders from the start.
Ryan Schutter: I think I would prefer we had invested the resources we put into Automated Tournaments and Archon Mode instead into improving Co-op, or custom games. Automated Tournaments was a very expensive feature to build, and while it does see some engagement, it isn’t much. And while we have seen ideas on how we could improve it, I don’t feel like any of it would move the needle much.
I really think that StarCraft II multiplayer is in the best place it has ever been, and a lot of that is because of the changes from Legacy of the Void. In that respect, I think Void solved a lot more problems than it created.
Ten years of StarCraft 2 has made for a lot of highlights in terms of gameplay. I know Blizzard has put together a list of some of the team’s favorite moments from esports events and the like, but are there any either of you personally want to shout out? Any favorite players from over the years that either inspired you or impressed?
Chris Fugate: Watching Serral go toe-to-toe with AlphaStar in the StarCraft demo area at BlizzCon was a memorable moment for me. There was an exciting Man vs the Machine element to it and seeing the large crowd gather around the demo stations to watch as word-of-mouth spread was incredible. I believe that he managed a winning record in ZvP without using his personal mouse and keyboard which was very impressive.
Ryan Schutter: My favorite players are “Has” and “Kelazhur”. I like Has because he shows us that there are other ways to play the game than whatever the current meta is. Sometimes the game gets stuck in a stale meta, and often it isn’t broken by a balance patch, but instead by some player utilizing a unit or strategy that hasn’t been employed much in recent months or years. I think Has acts as an important reminder that sometimes all you need is a different approach. His run in WCS Valencia 2018 was absolutely incredible, and (spoilers) I often wonder how it might have changed StarCraft II if he had actually won that tournament, or if it wouldn’t have changed at all. Great, now I am re-watching it!
Kelazhur is a player I met at BlizzCon one year, and he just struck me as such a great dude that I started rooting for him whenever I see him. After years of cheering for him now, I am invested. For me seeing Kelazhur or Has win a premier tournament would be amazing, and they have both come incredibly close.
But of course there are so many incredible moments in StarCraft II esports, like Neeb winning the 2016 KeSPA Cup, taking Korea by surprise, or Serral taking the 2018 BlizzCon trophy. Or perhaps the 2011 GSL Code S finals at BlizzCon where MMA took the victory over MVP, or the speech from “John the Translator” afterwards. The last 10 years are littered with these kinds of incredible moments and that has made StarCraft II the amazing esport it is.
How far does the team feel like it can keep pushing StarCraft 2? After a decade, what do goals look like now for StarCraft 2’s development?
Ryan Schutter: There is always more to do on StarCraft II. I am incredibly happy that Custom Campaigns as a feature has finally made it into the game with our 10th Anniversary patch. I feel like it is a feature that has really been missing for the last 10 years, so to finally deliver it feels awesome. And like Custom Campaigns, we have also made the largest number of improvements we have ever made to our editor so that modders can build even more awesome content for players. These are areas we have barely touched over the years and we are only just getting around to. Pushing in these areas is so incredibly powerful because players will be able to create more amazing content than we would ever be able to.
Like the 10th Anniversary Patch 5.0, I think our goal moving forward is to keep looking for ways to support StarCraft II that excite both us and our players.
Has there ever been a temptation to add a new multiplayer race to StarCraft 2 in its past expansions? In any future scenarios?
Matt Morris: Adding a new race is always something that comes up when talking about expansions. The question becomes, “Who is this new race for?” From our data, we know that there are two types of players that play StarCraft II. There are the Player vs Environment players that love campaign and Co-op, then there is the competitive player base that only plays Versus. Traditionally, we always tried to serve all players by creating campaigns and competitive modes, but I can see that the gaming world has evolved. I don’t think StarCraft II would need a campaign to create a new race if they wanted to do this for the competitive audience, which makes more sense to me. But if they wanted to add a new campaign, then I don’t think they should worry about adding to the versus mode, but that is up to them. By decoupling them, I believe you have a greater opportunity to do at least one of these ideas.
Lastly, in the spirit of the 10th year anniversary celebrations, I’d like to give all of you the chance to brag a little bit - what’s your contribution to StarCraft 2 that has made your proudest of your time spent working on the title?
Matt Morris: For Wings of Liberty it was a mixture of building and tweaking missions and setting direction for the entire campaign, this is something that I did for all three games. I was very fortunate to have a very talented group of designers working with me, that really allowed me to take a step back, and help nudge each mission to a better version of itself. I was involved early on with the scope of the campaign, the story beats and player flow from mission to mission, adjusting narrative direction to fit mission mechanics. But I would say Raynor01 was my staple mission, it had gone through a lot of subtle directions, and I take pride in the early missions being accessible to all audiences. But more importantly, setting the tone for the return of StarCraft and establishing the fantasy of the game.
From a systems standpoint, I designed the achievement system that you see today, and championed the objective system that is visual throughout the mission. I helped direct the mission briefings to be about the mission and what the player needed to do and pushed back on story beats that were not needed for a mission briefing. This was actually very hard to do, there is so much story we wanted to tell, but we needed to remind everyone, the reason we created story mode, was to tell the story, and the missions were for gameplay. If you recall, Warcraft III opted for story telling within the mission briefings. With StarCraft II, we went with a different direction that I think allowed us to tell a story much better. Early on, this was a hard battle with the team… looking back I suspect the team would say, wasn’t that always the intent?
In Heart of the Swarm I designed out the hero bar, the enemy hero bars, and all the in-mission progression UI elements. But the one piece that I think I’m particularly happy with is the mutation system. There were a few designers that built out the mutation missions, but it was my pitch to have players try out the upgrade options, and then choose which option suited them. And again, I was very hands on for two of the first 3 missions, something that I take pride on with engaging the audience. What really helped us cross that gap was introducing the difficulty levels based on player experience. Once I got this into the game, we noticed new users were moving to the proper difficulty level and enjoying the experience much more.
For Legacy of the Void, I had two large achievements – The Spear of Adun top bar abilities; we felt that Wings of Liberty fit the fantasy of scrappy Terrans earning credits to upgrade their army, while Heart of the Swarm matched the fantasy of the Zerg mutating and evolving, and with Legacy of the Void, we wanted to show the technological advancement of the race with powers from above. And the other achievement was StarCraft II Co-op, internally, this feature ended up being very decisive, not everyone wanted to focus on a Vs AI mode, some really wanted to focus on the competitive side of the game. In the end, I am very thankful that enough people believed in the idea and allowed it to ship with the game.
Chris Fugate: Proudest moment? I’d say that it’s a tie for me. On one hand, I’m pleased to have been able to drive the new co-op prestige feature in our 10th anniversary update. We’ve been really excited about providing players with new ways to engage with commanders whether that’s bringing a historically challenging commander more accessibility, providing a commander that struggles with mutations more options, or giving a commander a wild twist that flips its gameplay on its axis. The team received a lot of positive feedback on the prestige system, and it’s been awesome to hear why players appreciate the individual talents.
On the other hand, I also played a key part in getting the Arcturus Mengsk announcer to deliver the same line he uttered as he abandoned Kerrigan on Tarsonis when you lose a versus game.
Ryan Schutter: This is difficult, there have been so many amazing things I have had the honor to work on over the years like Legacy of the Void, Nova Covert Ops, Free to Play, War Chest, all of our incredible Co-op Commanders, 100 other features, and the 10th Anniversary Patch 5.0 most recently. But I think if I had to pick one it would be my work as a modder before even joining the team.
I am so proud of all of the work I have done on StarCraft II the game, but remember those incredible esports moments we were talking about earlier? My work as a modder on spectator tools and UI has let me touch most of these moments in some small way. I really feel like I made StarCraft II a better game, and a better esport with my work and that is an incredible feeling.
But I also think it is important because that work was before Blizzard. This reminds me of my passion for the game even when things can get difficult or stressful, and it also reminds me of how powerful our community is to do great things for the game if we let them.
StarCraft 2 is available now on PC via Battle.net.