STARCRAFT, AND GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE GAME AND ITS STORY

“It doesn’t have to be Shakespeare. It doesn’t have to be perfect. What is perfect? We want to build these things as best we can.”

– Blizzard VP of Story and Franchise Development, Chris Metzen

In an extensive new look back at the StarCraft franchise on Polygon, Blizzard’s Chris Metzen and executive producer Chris Sigaty share development tales and methods behind the massively popular strategy franchise.

While there’s a lot covered in the piece, Metzen’s insights into writing for games are extensively explored; here’s more of his philosophy:

“But in developing these fictions for games, you gotta remember, people just want to feel powerful and effective. If the first X minutes of your gameplay, the first X missions in a narrative wave, if you just feel kinda cruddy and icky and low, you’re not gonna stick with it. You’re not gonna enjoy it or bring out this heroic thing that we were really chasing, for the most part, in the first place.”

You can read much more, including tales of the series’ genesis and plans for its future, over at Polygon. And if you want to know more about Metzen’s writing philosophy, check out this Gamasutra story about a talk he delivered at GDC, which is packed with quotes.