The road to “StarCraft II” started with “WarCraft III.”

At least the testing did; that’s where Blizzard began tinkering with unit ideas. The graphic engine for “StarCraft II” was created from scratch for the game, said Chris Sigaty, lead producer (pictured on right), and the initial process of just what “StarCraft II” should be had started before that.

So to keep work moving forward on “StarCraft II” while its engine was being developed, the team prototyped — that is, created working units — using the “WarCraft III” engine. It seemed like a natural fit; both games are real-time strategy titles, both would use 3D engines. However, Sigaty said, the process just didn’t work – the inner workings of ”WarCraft III” was simply too different. In the end, all the time spent testing with “WarCraft” didn’t add up to anything.

StarCraft II sneaks

Those subtle differences between “StarCraft II” and “WarCraft III” — indeed, between “StarCraft II” and the original “StarCraft” — seem to underlie Blizzard’s approach to the new game. It’s been over 10 years since the original’s release, in 1998, but it’s still one of the most-played PC games in the U.S. It has huge appeal overseas, notably in South Korea; at E3 this year, “StarCraft” was honored by Guiness World Records for being the best-selling PC strategy game of all time, with 9.5 million copies sold. That pedigree is something, Sigaty says, the team has tried to emulate — they want players who played the original to feel nostalgia.

Still, Sigaty says, the developers also wanted to bring in a new generation of players and to create new strategies. So, what’s on the table to help make “StarCraft II” its own game? Unfortunately, both Battle.net and the single-player demonstrations Blizzard wanted to unveil weren’t ready when we visited its campus, but Sigaty hinted at some possibilities.

One of the traditional barriers to joining “StarCraft” online games is the high difficulty curve; while Battlet.net tries to match players based on skill, the first couple of times a player jumps in are likely to be one-sided bloodbaths. Sigaty said that Blizzard’s considering — he stressed the “under consideration” bit — a tiered Battle.net system to ease new players into multiplayer. (For some confirmed additions, see our earlier post.)

The single-player mode will also be significantly different from the original’s. In “StarCraft” and its expansion “Brood War,” players chose a campaign featuring one of the three races, then played that campaign’s eight to 10 missions in order. In the new “StarCraft II” single-player, players will direct Jim Raynor from his base in a bar, picking and choosing from missions. Since the three “StarCraft II” titles will be roughly equivalent to the three single-player chapters in the first title, the team had much more space to express each race’s point of view, Sigaty said.

While the plot is set — that is, players have certain storyline missions they must finish to advance the story — optional side missions will change the perspective or illuminate parts of the story. The goal, Sigaty said, is to have each player experience a different single-player campaign.

Before he had to leave, Sigaty did mention something that should silence naysayers of Blizzards’ in-game testing (should silence, but probably won’t): The team’s been getting together for over a year and playing multiplayer games. The games are fed into a theater, where they’re “shoutcasted,” or play-by-play announced, by attendees in a style similar to the battle reports on Blizzard’s Web site.

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