The long-awaited announcement of a new game in the StarCraft series didn’t answer many of the questions fans had. However, many new details were revealed in interviews with head of development Dan Hay, senior producer Paul Lee, and associate head of development Anna Lee Herdling.
Let’s highlight the important points:
The new StarCraft game is a story-driven open-world shooter that will be released as a full-fledged premium title. Players will create their own character, give him a name and complete the story on his behalf.
The developer emphasized that the project is not a service game at this stage and the story will have a clear ending.
The story of the game takes place approximately 70 years after the events of the previous game in the series. Dan Hay said such a time jump would preserve the core of StarCraft but give developers more freedom to create new characters, conflicts and relationships between factions.
Over the decades, existing factions may change views, split, or fall into new conflicts.
The author intends to use this period to create a new story that retains the dark and gritty “space western” atmosphere, suburban isolation, political intrigue and factional conflict of StarCraft.
According to Dan Hay, the developers hope to abandon the series’ usual overhead battlefield perspective and place players directly in the center of ground combat. The team works hard to convey the feeling of being on the battlefield, where every decision and action becomes critical in a highly tense situation.
The developers consider that one of the main features of the new project is the combination of story missions and an open world with side quests. The story-based plot should provide a more intense and emotional experience, while the open world will allow players to independently explore the environment, train and develop characters to return to complex missions later.
As an example of the emotional impact required, Hay recalled a scene in Star Wars where Kerrigan is left alone as the camera zooms out. According to him, the developers wanted to create similar moments of intense emotional tension during story missions.
Dan Hay compares this approach to the difference between a hot tub and a swimming pool: both environments involve water, but the rules of behavior within them are completely different. He believes that players should not be under the pressure of high difficulty all the time. If the next mission is too difficult, you can explore the open world, improve your equipment, and then come back to the mission.
At the same time, the developers do not intend to abandon the three main races of “StarCraft”. Although the Protoss only appeared briefly in the BlizzCon opening video, Dan Hay confirmed that they are fully involved in the game. According to him, the Protoss will become one of the key factions in the project.
Hay also pointed out specific points in the trailer where Protoss architecture can be seen. If you examine the frame carefully, you can assume that to the left of the central overlord you can see part of the gateway, with a connection point behind it. However, the developer did not specify which structures are shown in the video.
The team wants to maintain the differences between Terran, Zerg, and Protoss. Humanity is depicted as diverse groups moving through space, engaged in resource extraction and plunder. The Protoss is stuck in tradition and is hard to convince, while the Zerg’s way of thinking is fundamentally different from other factions and cannot be reasoned with. The developers consider the conflict between these three to be an important part of StarCraft’s identity.
Blizzard places a special emphasis on world exploration. Previously, ARG elements have appeared on the game’s official website, aiming to force players to independently search for clues and discuss the discovered information. Dan Hay explained that the team deliberately didn’t want to explain every detail directly to players, wanting them to explore the world on their own, notice unusual elements, ask questions and discuss the clues they uncovered.
However, Blizzard has not revealed whether StarCraft plans to return to the RTS format. When asked about the future of the strategy portion of the series, Dan Hay noted that the team is now focused on proposed projects and is not yet ready to make a statement about potential future games. At the same time, the developers recognize the importance of StarCraft’s RTS heritage and the audience’s love for this direction.
Senior producer Paul Lee stressed that story remains one of the fundamental elements of StarCraft. He believes that the change in genre should not affect the core of the series – the deep history and conflicts between factions, which the team intends to preserve for different generations of fans.
