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Interview with Blizzard's Kevin Yu on StarCraft II
by Keith Schleicher
Keith Schleicher: What's your name and what's your position?
Kevin Yu: RTS Community Manager :) I manage the community for WC3, StarCraft, & StarCraft II.
Keith Schleicher: It's been a while since the original StarCraft came out. I'm sure a lot of people are ask, "What took so long?" And why create a sequel after so long?
Kevin Yu: It was always our intention to revisit the StarCraft Universe after Warcraft III, though because of the size of the World of Warcraft project, we’ve had to allocate some of our team there for a while, which has delayed the release of StarCraft II just a bit. Nonetheless, we’ve been working hard at it for a three years now and it is definitely getting the quality development time this sequel deserves.
Keith Schleicher: You went from 2D to 3D going from Warcraft II to Warcraft III. Does StarCraft II use any code from the Warcraft III engine?
Kevin Yu: You are aiming for a wide array of PC's to be able to play StarCraft II when it comes out.
Keith Schleicher: Is the engine scalable so that those running Vista and DirectX 10 cards will get some nicer particle effects or some other nicer graphical effect? What kind of resolutions are you aiming to be available?
Kevin Yu: DirectX10 users will definitely see some added graphical perks over those without it. Nonetheless, like all Blizzard games, we are aiming at having StarCraft II be able to be played on a wide variety of computer specs.
Keith Schleicher: How far after the original StarCraft does this one take place? Will we be seeing Kerrigan again?
Kevin Yu: The StarCraft II storyline will begin 4 years after the events of Brood War. Yup, Kerrigan will be back :)
Keith Schleicher: Was there any talk at all of trying to include a fourth race in StarCraft II?
Kevin Yu: Yes, but we feel that the three races accomplish the goals of StarCraft II very well, in being extremely diverse from one another on many levels, while also maintaining the nostalgic StarCraft feel our fans love. We didn’t want to take away from that.
Keith Schleicher: Are you going to be employing any hero characters?
Kevin Yu: Yes, there will be heroes like Jim Raynor and Kerrigan back in the single player experience. These heroes will have unique abilities different from standard units as well.
Keith Schleicher: Will all three sides have the similar technology trees and resource strategies from the original StarCraft, or are there some surprises to making new units?
Kevin Yu: The tech tree will be similar to StarCraft, but there are definitely new innovations that will allow new strategies and macro level tactics.
Keith Schleicher: How many missions are you planning for each campaign?
Kevin Yu: TBD
Keith Schleicher: How soon can we expect StarCraft II? Are we looking at late 2008?
Kevin Yu: Once StarCraft II is at the quality that is fitting for a StarCraft sequel, we’ll let you know :)
-- Keith Schleicher, GamingTrend
