Being pretty new at actually doing an in-person interview, I actually didn’t have enough questions to ask!
20 minutes felt like an eternity, but thanks to you guys I did improv abit along the way and I do hope you enjoy what I’ve been able to dig up for you.
Brian Kindregan on the right, flanked by Community Manager, Kevin Yu, on the left.
Would there be an animated movie or series with regards to Starcraft 2 in the works?
Brian Kindregan: Well, blizzard is always looking at different ways to expand the storytelling and the experience for the customers. I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. What I don’t know of any immediate plans for something like that..
Kevin Yu: We do have the manga..
Brian: Yeah that’s true. There is a whole lot of other media that we could do Starcraft stuff. We’ve got the manga. There’s 16 or 17 novels and a novel that was just released just a few months ago and there’s more in the works certainly; Starcraft comics, there’s a lot of media platforms for Starcraft.
What’s your favorite way to forward a story? Do you like it in the form of a RTS game, novel or animation?
Brian: I think they are all valid tools, what’s really nice about being able to tell stories in so many different ways is that they expand the universe.
The game is definitely the flagship. I mean that’s the central story and the most important characters will always be featured in the game. The novels let you explore their background in more detail or find out more about the characters that you play a part in the game but aren’t the main characters. Same for the Manga, it lets you explore parts of the galaxy that you don’t normally see in the game so all of these things expand the universe of Starcraft, and I mean there’s a lot of stories to tell in the Starcraft universe but definitely for me my focus is telling the story through the game.
So, you know in the RTS environment we tell the story during the missions, we have events happen during the mission, characters might do things that surprise you and also in the game we have story mode so that’s something where you can go around Jim Raynor’s ship, the Hyperion, and talk to the different characters that have come to join him and find out about them and experience different things with them and even make choices in that space that affects other missions and things like that.
Kevin: I think in addition to that is that anytime the community really shows a demand for something we always try to find more ways but obviously Starcraft II the game is our core and really we try to expand it. So, we do the comics, the manga, the novel in the same feel like Warcraft as well as through the movies it is kinda the next step. As long as the community demands for it, we will pretty much always rise up to the occasion. We kinda love building an entire experience for it.
So, who is your favorite character in the Starcraft universe?
Brian: <laughs> oh it’s like choosing children. I really like them all. They have all got different qualities that are so amazing. We’ve got Tychus Findlay who’s this bigger than life character who in which every opinion he’s got is a grand thing and you are never quite sure how serious he is and how much you should believe him so he’s a great character. Obviously, the Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan is an epic character for me. While working on Wings of Liberty, I spent the majority of my time inside Jim Raynor’s head trying to figure out who this space cowboy is. He sorta talks softly but carries a very big stick. His heart is steel under the surface but on the surface he’s a relaxed and mellow guy so he’s a really fun character but to be honest there’s too many to pick. We’ve got crazy resource pirate who shows up and joins you. A sincere, beautiful colony administrator who is out to protect her people during this terrible war. There’s a whole cast of characters that each have something compelling about them
So if there was just one?
Brian: Well I guess for wings of liberty it would be Jim Raynor he’s the one who’s driving everything forward.
How long did the actual writing aspect of the game take?
Brian: I would say hardcore development had been going on for 4 years.
There’s times where the story telling perspective we let things sit for a while and germinate and try and figure out what’s working and what’s not and we dive back into it. We sorta tear everything apart and we really make sure that everything is working.
Blizzard is a place that emphasizes making everything as good as it can be polishing it until it’s ready so it can be a little exhausting at times but the difference really shows in the end
Any plans for World of Starcraft? I’m sure that’s been asked many times.
Brian: Oddly enough, that’s the first time I’ve got that question. It’s probably be asked before though. I certainly don’t know of any World of Starcraft plans.
As this would be only the first part of the whole series, would there be any plans for a fourth playable race? Minions of the Xel-naga perhaps?
Brian: Well, my focus is on telling the story of the games and we are working on that right now but playable races would be more of a gameplay kind of thing. If the lead designer and director who is trying to bring the whole gameplay experience together decided that would be a good idea then we certainly would look at doing it. But, I’m more focused on telling the stories and we are telling the Terran story now so now we are focusing on telling the stories of the other playable races.
Will there be a cliffhanger end to the first that would make everyone groan at the end and so want to get the second?
Brian: You know it’s funny as doing a trilogy is always very tricky because you wanna leave enough hanging that people are excited to get the next one but you have to delivery an emotionally satisfying end to the story and I think a pure cliffhanger with nothing resolved would be unfair and unkind unless we are able to have the first expansion come out the a week later which we won’t be able to do.
So there will definitely be things left unresolved. There will be more events to come and hopefully you’ll be excited to play the next one but we also do try to wrap up a lot of important things and ensure its an emotionally satisfying experience and at the end you would go “oh, whew! I went though a complete experience!”
So how long are we off from the second then?
Brian: I’m not really plugged into that sort of schedules.
I know that for me as a creative type and a story teller I will keep working on it until they tell me to stop and then maybe I’ll come in late at night when I’m not supposed to and keep working on it and there are wiser heads than my own that figure out release dates.
Kevin: One of the great things is that for our customers that we already have built the engine and the technology and so building this out won’t take as long as compared to a sequel for a game so I guess it’s something very favorable to them.
Brain: Absolutely, we can focus on creating content than building infrastructure and creating content at the same time.
Will the map editor be able to incorporate custom mission briefings etc?
Brian: Absolutely its the tool I use everyday and it’s the same tool they are gonna have in front of them so it’s very powerful and they will really need to get their hands on the tools and start messing around with them but they should really be able to do everything that the engine can deliver
kevin: Yeah, especially during beta they have created storyline RPGS. Picking your own character and going through storylines. The beta map editor didn’t even have all the content compared to the one you will be getting on launch of Starcraft will be even a more robust version of that.
How does one land a cool job like yours?
Brian: <laughs> I think just about everyone I work with came to the job in a different way. I had a career as a storyboard artist in Hollywood for years and I was dealing in visual storytelling and I got into games as a writer and believe it or not I applied through the website. I know its one of those things that no one thinks really happens but I didn’t have a special inside friend so I just applied and they contacted me and then followed a long process of interviews and writing samples and so it can happen.
I believe that the most important thing is that if anyone who wants to do a creative job has to decide what they want to do and become the best it as they can be and constantly learning and improving yourself and keep on putting yourself out there and applying and get rejected and apply again and keep driving forward and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it or can’t make a living out of it or whatever.
It sounds like Peter Pan but you have to believe and go forward for it.
Kevin: I actually applied on the website as well and definitely Blizzard hires plenty from the community as well and people who are passionate about games become naturally better designers and artists who really love the lore and we actually hired a fan artist into our Starcraft team.
Single or multiplayer first?
Brian: We tried to put together a package so you can pick and choose how you want to go about it. It’s all about your comfort level.
The game comes with the best tutorial that I have ever seen in terms of being comprehensive without getting you being lost so I would start there.
Then you can try out the challenges to test your skills, which will be graded and I think the single player campaign does very well to ease you into the insanity of full on RTS combat and if you have completed all the challenges you would be ready to take on all the hardcore online people.
Kevin: Single player is definitely the place for everyone to start of with but the great thing is that Starcraft is a game for every type of player be it multiplayer or playing around with the map editor, its not buying just one single game and it will keep on evolving with all the tools that will roll out
Would you like to say anything else to the Starcraft fans out there?
Brian: Well, I am really excited about the game and everyone is very proud of this game and we think you are really gonna enjoy it and we really want to hear what you think about it and it’s a game with this epic sweeping story and a crazy space cowboy with all sorts of unique mechanics and player choice and all sorts of ambitious stuff and its all come together and so we’re excited and hope you guys are too.
Kevin: its been a huge long trek so I think many of us are happy that we are able to get this game out to you guys as much as you guys are happy to get it and feedback to us all the hard work we have done.
Thanks guys!
I would like to thank IAH Games and Nicholas for giving me the opportunity to interview Brian =)
Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com
