To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Starcraft, IGN talked with Chris Metzen, Starcraft’s Lead Designer and Sam “Samwise” Didier, Starcraft’s Art Director. We talked about the game’s influences, how the story evolved, and the creation of the now iconic three races of the genre-defining sci-fi real-time-strategy game.

Art by Chris Metzen

Kerrigan’s Surprising Origins

“ They joked Starcraft’s answer to Tonya should be Kerrigan. But it stuck.

Art by Chris Metzen

Earth Was Going to Play a Bigger Role

Art by Chris Metzen

Tassadar’s Death and the Limits of Cinematics

Art by Sam "Samwise" Didier

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Gray Aliens, Insectoids, and Outlaws

Art by Sam "Samwise" Didier

While anti-hero/villain Sarah Kerrigan is the most recognizable character of the franchise, the “Queen of Blades” origin story is actually quite goofy. Chris Metzen, who developed a lot of the original Starcraft story with James Phinney, first conceived of the stealthy Terran Ghost units. They wanted to have a commando character, but they hadn’t decided on a name. “It started off as a joke,” Metzen reports.First, some context: Back in the 1990’s, Blizzard’s main rival in the RTS space was Westwood Studios, who produced the popular Command and Conquer series. Command and Conquer: Red Alert, released in 1996, featured a female commando by the name of Tonya. Also around this time, Chris Metzen explains, the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan story was breaking. They joked Starcraft’s answer to Tonya should be Kerrigan. But the name stuck and the rest, as they say, is history.Kerrigan’s redemption? Also not initially planned. “I didn’t have the thought of [redeeming her] in the original Starcraft.” Similarly, “Brood War wasn’t the place for it,” Metzen says. “We wanted to make her the primary villain in Brood War and make her pretty wicked.” But over the years, his opinion of Kerrigan and villains in general began to change. “The redemption of villains became near and dear to me. I loved that idea,” Metzen explains. He prominently explored this theme in Warcraft with both Arthas and Illidan. “Kerrigan was the heart and soul of it. The wicked Queen of Blades was not who she was. She never had a chance to be herself. She was always manipulated by one power or another.” We can see this theme play out in the three arcs of Starcraft II.Longtime fans of Starcraft may remember the United Earth Directorate, or UED, who were introduced in Starcraft: Brood War. Many expected this new Terran faction to have a bigger role in Starcraft II, especially since they introduced the idea of earth in Starcraft’s lore. That expectation is not ill-founded because the UED was supposed to play a bigger role. “As we were developing Brood War, at the time, the promise of earth and its powers…. was going to be a really big theme that was going to define the Starcraft franchise.” Initially, the plan was for all of the conflict with the Zerg, Terrans, and Protoss to spiral back to earth where the zerg would invade. But as the campaign developed, Metzen found a number of things shifted and this grand plan got walked back. “The UED were no longer going to be these heavies for the franchise.”In the development for Starcraft II, the idea of bringing in a fourth franchise power made less and less sense. Mengsk’s Dominion and Raynor’s rebellion had enough nutrients to define that third of the franchise. The UED would have been too much. While Metzen is no longer with Blizzard and emphasizes that he can’t speak for the future of the Starcraft franchise, he does believe that the potential for the UED, and the exploration of earth, is still out there.Tassadar, one of the heroes of the Protoss campaign, was one of the first Protoss that Metzen drew. “He had the big tentacles coming out of his head” even in the early stages. And he was always an outsider. “I wrote him to be a rogue against the regime that controlled the Protoss, the Enclave.” But his death? That was unexpected, even for Metzen. “I didn’t know we were going to sacrifice him in that way.”How he came to sacrifice himself for the greater good in the game’s climax is actually a story of late 90’s cinematics. Blizzard is now renowned for its gorgeous cinematics and how they march lockstep with the greater world building. Overwatch, for example, tells much of its story through these carefully created videos. And where would Warcraft III be without its thrilling depiction of Arthas’ fall into madness, its destruction of Dalaran, or the climactic battle against Mannoroth?But in 1997, Blizzard was at a different place. “Many of the interstitials were developed for fun,” Metzen explains. “We just were building fun sequences with what we had,” he said of the art team’s haphazard approach. “I then went back and straightened this into the flow of the campaign to make everything fit.” This actually lead him to change some of the story and let some of his ideas evolve. So instead of the cinematics reflecting the story, the story often reflected part of what story the cinematics told.Except with Tassadar. The death of Tassadar was one of the last cinematics the team created and it was one that the design team specifically asked to be created. It was intended to be the crescendo of the game. “Everything really came together. It’s one of my favorite moments.”The races of Starcraft are now renowned for their balance and distinctive features but all started as being influenced by other science fiction properties and tropes. The Terrans were conceived of as “outlaw cowboys,” who would have a clunky, heavy feel to them, Art Director Sam Didier explains. “We wanted our human race, the Terrans, to be a bit more of scoundrels, rather than the uptight and polished humans of most science fiction stories.”The Protoss, in contrast, were meant to embody the trope of the little “gray aliens” you see in science-fiction films. They were designed to be the “most intelligent, advanced race in the game, but also the highest evolved warriors,” Didier explains. These “little gray aliens” ended up being seven feet tall and resembling “space samurai” where everything— their buildings, units, and armor— all were “ aesthetically pleasing to the eye.”The Zerg, finally, were always meant to be these frighteningly adaptive aliens that were heavily influenced by Aliens and Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. “They devoured and consumed and then took what was special about you and made it a part of their race. Oh, and they had teeth…lots of teeth,” Didier says.

“ “Good ideas don’t die. They just go into the sequel done ten years later.”

But the races were not always so distinct. At one point in the development process, the Protoss and Zerg were much, much similar. One early idea depicted the Protoss as having insectoid characteristics and “almost had a Zerg-ness about them.” While the idea was ditched, they did end up linking the two races as both creations of the Xel’ Naga in Starcraft II. Whether this initial idea influenced the story later on or is a coincidence remains to be seen. “Both have head plates, both primarily use blades as weapons, one race has a hive mind mentality, the other, a psychic connection to each other called the Khala. Either way it was pretty cool how it turned out,” Didier admits.

Art by Sam "Samwise" Didier

The Missing Dark Templar Dragoon

IGN asked about what unit was cut from the original Starcraft that the team was particularly fond of. In Brood War, Didier wanted more Dark Templar units in the game. He pitched versions of the Dark Templar Dragoon for both Brood War and the N64 version of Starcraft. He created concept art for it and every time, it was scrapped. But in Starcraft II, the Dark Templar Dragoon became the Stalker and actually made it into the game. “Good ideas don’t die,” Didier says with a smile. “They just go into the sequel done ten years later.”

Starcraft’s Enduring Legacy

In talking to Didier and Metzen, it’s clear that they still have a lot of passion for the universe they’ve helped create. Starcraft was built by people who grew up “on 60’s, 70’s and 80’s science fiction,” Didier explains. They watched Star Wars, played with action figures and toys, read comics, and became inspired by the worlds that others created to in turn create their own. “Now, people tell me they grew up playing StarCraft and how it inspired them to create and draw worlds of their own,” Didier says with pride. So Starcraft’s legacy remains largely unwritten. Its influence can be seen in modern sci-fi games but also will appear in the next generation’s worlds, where the children who explored Aiur and Terran space build their own sci-fi universes.

That wraps up IGN’s conversation with Starcraft’s developers. At 20 years, Starcraft’s enthusiastic community is still going strong. What’s your favorite Starcraft moment? Where do you want to see the series go from here? Sound off in the comments below!