Bolt, a young man chasing his dream of becoming an eSports pro, and Jett, a “former darling of the Korean Pro-Gaming Association” and past friend, strive together to become Korean eSports champions during the StarCraft: Brood War era in Don’t Forget Our eSports Dream, the prequel to SC2VN.

Don’t Forget Our eSports Dream came about due to the developer reaching out to Blizzard for permission to publish SC2VN on Steam. “We wanted to put SC2VN on Steam and recognized that we’d probably need permission from them (Blizzard) to do so.” says TJ Huckabee, writer and creative director for the games.

“Tim, our producer, had a contact at Blizzard who was able to put us in contact with their PR department. They vetted the game and even ran a bit of QA for us which led to a timely approval. This led to us earning an invitation to Blizzcon and the StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void launch party as community influencers.”

“While we were there, we met with the Blizzard team members and began a conversation that led to them asking us for a pitch for an SC2VN sequel. Our pitch went through a few iterations from January-March, and we eventually came away with Don’t Forget Our eSports Dream approved for us to sell commercially.”

Huckabee turned to this era in South Korean eSports history for the prequel for a number of reasons. “First and foremost, the characters we have the most to write about, Bolt and Jett, cut their teeth on Brood War as young fans and then eventually as amateur pro-gamers.”

“Also, Brood War has a lore that other eSports really don’t. When you think of League (of Legends), for example, you first think of it as a game that your friends play, or as something you yourself might download and enjoy for a few hours. But in 2015, Brood War is first and foremost thought of as an eSport.”

“What’s more, as foreigners, we marvelled at Brood War as this crazy thing specific to South Korea. Only later did we discover that they were onto something huge: mainstream success of a video game as a spectator sport. We want to tell a great story, but we also want to show what makes StarCraft such a special game. Brood War worked best for us on those two fronts.”

The projected visual novel will be accessible to a general audience (containing a glossary of helpful terms for the curious), yet be true to eSports fans. It promises to be three times longer than SC2VN, and will contain decisions for both the characters and their StarCraft strategies.

Players will join Bolt and Jett against rivals and into international tournaments, the offices of Korea’s top eSports officials, and finally the booth at the highest level of professional StarCraft.

Don’t Forget Our eSports Dream is currently raising funding through Kickstarter.