Blizzard "Didn't Set Out With Any Goals In Mind" For StarCraft II

How do you begin working on a sequel to one of the most popular games of all time? A follow-up to a game that's still being played so intensely that it's become a national pastime for some? Well, if you're Blizzard, you just go in with no overarching plan at all.

In a recent interview with Game Informer, StarCraft II design director Dustin Browder revealed that the team "didn't set out with any goals in mind" when they started creating StarCraft II. From the interview:

"Our creative process on StarCraft II was very different than the creative process I've used on other RTS games I've worked on, or even on Warcraft III. We didn't set out with any goals in mind, and I'm sure that this will upset the fans terribly. What we did instead was that we said, 'We want to make a bunch of cool units, and we're going to make each unit as cool as we can possibly make it, and then we'll see how it all works together, and we'll tune as necessary from there.' So it was never our intention specifically to do anything exactly with the races. Our goal was to make the units as interesting as possible and as different from one another as we possibly could. From there we could see how the races changed and evolved."

To Blizzard's credit, beginning with your only plan as making the coolest units possible is probably a much better way to approach StarCraft II than going in with the intention to shake things up or toy with fans' expectations. If the beta is any indication, that process will pay off for the final game.

Check back throughout the week for more from our interview with Dustin Browder, and watch for the full interview on Friday.