Patrick got the chance at this year’s BlizzCon to talk to StarCraft 2’s lead designer and fan-favorite Dustin Browder about all things StarCraft, from the mod tools to space cowboy music.

TGR: Most real-time strategy fans believe that the genre has become stale, creativity-wise. Will StarCraft II be doing anything big to try to reinvigorate the genre?

Browder: That’s a matter of perception. Our focus has always been on creating a quality gaming experience. We don’t really worry too much about what feels stale. In many ways our multiplayer harkens to the original game. We’re focused on capturing the magic of that original experience, because it was so great. At the same time, we’re focused on creating a lot of new strategies, while keeping some of the same. So far I think we’ve walked that line pretty well. I don’t know if it’s innovative or not; I don’t think it is, but I don’t care either. We just want to make a really great game for the multiplayer experience. [Regards] the solo player experience, we are doing a lot of new, crazy stuff. With our story mode there’s a lot more player choice. You can choose which missions to play, how some plot lines will end, what kinds of technologies you wanna get, how you want to upgrade those technologies, the mercenaries you bring into battle, the research you want to do. Lots and lots of choices for you in the story mode experience. On Battle.net, we’re obviously hoping to innovate by providing more of a service for our mod makers, to really be able to allow them to make some really great content, [so that] at some point down the road [they’ll be able] to be paid for the content they make. They’ve done amazing things with no resources. What will they do with resources? I have no idea. It’s exciting to imagine. We have a tool that’s way more powerful than any tool we’ve ever had before.

TGR: That tool will be made available to...

Browder: Oh yeah - during beta, at some point, we’ll put it out there. I’ve got a panel right after this where I am gonna show some of the crazy stuff we’ve done with the tool. This [the Blizzard team] is not a legion of fans. This is a handful of smart guys in an office, in their spare time, and they’ve done a few crazy things. When the fans get a hold of it, oh my God. They’ve invented the Defense of the Ancient gameplay type, which is now a genre. Major developers are trying to emulate and trying to capture that magic, and not always succeeding. They invented Tower Defense, which Plants vs. Zombies owes a huge amount of its design vision to. These people are inventing genres of games using what we now consider a fairly primitive tool. Warcraft 3 was a great tool, but now we’re making a better one. Should be some exciting stuff. To your question though, is the genre dying? I don’t know, I think it’s pretty cool. I still have fun playing a wide variety of RTS games, and I get frustrated that the first-person shooter guys don’t get that question. What has really changed [for the FPS genre]? It’s prettier. But somehow RTS is dying. We can’t make good games? We have to change everything or the game stinks? No, we’re making cool games. Dawn of War 2 was cool. It is what it is, we’ll see what happens with the genre over time. All we really do, from the trenches, is just make the best games we can, and see how the public receives them.

Will StarCraft II see something to rival WarCraft III’s Defence of the Ancients?

TGR: You mention the multiple objectives and the overworld. Let’s start there. I noticed as I was playing the campaign in the press room that you’re actually able to converse with the characters before you go into the mission. Is that more mission brief jargon or backstory?

Browder: It’s really just more immersion for the story. We sometimes have some missions comments in there; characters will react to what just happened, or make some suggestion about missions you should do next, or discuss the threats. For the most part it’s more reactionary to what just happened. It’s to let you know how these characters think and feel about the universe that they’re in - this terrible, nightmarish universe that they are fighting these battles in. We are trying to give you more of the story. The original StarCraft had these portraits...

TGR: The disembodied heads.

Browder: Right. But it was actually huge then: "wow, there’s actually story here." It was really primitive, but it was story. Then in Warcraft 3 you had some more tech. Now we actually had 3D models, so the characters could move and fight stuff. They could touch each other and run away from each other. You had a sense of space. But it was still at a level where you couldn’t see the face, the emotions. You can’t really do anything. This was the next logical step for us. Now you can see what they emote, what they think, what they feel. You can watch the pain in Raynor’s eyes where he decides: "do I euthanize and infested world or do I save it?" That’s an interesting moment for him and you can be a part of it. You can see his reaction. It gives us a lot deeper experience with these characters. It lets you understand who they are. It’s a much more immersive experience.