In Sousa's eyes, Blizzard Classic's art team may have been better off starting from scratch to redraw every single sprite in the game. Not all code was missing, as Blizzard has been issuing patches to the original game's code base for nearly 20 years. Also, a member of the sound team thankfully had backups of the original sound and voice recordings, which are now reprocessed in higher-fidelity 44,100Hz format. The 2017 project's entire art pipeline was 'eyeballed,' Sousa said, with recovered concept artwork, sketches, and original boxes and manuals used as reference materials. 'We had no code and no art assets,' Blizzard 3D Art Director Brian Sousa confirmed to Ars Technica. Video hosted and filmed by Sam Machkovech, edited by Jennifer Hahn.įor starters, Blizzard was missing a few things.

“No code and no art assets”Īrs Technica interviews members of Blizzard Classic about StarCraft Remastered. But executing that 'plays exactly the same' mission-while making the new game (launching August 14 on PC and Mac) look demonstrably improved over the original and sneaking a few changes in-wasn't a complete breeze. StarCraft Remastered's announced price, $14.99/£12.99, reflects that aesthetic, as it has mostly been built to slap new paint on old mechanics. The Blizzard Classic team appears to have pulled that off with a game that, for better or for worse, plays, feels, and, in a few cases, looks just like the 1998 version. We say, 'don't fuck it up,' all the time. 'We're not here to change classics from a gameplay perspective,' Stilwell said. Stilwell had already set that PR guidance aflame when he loudly declared his development team's mantra of preserving original games' systems and mechanics at all costs. 'Blend classic with modern.' 'Community's voice.' One of the buzz phrases made Blizzard Classic Games Producer Pete Stilwell laugh: 'Don't be disruptive.' 'That's how I was told to say, 'Don't fuck it up,'' he said.

SANTA MONICA, California-Before giving us a world-premiere look at StarCraft Remastered's gameplay, the franchise's holders at Blizzard rattled off a few major rules for how the game would be made.

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