HunCraft: Genocide

A few years have passed since the launch of StarCraft. However, the popularity of the game is unbroken. One only has to go to a couple servers to see that there is life. I think it is superfluous to say what has made this game a popular multiplayer game. Everyone knows the keywords: balanced gameplay and three quite diverse races, perfect building models. In this issue I will write about something other than game tips, but still a bit connected to this month's IG3 theme, I would like to introduce you to a Hungarian team who have been working on a StarCraft expansion for quite some time, which may soon be coming to light - to my great joy in Hungarian. It is really exhilarating that a player, who has been a little bit tired of the battles of StarCraft or BroodWar, can pull up his sleeves again,and new opportunities are opening up. Let's see what the developers say about their "Child".
GameStar: When did you start developing the game? What made you start developing it?
Cerberus: When StarCraft was released in 1998, I've spent weeks playing the campaign several times. Then, after going through two times, I started playing so that I killed every enemy in each mission, because it was no longer a challenge. Meanwhile, in parallel with this, I found Battle.net, which made my life much worse, because the phone bill came (Familiar, only Diablo 2 at Bad Sector [Botched translation here]). I was so shocked that my family members had to buy another mobile, because they simply couldn't pay the phone bill. In the meantime, I also clicked on the icon of the campaign editor out of curiosity. I had discovered so much opportunity and took to creating another campaign right away.
BadTiger: Yes, and then they formatted the drive at a computer shop because of a problem and that was the only way to fix it, so the whole campaign was destroyed.
Cerberus: Then I couldn't speak for a week. At the final stage of my depression, the savior, Brood War, arrived. Once again, the multiplayer and big multiplayer games came.The editor also changed a lot, so I wanted to make a campaign again, but now I made a continuation of the original story. This all started in 1999. Of course, since then, I changed most of the missions as my knowledge grew.
GameStar: And how does it relate to StarCraft?
Cerberus: The story is designed to be an integral part of the StarCraft universe. HunCraft continues immediately where Brood War ends.There are many references to characters and events in StarCraft and Brood War.
BadTiger: In all three campaigns, one can meet.familiar faces and new heroes. Anyone who knows and likes the story of StarCraft and Brood War will not be disappointed.
GameStar: What are the new missions?
BadTiger: Here I can comment mainly because I once played the campaigns. We designed the missions to outperform BW, but we don't throw the player right into the deep water. First, there are a couple of warm-up missions, but after that, only the more persistent and more skilled players will succeed. [I can personally confirm this]
GameStar: Do we get new units? What are they?
Cerberus: Of course, as with all real expansions, there are new units here, albeit only one per race. We did not consider it necessary to create more new units because the gameplay would change a lot.
The Terran Phantom is a heavy-bomber-type aircraft inspired by the Earth Army. The Dominion spies introduced it, and the Dominion first produced such a unit. Since the control of Phantom is extremely cumbersome, experienced pilots are not allowed near the Phantoms. All you have to do is put in the sacrificial rookies into the Phantom's cockpit. Despite its difficult control, the Phantom is very useful for destroying large groups of ground units or air defenses. You can also effectively neutralize air scouts and intruders.
BadTiger: The Psi Priest is of the highest Protoss caste, and the smartest Protoss Templar there are. Thanks to their very strong psi energy, they are the enforcers of the Protoss race, whose task it is to observe the Protoss common people and advise on critical decisions. Since the beginning or the struggle with the Terrans and the Zerg, their role has been greatly reduced. [End of Page 1]

Disregarding their advice, Protoss leaders continued their way of thinking, resulting in an indirect decline in the ancient, glorious Protoss species. In line with the changed circumstances, the Psi Priest Council decided not to confine itself to the policy of deeds and to give permission to volunteer Psi Priests to participate in the battlefield. The noble intent and pure conviction of the Psi Priests is a great help for those who are struggling to save the Protoss species. With their special psi capabilities, the Priests can, by sacrificing their own strength, fill up their comrades' armor, but only to a limited extent. [Sounds like they were referring to a canceled feature there. Perhaps the Psi Priest was intended to be a medic of sorts, only they would sacrifice their own health? Maybe they were first intended to be walking shield batteries that would sacrifice their own shields?]
Cerberus: The Zerg got the Scantolisk. Zerg colonies were attacked by air squads many times during the war. However, the Spore Colonies of the primary hive cluster were stationary, and so the protection of the individual colonies against the air surveyors was only good in the area.However, the sporadic appearance of the Spore Colonies was a huge disadvantage against the attacks of the Terran Battlecruiser Fleet and the Protoss Carriers. That's why the race started long-term mutation experiments and accelerated the evolution of the perfect air defense unit by accelerating complex evolutionary processes. However, this requires a body of Hydralisk as a host.
GameStar: Does the basic StarCraft multiplayer change?
Cerberus:Nothing changed. Perhaps there will be so many changes to the original that Battle.net can only be launched with a separate "exe", but it is not a big problem. However, if Blizzard launches a new patch for the game, we have to create one for HunCraft to be compatible.
GameStar: How many minutes of animation are there?
Cerberus:The game includes approximately eight minutes of animation. It starts with an intro that takes place after Brood War. We can get a glimpse into the night life of a Terran base, and then we will join the game. It's about four minutes. The other four minutes are the closing animation that the players can see at the end of the last campaign. This includes mainly battle scenes.
BadTiger:At the end of the other two campaigns, we can only see text epilogues that the narrator reads. This will happen Star Wars style.
GameStar: When will the game be complete?
Cerberus: There's just a little bit of stuff left, like finishing the new portraits, etc. Then there will be a test of about 10 days, but I want to finish it in June.
GameStar: What do you need to start playing the game?
BadTiger: HunCraft runs only with StarCraft and Brood War. We are still thinking about whether StarCraft and Brood War have to be Hungarian [They don't. I am playing the HunCraft campaign and my version of StarCraft BW is in English]. This has come up because the Hungarian version of HunCraft may coincide with StarCraft's, but it is still different. [Botched again. I guess they're unsure if the StarCraft and HunCraft versions have to match. Spoiler alert: They don't.]
GameStar: So one more question as a closing: if you finish this expansion pack, what are you going to do? Are you thinking about making an independent game? Or another accessory?
Cerberus: HunCraft-style additional expansions are only destined for Warcraft 3 in the future, but their appearance is still far from now. We also created a Hungarianization team in Addin, which is working on request. The Hungarianization of StarCraft and Brood War by XY ltd was somewhat overwhelming. So if we get an invitation, we'll get it working on Warcraft 3. Our team is also known as HunCraft Interactive, HunCraft's "Hungarian Technique" - if you are interested in it, feel free to contact support@huncraft.net.

(Personally, I think that it's great and even needs a sequel)

Interview with Zoltán Halmos, one of the creators of HunCraft


- I would like to ask for a brief introduction! Who is currently working on the project?
- The interesting thing about HunCraft is that it was made entirely through the Internet, that is, members do not even meet each other. Exceptions to this are the team's core members, who have done the essential work, like the videos, the sync, and the other studio works. Krnyán "BadTiger" György, Bendo "Mat" Matthias, and myself, "Cerberus" Zoltán Halmos, make up the core. We often came together for several days to solve a problem on networked machines. Needless to say, we found new curses for all of the things that plagued us. Neither of us deals professionally with programming, or even with translation, we only made it as a hobby. It is also true that programming was not really necessary during the production.
- How many hours per day do you spend on StarCraft? )
- Well, a lot! It may be surprising at first, but it is the truth. For months, we were only busy with the SC and our khm… sneakers were already full. Previously, of course, we played a lot at Battle.net, at least for the majority of the time. Personally, I played every weekend while I was still using a modem. I also played the campaign about 5-6 times, many times I destroyed everyone who was registered as an enemy. Now we are "Done" with it, but maybe if HC gets released, we will get new strength from that.
- A translation is never a simple job;
that is, how do you actually "do" the original StarCraft?
Fortunately, Blizzard's games are all based on a schema, and since we had some prior experience of how to "unpack" them, we've managed to make the most of this knowledge. To do this, we used a number of utilities available to anyone, even on our website (www.huncraft.net). Of course, for the explanation, or even for the creation of your own expansion pack, such as HunCraft, besides the utilities, there is a need for sounds, videos, music and many more that we have to create ourselves. Most of these were commercial programs.
- Besides the translations, have you also translated the multiplayer part of the game? Maybe you have planned new maps?
- Yes, the game itself became 100% Hungarian. Battle.net, because it is not structurally part of the game, is English, as is the campaign editor. Everything else is in Hungarian. HunCraft uses its own map format (no explanation) [Yep, can confirm], yet we've included all the original old maps in this format alongside HunCraft, and we've also created nearly 50 self-made multiplayer maps.
- Thank you for the interview.

HUNCRAFT
Interview with Halmos Zoltan, a creator of HunCraft.
If anything, Huncraft can be called a vomited-up development, since the Hungarianization team has been working with Blizzard for a long time to deal with the release of the game, but so far it has failed to get over the bureaucracy. However, I think many should wait for further development to read more on our pages later. In our short interview we would like to see a little bit behind the scenes, so we interviewed some of the team's representatives.
I would like to ask for a brief introduction! Who is currently working on the project?
[HEY, WAIT A SECOND! The rest of this page is exactly word-for-word what appears on the RetroTimes website! Whoops. Moving on.]

HUNCRAFT
Caption: > Not yet [Released].Huncraft Interactive. www.huncraft.net <
The first Hungarian expansion for Starcraft, which adheres to the old story, but also establishes a new one.
Recently, I told Puma that the main games that started off this month were Huncraft, "Mad Max", and he uttered the name of one of the most well-known mythical beasts: -Cerberus. At first my thoughts went not to this, but to the bowels of hell, but after a harsh whim, it turned out that he was not thinking of a puppy who loved the porch of hell, but the savior of the Hungarian Starcraft fans. The gentleman and the team hiding behind him know that "the nation lives in its language", so the words that once slipped from Petőfi's [He is referring to Sándor Petőfi, a Hungarian poet and revolutionary that said that] lips were finally settled on the Terran-Zerg-Protoss battlefields, but I doubt that the bearded nationalist would have guessed anything about the relationship between Zerg mutation and Hungarian literature...

Predictably Starcraft, and Blizzard do not need a more sophisticated presentation - behind Huncraft Interactive is a small online team, not a registered company, but the popular targets of the hype of the fanbase. I'd tell you that I was looking at the first half of the Cerberus & BadTiger duo, and as it turned out, at the beginning of '98, it wasn't about localization, but Starcraft was not challenging anymore, so they wanted to raise the bar with a Hungarian-language campaign.
The early work was also a victim of a freak accident [probably the aforementioned incident with formatting the drive]. Then Brood Wars came, but of course the boys did not let the thing go and went on, in the meantime they got so involved in the uproar that the idea of making a stand-alone expansion came up. Blizzard's Hungarian publisher initially supported it, and even entrusted the boys with the localization of the first two parts, but because of later financial reasons, the trilogy, and all the costs incurred so far, remained with Huncraft's champions.
Currently, the case is dancing with another potential publisher, waiting for Blizzard's approval from overseas to arrive ... Until it arrives, let's see what they are grinding so slowly for the "god" mill. Before using the two plastic pieces, Starcraft must be unpacked, and then Brood Wars will be released immediately. otherwise the miracle will be lost. The 1.3 GB of data localizing the two works will then be installed, and then Huncraft will add three new campaigns to Brood Wars. [Yes, I messed this part up a bit. I don't know of any better way to rephrase that, so I'll just write it as is]
[This next part is almost a total paraphrasing by me, since the translation is botched completely due to me being unable to make out what the last words/letters of the line are due to the journal's midline blocking the view in the picture. Hell, I'm probably way off here.]
Although Cerberus was betrayed, the Hungarian versions StarCraft and Brood War are as impressive as ever. Everything, including the menu buttons and unit names, was translated. Any voice acting that they could not contact the voice actors for was done by family members and friends. The voice acting is clean and strong. However, the quotes and unit names may slightly differ from their English counterparts. Some of this was done on purpose. For instance, one of the Firebat's- we called him the "Cremator" in our version- quotes is "You can't call 105" [That is the telephone number for the fire brigade in Hungary]. The Ghost's- we called him a "Spirit"- voice and quotes sound more Darth Vader-y. We didn't change anything for the Zerg.
[End of Page 1]

As a whole, it can be said that the team's cavalry of sound engineers has achieved good results.
Let's see what's on the Huncraft front. Kerrigan's Zerg, at the end of the Brood Wars, defeated the UED forces. After that, only the mentally ill could believe that this is the end. When the war broke out, the Queen of Blades had called her mutants to war against the Protoss and Terrans licking their wounds. Then the story starts. The old heroes return, and even new ones appear as Admiral Tom Kazansky [Actually, Kazansky was featured in the Enslavers campaign] or Hudson Rheims. I won't reveal the story ahead of time, but I'll tell you that it fits into SC, has some humor, betrayal, treachery, heroic self-sacrifice, and a big pile of Raynor's blunders.There are four animations present, exactly one narrator, a moody intro, two text sequences, and great art complete with a tailored closure. The opening animation is of course not comparable to Blizzard's action-packed work, but for a few amateurs, it is undoubtedly a good job, and some details of the closing animation are very close to professional workshop quality [can confirm], so why pedal us to get to the end of the war as soon as possible.
Otherwise, the game can be started in the same way as in the previous expansions - by clicking one of the three stylizing characters of its species - so the interface is old. Of course, in the zerg-protoss-terran series, the beauty has been worn down over the past few years, but I planned for 27 new missions. I was very pleased to see a lot of pre-arranged scenes on in the missions, which often change the destination or the way they are executed [What he means is that some scenes in the missions were done with triggers and can have a slightly different outcome. For instance, there is a battle scene where the player's base is attacked. The attackers can take a few different paths and thus end up destroying different buildings, but otherwise nothing changes].
By the way, most of the troubles are B&D (Build and Destroy)-style, that is, well-organized construction with fieldwork, but there are some exceptions to that rule, and roughly every third, fourth mission is a kind of "small team-big task". For example, [SPOILERS REDACTED].
I haven't told you yet, but there is a new soundtrack for each race, and we get three new units. The BW gave this double, but there was a pressing need to balance the power, and now only the Phantom, the Scantolisk, and the Psi Priest, were made it in. The Terran Heavy Bomber hunts mainly against air defense units, dealing heavy damage to crowds of ground units, so it's worth making. The Scantolisk is a new mutation of the Hydralisk, a mobile air defense tower, so it's also really nice. The Psi Priest, as the most prestigious ecclesiastical brother, has no problem fighting on the frontlines, but he can also hit moderately far away with an invisible psionic wave that creates a blue energy bomb on the target, but the poor guys are defenseless against air units.
By the end, when I finally succeeded, I've had the greatest experience, the first few days were a failure, because it is definitely not like riding a bicycle. Of course, the Difficulty level is rough for the average user when SC is regularly crushed and maybe slaughtered on a daily basis in the net by the creator who wants a challenge, but what can I say...Also, the multiplayer needs to be played on Huncraft's standalone server [With the recent revelations about how Huncraft Interactive was in deep shit over finances, I have little faith that the server is still operational] , but the game automatically connects to it, so you don't have to search for it.
In determining the cost, I put aside my soft heart, especially because it wasn't a million-dollar work in the end, only a few enthusiastic, sympathetic guys, and I don't want to be particularly spooked by Starcraft fans on the street, and just to say goodbye, maybe there were one or two sporadic grammatical errors. Due to limited resources, it would have been hard to do any better. For 3,000, we would have made something better. Also, we're not sure about our luck now, because without Blizzard's approval, it's just net distribution or non-profit CD-sending.