EPThttp://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/the-making-of-warcraft-part-2
Patrick Wyatt on the Early Days of Blizzard - Page 2
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Imbajoe
United States857 Posts
http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/the-making-of-warcraft-part-2 | ||
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Doraemon
Australia14949 Posts
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mikedebo
Canada4341 Posts
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ZaplinG
United States3818 Posts
+ Show Spoiler + A design idea much discussed but never implemented was “formations”, where units would stick together on the battlefield. Formations are difficult to implement so the feature was chopped from the spec. Some of the complexities that prevented implementation: units in formation all move at the same speed so slow units don’t get left behind — this created programming complexity. Formations need the ability to rotate — or “wheel” in military parlance — so that a formation heading north comprised of infantry carrying pikes with archers following behind can turn as a group to face an enemy detachment approaching from the east, with the archers still lined up behind the protective wall of infantry — this created user interface complexity. Given enough time we could have completed the feature, but we needed the development time for more basic features. As a stand-in, I did implement “numbered group selection”. A user would select a group of units and press the Ctrl (control) key plus a number key (1-4). Those unit-groupings would be remembered so it would be possible to later re-select those units by pressing the number key (1-4) by itself. But those units would move independently even though selected as a group. | ||
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Sub40APM
6336 Posts
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Sub40APM
6336 Posts
On July 27 2012 16:51 sluggaslamoo wrote: I guess this article also proves that we may as well treat Blizzard as a completely different company to Blizzard of 10 years ago. Duh? Activision owns Blizzard. And Activision is owned, for now, by that French megacorporation. The fact that the head of SC2 is a C&C transplant with a degree in English literature should have also warned us all. Unfortunately making good games is not profitable. | ||
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AnachronisticAnarchy
United States2957 Posts
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TaShadan
Germany1979 Posts
On July 27 2012 08:00 sc4k wrote: THANK fucking god for this. I want to go back a few years in time and RAM this down the throats of the people who were saying that 12-unit groups were 'outdated'. #2 | ||
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dartoo
India2889 Posts
Now thinking about it, RA never had a cap on selection back then did it? I remember a tasteless post from way back where he said he spoke to browder and there was still heated debates on whether to allow mbs an unlimited unit selection..so they did consider it as a tactical choice. Just reading through...they actually had no lan,no source control, and had to merge code manually, cant even think about it now :o | ||
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SynthFae
Poland26 Posts
On July 27 2012 16:51 sluggaslamoo wrote: I guess this article also proves that we may as well treat Blizzard as a completely different company to Blizzard of 10 years ago. Well yeah. People often have that odd idea that it's companies that create games, which isn't entirely true. Company is just a logo/brand, but it's people who work there that actually implement their ideas. Over time a lot of core Blizzard and Blizzard North people responsible for the early games left the studio. Patrick Wyatt, Mike O'Brain, Jeff Strain, Max and Erich Shaefer, David Brevik, Mark Kern, Eric Flannum...and many many more left Blizzard around WoW release. If you look at the credits for the older Blizzard games you will see those names constantly appearing in various roles, mostly as either project leads or lead programmers that created core features (B.Net programming, SC Editor, MPQ format, etc.) It's hard to be same company when so many people changed over the years and the new ones, who now lead the current generation of Blizzard games worked for completely different companies back in those times. | ||
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Antisocialmunky
United States5912 Posts
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trifecta
United States6795 Posts
http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/tough-times-on-the-road-to-starcraft | ||
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Imbajoe
United States857 Posts
Diablo, savior of Starcraft | ||
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StarStruck
25339 Posts
On July 26 2012 14:28 endy wrote: It seemed obvious to me as well, but I also heard countless times that unlimited selection had not been implemented in BW because of technical limitations... When? I don't recall ever hearing about technical limitations. I remember discussions about the supply cap, but not much else. ._. | ||
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GeneralStan
United States4789 Posts
Due to the advancement of the technology in general, the idea of a few programmers cobbling together a masterpiece isn't really going to fly in a market dominated by these new high tech fancy graphics games. The amount of resources and effort needed to make a Starcraft II is vastly different than what went into Brood War. I'm not saying that this is for the best. A notable casualty to this modern method of making games is the aspect of creativity. When you were talking about a dozen programmers putting together, you could afford to be creative and take risks. When you're trying to finance a project employing a hundred or more programmers and artists, you can't afford to take risks the same way. It is interesting however to see how solo and small group programming is making a comeback with the rise of flash games, which do exhibit all manner of creativity. Gamers and and their love of these quirky low tech games may just reinject some of that much needed creativity back in the gaming scene. But the real point I"m trying to make is that Blizzard hasn't gone off in a corporate direction, beholden to shareholders, they are simply responding to a systematic change in the way games are made. | ||
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PassiveAce
United States18076 Posts
"we decided to allow players to select only four units at a time based on the idea that users would be required to pay attention to their tactical deployments rather than simply gathering a mob and sending them into the fray all at once." Lol so I guess limited unit selection really is a feature. who knew? :p | ||
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Yoduh
United States216 Posts
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StarStruck
25339 Posts
On August 23 2012 22:50 SynthFae wrote: Well yeah. People often have that odd idea that it's companies that create games, which isn't entirely true. Company is just a logo/brand, but it's people who work there that actually implement their ideas. Over time a lot of core Blizzard and Blizzard North people responsible for the early games left the studio. Patrick Wyatt, Mike O'Brain, Jeff Strain, Max and Erich Shaefer, David Brevik, Mark Kern, Eric Flannum...and many many more left Blizzard around WoW release. If you look at the credits for the older Blizzard games you will see those names constantly appearing in various roles, mostly as either project leads or lead programmers that created core features (B.Net programming, SC Editor, MPQ format, etc.) It's hard to be same company when so many people changed over the years and the new ones, who now lead the current generation of Blizzard games worked for completely different companies back in those times. Not only that but they were much smaller. When it comes to creative the small studios are always the ones you should pay the most attention to because they're doing incredibly things. Then someone buys them. x-x On September 13 2012 23:58 PassiveAce wrote: Lol so I guess limited unit selection really is a feature. who knew? :p I have to keep telling people it was by design and not antiquated as so many are led to believe. | ||
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