Blizzard interview: Samwise Didier talks Starcraft 2

These days Samwise Didier is better known as the lead singer for Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, but he's been a Blizzard employee since 1991, and has been churning out artwork (like the above Starcraft logos) for years. He also has the dubious title of the creator of the Pandaren race.
You can check out a huge chunk of his artwork in the gallery on the Sons of the Storm website. He has a massive head of metal hair, apparently never wears pants, and is overseeing the artwork on Starcraft 2. We sat down with him at BlizzCon not long before L80ETC opened for Ozzy Osbourne, and chatted him up about his job. Read on for the full interview.
You can check out a huge chunk of his artwork in the gallery on the Sons of the Storm website. He has a massive head of metal hair, apparently never wears pants, and is overseeing the artwork on Starcraft 2. We sat down with him at BlizzCon not long before L80ETC opened for Ozzy Osbourne, and chatted him up about his job. Read on for the full interview.
One question a lot of our people are wondering is do you own any pants?
I actually wear pants when I have to go to court or weddings. |
Is that often?
Weddings? [laughter] Not anymore, no.
Now that the statute of limitations is nearly up.
That is right, yeah. There are certain things I can speak about now.
Do you feel like you may have missed your calling as, like, a metal rock God at some point?
[laughter] Basically what I do now is still karaoke. It is just for slightly bigger audiences.
And a backing band that includes millionaire company presidents.
Yeah. I think that is probably some of the reason why we are here. And it is nice to be able to just yell "For the Horde!" and then have half of the fans hate you and half of them love you. And the ones that are with the Horde, half of those guys hate you, but it is all good. As long as I can't see past the first three rows, then I am good.
You're going to open for Ozzy Osbourne. Did you ever think when you started working at Blizzard this was going to happen?
I planned it. [laughter]
Part of your master plan.
Yeah. I mean, it was very difficult to coordinate, but it worked out. No, I had no idea. [loud sound from the room next door] That was the thunder from the experience.
That was from mentioning Ozzy Osbourne.
Uh, no. Had no clue. I didn't get to see ... Ozzy was about 20 feet doing his practice set and it was just phenomenal. I was the only fool standing up, but that is all right. I will be the fool standing up sweating in front of everybody. Then I had to go meet people. I'm like, "Oh! I forgot about that! Hi. Nice to meet you!"
I'm sure there will be a lot of people standing up tonight ... So tell us what your job is in regards to Starcraft.
I am the art director on the game. Back when we started, I was providing a lot of concepts, working on models and textures and all that. Now the bulk of the art is on its way to being done. There are still things that we need to hit up, but a lot of it now is just sort of overseeing, making sure that anything new that has been generated has that kind of Starcraft feel or it looks enough Zerg, it looks enough Protoss; that sort of thing.
Although, you know we have some guys on the team that will make some artwork ... and I don't want to sit there and tell them no and nitpick them to death. I want to make it so where it is there idea but it looks like what it is supposed to be for Starcraft.
Does that extend to like the Battle.Net experience with these decals and avatars that are coming or is that someone else handling that?
I don't know actually what has been shown, but myself and a few of the artists have worked on a lot of the decals right now and a lot of the kind of placeholder achievement art or things like that. I always end up doing a lot of the World of Warcraft buttons. So when little buttons needed to be made for Starcraft, I am like, "OK. I can't get out of this one. I have to do these, too."
But yeah. We meet a couple times a week and then we have our main art meeting once a week where we just have everyone look at the game, offer a few little nitpicks or tweaks here and there, but the bulk of it right now, it is pretty easy because these guys have been working on this game for a few years now. They have got the look down. So my job is a little bit easier then.














Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Aug 31st 2009 6:47PM
Pisses me off that World of Warcraft is the reason why Starcraft II and Diablo III have taken so long. I know, it's always nice to make money, but what about the fans?
/rant
Einhanderkiller @ Aug 31st 2009 6:53PM
Well, like Didier said in this interview, you won't be thinking of the delays the game had when you finally get to play it.
Stacky @ Aug 31st 2009 7:00PM
Money is nice.
SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Aug 31st 2009 7:03PM
@Einhanderkiller
You mean when I get to play it in 2059?
Hopefully by then they will figure out a way to make it work with my 6D glasses.
Hindesite @ Sep 1st 2009 2:07AM
"What about the fans?"
What? Are you not a real Blizzard fan if you're a fan of World at Warcraft?
SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Sep 1st 2009 2:12AM
@Hindesite
Yes.
SolidSnakeX @ Sep 1st 2009 5:45PM
F Warcraft sick of hearing about it..WHO CARES!!! where is more information on Diablo 3 jezz 9 years next year 10 F that...SLACKERS...Just like Sony!
Foetoid @ Aug 31st 2009 7:01PM
Well at least he's confirmed the next expansion will be the Zerg campaign, which is excellent.
MRLN the Amazing @ Aug 31st 2009 8:07PM
Ugh, I hate zergs. They're gross and they rush people.
PedoJokerBear [Planeteer | Power of Gall Bladder] @ Sep 1st 2009 12:19AM
i wonder how the zergs approached the graphic designer for their logo.
HedonisticKai @ Sep 1st 2009 7:51AM
"I want to make it so where it is there idea but it looks like what it is supposed to be for Starcraft."
you see what i did their?
Snake Robot Podium @ Sep 1st 2009 11:13AM
Whoa whoa whoa. His name is SAMWISE? And he worlds for BLIZZARD? That's kind of awesome.
RogueJedi86 @ Sep 1st 2009 3:23PM
I don't get it. His mom was probably a LotR geek, what's it have to do with him working at a place called Blizzard?
Snake Robot Podium @ Sep 1st 2009 9:16PM
I just mean that WoW borrows a lot from Tolkien.