Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com Joystiq http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2013 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[How Blizzard makes the StarCraft 2 races so iconic]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/how-blizzard-makes-the-starcraft-2-races-so-iconic/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/how-blizzard-makes-the-starcraft-2-races-so-iconic/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/how-blizzard-makes-the-starcraft-2-races-so-iconic/#comments The StarCraft 2 preview for Heart of the Swarm on display at BlizzCon 2011 last week was pretty much the same thing we saw a few months ago on the Blizzard campus. Fun as it was, we instead used our short time talking with with Blizzard's lead art director Samwise Dider to have him let us in on just how Blizzard is able to make StarCraft's three races so darn iconic.

His answer was pretty simple. "Protoss," he says, "they're basically elliptical and circular. Terran are basically angular and square, and Zerg are very erratic and organic and spiky." Sounds plain enough. But when one of the game's new units (specifically the Protoss' Tempest, a strong capital ship with some heavy anti-zerg ability) showed up on the screen during the Opening Ceremony, players immediately knew the 'toss were getting a new toy. Is it as easy as shapes?

"With Protoss," says Didier, "as long as you have a few of the basic things; big golden arcs and sweeping sort of angelic-looking wings and surfaces, you can make almost anything into Protoss. With Terran, they're all about the clunkiness, boxes, utilitarian. You take em out of the box, they're ready to go."

And the Zerg? They're "just a gumbo of teeth and snot and bile," according to Didier. "We wrap them in the movement of a snake or a spider or a roach, there's your Zerg stuff." Boiling these races down into their elements like that is just another reason why this company, and its games, are so incredibly popular. "It's very easy to tell these races apart, because they are so diametrically opposed," Didier concludes, before deconstructing the series completely: "Gold, gray, brown."

Gallery: StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm (10/21/11)

JoystiqHow Blizzard makes the StarCraft 2 races so iconic originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>artboxesdesignpcprotosssamwise-didierstarcraft-2starcraft-2-heart-of-the-swarmterranzergTue, 25 Oct 2011 18:16:00 EST<![CDATA[Blizzard DOTA, coming soon to a new platform called Blizzard Arcade]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/blizzard-dota-coming-soon-to-a-new-platform-called-blizzard-arc/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/blizzard-dota-coming-soon-to-a-new-platform-called-blizzard-arc/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/blizzard-dota-coming-soon-to-a-new-platform-called-blizzard-arc/#comments Blizzard DOTA was back on the floor of BlizzCon 2011 last week, after spending a year away from the spotlight being "completely rebooted." We played the game as soon as we possibly could, finding it to be a much more polished take on the popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) gametype.

"Last year we had basically the style of the art, and the look that we were going for," says Samwise Didier, Blizzard's Senior Art Director. But as I said when I played the early version of the mod, the game itself wasn't quite as polished as the look and feel. "This year," says Didier, "we really focused on taking the DOTA-style game and really making it our own."

Blizzard has done a few interesting things to the gametype that has made League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth so popular. But the most interesting may just be how the company plans to release it. Blizzard is going to make sure everyone has a chance to check it out, even if they don't own StarCraft 2. "We haven't figured out the details," says Didier. "But there will be a free-to-play Blizzard DOTA on our Blizzard Arcade. We don't know how many heroes there will be, or how many maps, but we definitely want to make sure that everyone knows it will be free-to-play."

Gallery: Blizzard DOTA (10/21/11)

Continue reading Blizzard DOTA, coming soon to a new platform called Blizzard Arcade

JoystiqBlizzard DOTA, coming soon to a new platform called Blizzard Arcade originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>blizzard-dotablizzcon-2011dotakerriganmobapcsamwise-didierstarcraft-2-heart-of-the-swarmthrallTue, 25 Oct 2011 10:45:00 EST<![CDATA[World of Warcraft's Samwise Didier talks about finally bringing his Pandaren to life]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/21/world-of-warcrafts-samwise-didier-talks-about-finally-bringing/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/21/world-of-warcrafts-samwise-didier-talks-about-finally-bringing/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/21/world-of-warcrafts-samwise-didier-talks-about-finally-bringing/#comments The newly announced Mists of Pandaria expansion for Blizzard's World of Warcraft finally brings the long-awaited Pandaren race to the fantasy world of Azeroth, and while many players have been waiting to see pandas officially implemented into the game, no one, perhaps, has been waiting longer than Samwise Didier. Blizzard's longtime art director originally created the race in his own art, and up until this release, they existed only in bits and pieces of legends inside the games, as little in-jokes or secrets.

"It's very personal to me," Didier tells us at BlizzCon this week. "It all started with a picture done for Christmas after the birth of my daughter." Since that first piece of concept art, the Pandaren have always been a fan favorite race (combining a heady mix of panda humanoids, Eastern-style religions and mythology, and even beer brewing monks), and while Didier is quick to point out that lots of people are working on Mists of Pandaria, he's thrilled to see his personal creation come to virtual life. "I'm not trying to take away" credit for the expansion, he says, quickly acknowledging all of the creative folks at Blizzard, "however many it takes to make a game. But it's nice to know that some goofy thought in my head, done for that reason, for my kid, turned into this."

Does the portrayal live up to what Didier envisioned? "Yeah, and then some," he says. "There was only a few Pandaren pictures, and most of them were of Chen [Stormstout], a big fat sweaty heavy, beer-drinking Pandaren. Well that's not the entire society. He's sort of the anomaly. He likes to go to the outside world. So what do the normal Pandarens do, what is their normal culture like? A lot of sweat went into designing that."

But Didier does say that whenever the expansion finally arrives, and the race long hidden in Warcraft's shadows finally gets their time in the spotlight, he'll be proud they're there. "It was one of the last things that I really wanted to see in World of Warcraft, which is Warcraft in general," he says, after having worked on some of the most iconic designs in Blizzard's legendary game franchises. "Now I can almost say, well, I think I've done good with Warcraft -- they're finally in."

JoystiqWorld of Warcraft's Samwise Didier talks about finally bringing his Pandaren to life originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>artblizzcon-2011legendmists-of-pandariapandarenpcsamwise-didierworld-of-warcraftworld-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandariaFri, 21 Oct 2011 19:15:00 EST<![CDATA[Blizzard interview: Samwise Didier talks Starcraft 2]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/31/blizzard-interview-samwise-didier-talks-starcraft-2/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/31/blizzard-interview-samwise-didier-talks-starcraft-2/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/31/blizzard-interview-samwise-didier-talks-starcraft-2/#comments
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.

Continue reading Blizzard interview: Samwise Didier talks Starcraft 2

JoystiqBlizzard interview: Samwise Didier talks Starcraft 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>ArtBlizzardBlizzconBlizzcon-2009interviewL80ETCPandarenSamwise-DidierStarcraft-2World-of-WarcraftMon, 31 Aug 2009 18:40:00 EST