The Upper Memory Block Podcast

UPDATE – 17 August 2012:
Part 2 of the article is up: http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/the-making-of-warcraft-part-2

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Patrick Wyatt, former Blizzard exec, is guest blogging over at Kotaku. Today’s article is talking Warcraft (that’s the Orcs vs. Humans edition, not the World of edition). He gives incredible insight into the initial inspiration for the game, development, art desgin, gameplay and much more. Here’s a small excerpt:

The developers at the startup company I worked for – then named Silicon & Synapse but later renamed Blizzard in a nod towards our tempestuous development methodology – played a great many games during our free time. And from that game-playing came the spark to create Warcraft.

We were inspired to create Warcraft after playing (and replaying and replaying) a game called Dune 2, by Westwood Studios. Dune 2 was arguably the first modern real-time strategy (RTS) game; with a scrolling world map, real-time unit construction and movement, and individual unit combat. It isn’t that much different in design than a modern RTS like Starcraft 2, excepting perhaps a certain scale and graphics quality.

I know a lot of us have a long history with the Warcraft series. I may cover it in the future, but I couldn’t resist blogging about this incredible insight into what is probably the most successful game series of all time.

Enjoy!

Read The Inside Story of the Making of Warcraft, Part 1 at Kotaku