Starcraft II’s Zerg and Protoss Campaign Development Still in Preliminary Stages

Assuming that all goes according to plan, the first installment of the Starcraft II trilogy should be hitting store shelves some time this year. Terran fans can rejoice, knowing that the Wings of Liberty campaign will provide ample opportunities for dropping Ghost-directed nukes on hapless A.I. opponents. Unfortunately, those waiting for Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void (Zerg and Protoss campaigns, respectively) may be waiting a bit longer.

Following reports that the three games would be released “years apart,” a recent 1up interview with lead designer Dustin Browder indicates that the Zerg and Protoss campaigns are not even in a playable state:

You'll still see Zerg/Protoss fights in multiplayer

“We’ve put by far, the most amount of work into the Terrans — the other two campaigns are still in planning and concepting, which is where they’ll stay until we’re done with the core game. All of our design and production efforts have been focused on the Terran campaign for the core game for a while now.”

He goes on to say that the story across the three titles is already plotted out, and that popular characters like the brooding Kerrigan will still make appearances in the Terran campaign. Even so, fans may be concerned that 30 missions as one race will grow tedious over time. Browder assures them that there will be plenty of variety anyway, saying that “each mission we create for the game is getting a lot of care and attention, and we’re treating all of them like their own little mini-game.”

Browder is a bit vague on what this actually means, only mentioning that the team is doing “really cool things with scripting.” But looking back on the original Starcraft, Blizzard included several early missions in which players directed small squads through tight corridors rather than amassing huge armies in the traditional, expansive maps. Perhaps we can expect similarly intimate skirmishes or other such varied missions whenever Wings of Liberty finally ships.