BlizzCon 2018 StarCraft II: What’s Next Panel Transcript

Written by medievaldragon on December 5, 2018. Posted in BlizzCon 2018, StarCraft 2 News

The BlizzCon 2018 StarCraft II: What’s Next panel revealed plans for the new Co-op Commander Zeratul, and the progress on DeepMind AI.

Among the panelists were:

• Sean “Day[9]” Plott
• Tim Morten (production director)
• Ryan Schutter (UI designer)
• Rob McNaughton (lead artist)
• Kevin Dong (co-op designer)
• Michael Scipione (game designer)
• Oriol Vynials (DeepMind senior staff research scientist)

StarCraft II: What’s Next Panel Transcript

Day[9]: Good afternoon, BlizzCon; and how are you feeling this fine Saturday morning? Ah, yes… feeling woo me as well. I am Day[9], your host; and today we are going to talk about what is coming up next for StarCraft II.

We have a whole slew of fantastic panelists who are exalting the StarCraft II excellence from different dimensions, and I would love if you gentlemen would introduce who you are.

Tim: Why certainly. I am Tim Morton, production director for StarCraft II.

Ryan: My name is Ryan Schutter. I’m the lead UI designer for StarCraft II.

Rob: And hello. I’m Rob McNaughton, lead artist on StarCraft II.

Kevin: I’m Kevin Dong. I’m the lead Co-op designer for StarCraft II.

Michael: I’m Michael Scipione. I’m a versus designer for StarCraft II.

Oriol: I’m Oriol Vinyals and I’m a researcher at DeepMind; and I train lots of Agents who play StarCraft II.

Day[9]: I’m Day[9], and I feel obligated to end this scene with StarCraft II.

Now I want to start this thing off by just asking you Tim: what has been going on in the wonderful world of StarCraft II; and I will give you the power of the wonderful slide controller to tell us about it.

Tim: Thank you. It has been a big year for StarCraft II, and we actually started the year at the Olympics doing a lead-in for the Winter Games and that was and that was a very exciting tournament (that Scarlett took the trophy for); and then we also celebrated the 20th Anniversary of StarCraft — and that was something you helped us celebrate. So thank you; and that is just very exciting for us 20 years for the original StarCraft, 8 years now for StarCraft II. Such a tremendous Legacy; and I’m not going to talk about all the content that’s up on the slide; but we released Tychus as a commander, we had another War Chest. It’s just been a great year.

Day[9]: What are some of the features that you haven’t gotten to yet that you’d like to?

Tim: There are a couple of things that we are still working on. So Co-op Leaderboards is something we’ve been exploring, and we think could really add depth and longevity to Co-op gameplay; so that’s something we’re still looking at; and then we also want to support video streams in the game so that you can watch StarCraft II eSports right in the client. So those are the things we’re still working on.

NEXT: WAR CHEST #4

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medievaldragon

Tomas Hernandez is owner of Blizzplanet.com since 2003. I post news about World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Careers, and the Warcraft film. Blizzplanet is a leading fansite covering news about upcoming Blizzard Entertainment licensed products. I also post previews and reviews. I have interviewed book writers and Blizzard game developers. I was previously an employee of the OGaming Network (2003), and IncGamers (2008-2010). I was a guest newsposter for GosuGamers (World of Warcraft) a few years ago and for Diablofans.com (formerly Diablo3.com) ***Fans who would love to watch Blizzard-related panels and appreciate our efforts can support Blizzplanet's patreon in a monthly-basis, or a one-time basis. Our staff are volunteer fans like you. Your donatives will help us travel to all the Blizzard events we attend year-round.