Blizzard says designing a StarCraft open-world shooter presents specific challenges in scale and perspective — ‘If you’re 10 feet tall and you’re wearing something that weighs 1,000 pounds, doors are a challenge’
- StarCraft general manager says that approaching the concept of scale was one of the biggest challenges in switching to the shooter genre
- The shift from real-time strategy to an open world also introduced a huge change in perspective
- But one of the biggest individual challenges was simple
The next StarCraft game will shift to an entirely new genre, jumping from real-time strategy (RTS) to an open-world shooter. The change led to some broad development challenges — as well as some very specific ones.
In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon 2026, when asked about the development challenges in taking the RTS to another genre, StarCraft general manager Dan Hay gave one very particular example: “Was there a specific challenge? Doors.”
Yes, doors. Literal doors.
Latest Videos FromTechRadar
“If you’re 10 feet tall and you’re wearing something that weighs 1,000 pounds, doors are a challenge, and we had to figure out how to make our doors [work in] that perspective,” described Hay. “It’s like, how does it all work?”
Hay went on to say that devs need to make “sure that the world feels logical” and that it “doesn’t feel weird” to players.
Hay added: “You’ve got to be able to play with that perspective, and so from the standpoint of building the world and making sure that the world was logical, and that when I walked up to a door it [opened] and also worked for somebody who’s in armor or not”.
Beyond the simple challenge of doors, however, Hay did add that size and spectacle were a sticking point: “I think you got to think about scale, right? Because the moment you adjust a perspective, [everything] looks completely different to us”.
Annalee Hartling, associate manager of development operations for StarCraft, went on to talk about the sense of scale being very impactful.
“When I saw the trailer, the most impactful portion of it for me was the barracks. The barracks flying in and seeing it from the perspective of every nook and cranny, not looking at it from above.
“I’m not seeing just the top of it. I’m looking at it from the point of view of it landing landing [in front of me], and those jets are going to come out, and the feet are going to come out, and they’re going to they’re going to touch the ground.”
That sense of perspective and scale in an open-world shooter game was “incredibly powerful for a player,” said Hartling. “It’s emotional, it’s fascinating, and it’s beautiful,” they continued.
StarCraft is set to launch in 2030.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
The best gaming consoles
StarCraft general manager says that approaching the concept of scale was one of the biggest challenges in switching to the shooter genre The shift from real-time strategy to an open world also introduced a huge change in perspective But one of the biggest individual challenges was simple The next StarCraft…
