It’s really amazing that a 10-year old PC game like StarCraftstill has as much respect, devoted players, and market traction as it does today given a whole decade of innovation and development since its release. Of course, this seems to be the case with most of Blizzard’s titles and it could be argued that the longevity of their games really speaks to the fact that top-quality gameplay, best-in-business development, and unending support will trump flashy new graphics and tired updates of old formulas any day. Many would argue that StarCraft is still the best RTS ever published; there’s no doubt that it’s as close to a timeless, evergreen classic as the PC gaming world can allow.

With StarCraft 2 announced, the license is as popular as ever.

So how about a StarCraft board game? If you’re a Great Old One like me, the thought of a board game rendition of your favorite video game might make you queasy, calling to mind that crazy Pac-Man board game with the marbles or that ill-fated attempted to transpose Zaxxon onto a 2D board. Yet, over the past couple of years licensed games have become much less of a bad word thanks to companies like Fantasy Flight Games, who have an almost unnatural winning streak, at least as far as sales is concerned, with licensed properties such as DOOM and World of WarCraft. Fantasy Flight’s StarCraft board game is almost predestined to be a big seller so I thought it might be interesting to use this edition of Cracked LCD to ask designer Corey Konieczka about the game.

First off, congratulations on the publication of the StarCraft board game- I know this is a huge license for Fantasy Flight and I’m sure it’s quite an honor to have your design represent one of the most popular and beloved RTS games on the market- even some 10 years after its release. So tell us, did you feel a lot of pressure handling this project?

Thank you! When I first heard that we were going to publish StarCraft: The Board Game, I was ecstatic. I am a huge fan of the computer game, and it was truly an honor to work with such a beloved license. I know that many fans feel the same way, and are very excited to see StarCraft transition to their tabletop. Understandably, their expectations are extremely high, and these expectations motivated us to rise to the challenge.

Looking over the rules to StarCraft, the game was clearly designed with the StarCraft world in mind. How did you match up strictly board game mechanics with real-time strategy concepts and what are your feelings on illuminating theme and meaning in the structure of board game rules? How do you feel that board game design presents a different set of challenges in this regard as opposed to electronic game design?

Since StarCraft has such an amazing back story it was important for us that the theme was very central to the game. Each of the three races plays very differently and uses the same strengths and weaknesses that they have in the video game. When creating a board game, our objective was to capture the theme and feel of the beloved video game while not emulating the game 1 for 1. A computer game like StarCraft keeps track of so much information, that it would be impossible to emulate with physical components. We therefore had to create innovative mechanics that simplified while emulating the StarCraft video game. For example, instead of creating a real time board game, we created an innovative order system that simulated this by having players plan many actions at once.

Zerglings, a Marine, and a Zealot. In Rainbow Color form.

In terms of the StarCraft PC game, what were the hardest elements to capture in a board game setting? Are there particular areas where you feel your design is particularly successful in capturing the essence of the PC game? What are the areas where you feel the board game most sharply departs from the PC game?

In a board game, you do not have cut scenes and in game movies to introduce people to the setting and storyline. We therefore had to use lots of flavor text to capture the essence of StarCraft, as well as to introduce new players to the setting. I think that one of the board game's strongest suits is that the abilities and technologies can be used to simulate strategies from the computer game. For example, players can use stim packs on their marines and then place them in a bunker. The area that most sharply departs from the video game is simply the fact that many components had to work mechanically different to be feasible as a board game. For example, you do not want players to have to stockpile 762 mineral tokens and then dig through this pile each time they wanted to build something.

The phrase “StarCraft board game” undoubtedly triggers any number of responses, expectations, and demands from PC gamers, Blizzard’s licensing department, and the board gaming community. When you were designing and developing the game, to what degree did you feel compelled to satisfy each of these groups and how did you manage to find a medium path to please the largest number of players?

When designing StarCraft: The Board Game, it was important to satisfy the die hard StarCraft fans while creating a game that was fun to people who had never even heard of StarCraft. This was a challenge in itself, but we worked closely with Blizzard to make sure all of the details were accurate to satisfy the die hard fans. Luckily for us, the universe that Blizzard has created is accessible and interesting to the masses, so it was not very difficult to capture the imagination of new players.

A common criticism I’ve read from those that played an early copy is that the game isn’t a ground-level, skirmish game but a more strategic-level, empire building experience- that somehow the game isn’t “true” to the license. I think what you’ve done is give StarCraft fans in particular a very “new” experience in the StarCraft universe, almost giving us a bigger picture of the conflict depicted in the PC game. What are your thoughts on this design issue and how did you arrive at the decision to break away from simply duplicating the type of gameplay offered by the PC game?

It became obvious to us at the beginning of development that the board game needed to be different from the video game and have its own appeal. If we made the board game a 1 for 1 simulation, then most people would probably prefer to play the video game instead. Together with Blizzard, we developed a vision for the game that was on a larger scale and represented an entire StarCraft campaign. Even with this decision, we made certain to capture the look and feel of StarCraft. It was inevitable that some people would be skeptical of this decision at first, but I think that once they play, they will realize that this is indeed the StarCraft that they know and love.

Unique victory conditions. Last one to die wins!