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Blizzard has been largely silent regarding Warcraft III for several months now, but news recently surfaced that Mike O'Brien, the former project lead on the game, left Blizzard. In addition, GameSpot learned recently that the game is undergoing a significant change in direction. Specifically, Blizzard decided to reiterate conclusively in the game's design that Warcraft III will be first and foremost a strategy game and not a role-playing game. We managed to catch up to Rob Pardo, lead designer for Warcraft III, to ask him about the changes to Warcraft III's design and explain in more detail the strategic elements that are being reintroduced to the game. We also asked him about Mike O'Brien's departure and how that has affected the development of the game.
GameSpot: Let's start with recent news and speak about Mike O'Brien. Why did he stop being the project lead for Warcraft III? Rob Pardo: Well, it happened a few weeks ago. [Mike's efforts] were more concentrated on the technology of the game, so [moving from project lead to technical lead] was just an opportunity for him to step down and do more technology-based work and leave the game design more to the team. It made more sense for him to concentrate on technology than it did for him to be a team lead any longer. [Editor's Note: O'Brien subsequently left on good terms from Blizzard this week to form a new game company.] GameSpot: So, the project lead isn't supposed to deal solely with technology but direct the game design and other aspects of development as well? Rob Pardo: Project lead to us really varies a lot on a project-by-project basis. In some cases, it's a position that is there so the whole team has someone to go to and talk to. The project lead isn't really the holder of a vision; it's more like somebody who makes sure that everyone is involved, and the project is moving smoothly. GameSpot: That's because your games are group designed, right? Rob Pardo: Yeah, and that's definitely always been the case here at Blizzard. All our games are designed by Blizzard Entertainment. And that's a process we want to get back to. GameSpot: So who is the new project lead? Rob Pardo: Frank Pearce is our new project lead. He's one of the founders of the company, so he is very aware of how Blizzard works and how teams work. He has been a senior programmer on virtually all our games: Starcraft, Warcraft II, Warcraft, all the way back to Silicon and Synapse. GameSpot: Let's return to Mike O'Brien. What was Mike's contribution to the Warcraft III project? Rob Pardo: Mike was our chief architect on the engine. He was in charge of all the programmers and making sure that the 3D engine was written correctly. He wrote a lot of the low-level code, architecting all the modules and aspects that go into designing the new engine. He was also working with our other teams, trying to make [the engine] flexible enough so that other teams in the future could also use the engine. |
