Blizzard released BlizzCast episode 2 which reveals some lore behind the original Starcraft. Chris Metzen portrays how each map campaign in the single player was designed without a specific overall storyline. The plot evolved slowly through the making of each map. For example, Kerrigan came to exist half way through the development of the maps. And at the beginning of Starcraft 1 development the developers didn’t know that Kerrigan would become the Queen of Blades. It was concepted spontaneouosly by the end of the game. The name Kerrigan was a homage to the ice-skater Nancy Kerrigan. To read up the lengthy interview with Chris Metzen download the BlizzCast Episode 2.

On the Starcraft II front, Bornakk interviewed Andy Chambers who reveals one of the locations where the Starcraft II Single Player will take us to.

Bornakk: The question we have for you today is a bit of a two-parter. What planet is seen at the bottom of the page at starcraft2.com and what is happening at the planet’s surface at the red dot? People are referring to it as ‘the explosion.’

Andy Chambers: Well, as befits a two-part question, I’ve got a two-part answer for you. The first one is the lore answer to it all. The planet itself is Bel’shir one of the moons of the Mackan system which has not previously been seen in StarCraft I. It’s a Protoss ex-shrine world that was invaded by the Zerg and much of the Protoss have now been pushed out of the area. It keys in with the sort of jungle tile-set that you may have seen in some of our previous videos for StarCraft II. Now, the little explosion as people call it, is actually a vent for an artificial volcano the Zerg have pierced through the surface of Bel’shir to produce a heat-source for their nests full of hot magma –because it saves them having to knit little cozies for their eggs and things like that – so, that’s the lore reason.

The actual reason there’s a little dot there goes back even further. Goes back to our career announcement. The world that you’re actually seeing there is the same sort of brown ringed world that we saw in the announcement behind the space platform. As part of a test during that, some of our artists wanted to do plasma bombardments, little explosions going off all over the world all the time. So, when the guys in the Community Team got hold of this piece of art, they reshaded it into the green world you now see. But as part of that process, one of the little explosions carried over into the new image that you now see.

So, as ever, lore must be responsive to art as art must be responsive to lore, so I’ve incorporated that into the back-story for Bel’shir and it’s actually added this little unexpected bonus of like ‘oh, cool, artificial volcano. I like it!’