Eurogamer: A lot of the most beautiful games of history are 2D, like Planescape Torment; is it always a necessity for 3D in the modern day?

Frank Pearce: I would say it depends on the game. There's lots of really compelling experiences that are just small web applications. It's about the experience and the quality of the game.

Eurogamer: The original design of StarCraft was, you've admitted, a bodge-job. Yet when you redesigned you came up with three impressive new races. Where did the inspirations come from? Did you just pull them out of a hat, did you pull them out of (ahem) somewhere else?

Frank Pearce: In Warcraft we took the classic mythological races and we put our own spin to it. We did the same with StarCraft. The Protoss are just a Blizzard spin on your typical grey alien. Super-intelligent, robots, lots of technology, big giant ships. We put our spin on it and turned them from little skinny grey guys into big, imposing grey guys. The basic units of these guys is the Zealot, he's a powerful fighter, great a combat, but they also have the intelligent, spiritual vibe to them where they harken back to the old typical SF alien.

The Terrans are your classic marine guys but with our vibe on them. They were all convicts, hillbillies and biker types, not galactic noble warriors. Their armour is dirty and worn down, they have tattoos, smoke cigars and drink.

And the Zerg stemmed off the all-devouring alien menace and we put our spin on them too. Each of them has their classic SF mythology and with a dose of your Blizzard spin.

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Resource: Eurogamer