Video: How Blizzard designed StarCraft II to be an eSport

The game industry's enthusiasm for eSports is clear as day, but what's less clear for many game developers is how, exactly, you design and tune a game to be played competitively at a professional level for years at a time.

Blizzard Entertainment did just that with StarCraft II, and at GDC 2011 Blizzard's Dustin Browder took the stage to deconstruct the game's design and examine how its competitive multiplayer was tuned to serve the needs of a global eSports community.

It was a unique look inside Blizzard's design process, and shed light on the development and maintenance of one of the world's early eSports success stories. If you missed it in person, it's well worth going back to watch the entire talk for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vaultand its new YouTube channeloffers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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