Many who grew up playing the original Starcraft strategy game share Ryan Winzen's dream of a Starcraft RPG, and now, thanks to his dedication and the team he's assembled as the company Upheaval Arts, that dream could soon be a reality.
Starcraft Universe is an MMORPG built with the Starcraft II engine, and is only $80,000 away from actuality. The project's Kickstarter campaign started only three days ago and has already reached a quarter of its funding goal.
Starcraft Universe began as a mod for Starcraft II, with a single player campaign built primarily by Winzen. Winzen went on to form Upheaval Arts and brought together a team of developers, designers, voice actors, and a composer to expand the mod into a full featured massively multiplayer online role playing game.
Since Starcraft Universe is basically an extension of Starcraft II, players are able to find and play with each other through Battle.net. Leveraging the existing Blizzard infrastructure greatly reduces the scale of this project, and has allowed Upheaval to focus on game development with their limited resources.
Winzen assured backers that the game will be delivered if the campaign is funded, stating that Blizzard has given the green light to the project. He invited those interested to try out the single player campaign already available through Starcraft II to get a taste of what SCU will offer.
Starcraft Universe will be free to play when it launches, and won't even require a copy of Starcraft II. As a reward for helping the project reach fruition, tiered levels of contributions grant backers special in-game items like pets, rare weapons, and vehicles. For $100, you can even name your own NPC.
Check out the video below for some awesome voice acting and the rest of the Starcraft Universe story.