Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
Encyclopedia
WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was a black comedy
point-and-click
adventure
computer game under development by Blizzard Entertainment
that was set in the Warcraft universe
, and cancelled before its release. American
company Animation Magic
was out-sourced due to their experience in classical two-dimensional animation
to produce the twenty-two minutes of fully animated sequences, the game's artwork
, the coding of the engine and the implementation of the sound effects. Blizzard then provided all the designs, the world backgrounds, sound recording and ensured storyline continuity. Four or five months after Blizzard had released Battle.net
and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
had shipped, Blizzard began development on a title that would be cancelled just over a year later.
.
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans had been in development for over a year: nearly all features, puzzles, and areas were in place, the voice acting had been recorded, and much of the animation was complete, yet Blizzard was not confident with their title. Blizzard hired Steve Meretzky
, creator of A Mind Forever Voyaging
and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
computer games, as a design specialist to help refine the puzzles and make them further cohesive with the narrative. Meretzky spent two weeks with the developers looking over the game for up to fourteen hours a day and it was decided that sequences of the game had to be rewritten which would involve more animation and more dubbing
.
However as the 1998 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Atlanta was approaching, Blizzard became increasingly aware that implementing the proposed changes would result in them being unable to meet their already extended 1998 deadline. LucasArts
had released their (competing) title Monkey Island III
in the fall of 1997, and had announced their next adventure game title Grim Fandango
sporting a 3D
engine. In comparison producer Bill Roper felt WarCraft Adventures looked dated;
After over a year of hard work, press tours, magazine covers, and fan fervor Blizzard announced that WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was cancelled days before E3. Within hours of the announcement fans of the series formed an online petition, demanding the project be resurrected. On the 22nd of May 1998, Blizzard responded via their website;
Despite their press release, rumours still persist the game was cancelled due to projected low sales from the deteriorating market of the Adventure game
genre.
Even though the game was cancelled, Blizzard felt the story itself too important to ignore and hired an author to adapt it into a novel. The author contracted to scribe it was unable to complete the book on time, so Star Trek
novelist Christie Golden
was then hired to write the novelization based on scripts and outlines provided by Warcraft universe co-creator, Chris Metzen
, and had to be completed within six weeks. The book was released under the title Warcraft: Lord of the Clans
by Pocket Books
and is considered canon
ical. Warcraft: Lord of the Clans is the second novel based in the Warcraft Universe.
Blizzard returned to the Azeroth setting in 2002, with the release of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
. Even though the game exploring his storyline had been cancelled, Thrall played a major role in Warcraft III and the subsequent MMORPG
World of Warcraft
and his story as outlined in the novel is considered canon, according to the Warcraft III manual's backstory.
In March 2010, a video of 20 minutes of gameplay were uploaded to a Russian gaming website, proving that someone outside of Blizzard Entertainment possesses a version of the game. The video is also available on YouTube (where it is labeled as from an alpha version of the game). In February 2011 a series of nine gameplay videos (labeled as from a beta version of the game) were uploaded to YouTube.
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
point-and-click
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
adventure
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
computer game under development by Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and currently owned by French company Activision Blizzard...
that was set in the Warcraft universe
Warcraft Universe
Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media originally created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of Four core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and World of Warcraft...
, and cancelled before its release. American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
company Animation Magic
Animation Magic
Animation Magic was an animation company based in Gaithersburg, MD with offices in Cambridge, MA and a 100% owned subsidiary located in St. Petersburg, Russia. They developed animations for CD-based software. As of 1994 they had 90 employees, including 12 software engineers and approximately 60...
was out-sourced due to their experience in classical two-dimensional animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
to produce the twenty-two minutes of fully animated sequences, the game's artwork
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, the coding of the engine and the implementation of the sound effects. Blizzard then provided all the designs, the world backgrounds, sound recording and ensured storyline continuity. Four or five months after Blizzard had released Battle.net
Battle.net
Battle.net is a gaming service provided by Blizzard Entertainment. Battle.net was launched in November 30, 1996 with the release of Blizzard's action-RPG Diablo. Battle.net was the first online gaming service incorporated directly into the games that make use of it, in contrast to the external...
and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal is an expansion pack developed by Cyberlore Studios, released in 1996 by Blizzard Entertainment for their award winning real-time strategy computer game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness...
had shipped, Blizzard began development on a title that would be cancelled just over a year later.
Cancellation
The game was originally slated for a fourth-quarter 1997 release; however it was pushed back until the end of 1998. This was a result of unforeseen technical problems coupled with communication limitations between Blizzard and their Russian third party animation company Animation MagicAnimation Magic
Animation Magic was an animation company based in Gaithersburg, MD with offices in Cambridge, MA and a 100% owned subsidiary located in St. Petersburg, Russia. They developed animations for CD-based software. As of 1994 they had 90 employees, including 12 software engineers and approximately 60...
.
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans had been in development for over a year: nearly all features, puzzles, and areas were in place, the voice acting had been recorded, and much of the animation was complete, yet Blizzard was not confident with their title. Blizzard hired Steve Meretzky
Steve Meretzky
Steven Eric Meretzky is an American computer game developer, with dozens of titles to his credit. He has been involved in almost every aspect of game development, from design to production to quality assurance and box design...
, creator of A Mind Forever Voyaging
A Mind Forever Voyaging
A Mind Forever Voyaging is an interactive fiction game designed and implemented by Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom in 1985...
and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (computer game)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an interactive fiction computer game based on the comedic science fiction series of the same name. It was designed by series creator Douglas Adams and Infocom's Steve Meretzky, and was first released in 1984 for the Apple II, Macintosh, Commodore 64, DOS,...
computer games, as a design specialist to help refine the puzzles and make them further cohesive with the narrative. Meretzky spent two weeks with the developers looking over the game for up to fourteen hours a day and it was decided that sequences of the game had to be rewritten which would involve more animation and more dubbing
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
.
However as the 1998 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Atlanta was approaching, Blizzard became increasingly aware that implementing the proposed changes would result in them being unable to meet their already extended 1998 deadline. LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
had released their (competing) title Monkey Island III
The Curse of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts, and the third game in the Monkey Island series. It was released in and followed the successful games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge...
in the fall of 1997, and had announced their next adventure game title Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango is a personal computer game in the graphic adventure genre released by LucasArts in 1998 and primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered, static backgrounds...
sporting a 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
engine. In comparison producer Bill Roper felt WarCraft Adventures looked dated;
After over a year of hard work, press tours, magazine covers, and fan fervor Blizzard announced that WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was cancelled days before E3. Within hours of the announcement fans of the series formed an online petition, demanding the project be resurrected. On the 22nd of May 1998, Blizzard responded via their website;
Despite their press release, rumours still persist the game was cancelled due to projected low sales from the deteriorating market of the Adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
genre.
Even though the game was cancelled, Blizzard felt the story itself too important to ignore and hired an author to adapt it into a novel. The author contracted to scribe it was unable to complete the book on time, so Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
novelist Christie Golden
Christie Golden
Christie Golden is an award-winning author who lives in Loveland, Colorado, United States. She has written over thirty novels and several short stories in fantasy, horror and science fiction.-Career:...
was then hired to write the novelization based on scripts and outlines provided by Warcraft universe co-creator, Chris Metzen
Chris Metzen
Christopher Vincent Metzen is an American game designer, artist, voice actor and author known for his work creating the fictional universes and scripts for Blizzard Entertainment's three major award-winning media franchises: Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft. On occasion, Metzen has published his art...
, and had to be completed within six weeks. The book was released under the title Warcraft: Lord of the Clans
Warcraft: Lord of the Clans
Warcraft: Lord of the Clans is a novel by Star Trek novelist Christie Golden based in Blizzard Entertainments Warcraft Universe. It was published by Pocket Books....
by Pocket Books
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
and is considered canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
ical. Warcraft: Lord of the Clans is the second novel based in the Warcraft Universe.
Blizzard returned to the Azeroth setting in 2002, with the release of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a real time strategy computer game released by Blizzard Entertainment on July 3, 2002 . It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and it is the third game set in the Warcraft Universe...
. Even though the game exploring his storyline had been cancelled, Thrall played a major role in Warcraft III and the subsequent MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
and his story as outlined in the novel is considered canon, according to the Warcraft III manual's backstory.
In March 2010, a video of 20 minutes of gameplay were uploaded to a Russian gaming website, proving that someone outside of Blizzard Entertainment possesses a version of the game. The video is also available on YouTube (where it is labeled as from an alpha version of the game). In February 2011 a series of nine gameplay videos (labeled as from a beta version of the game) were uploaded to YouTube.
Resources
The project from conception to cancellation took over one year, over that time the following resources were used:- The cost of a small internal team for one year.
- Outsourcing the American animation house, Animation Magic that had over 100 artists and animators working on the project.
- Establishing a BostonBostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
sound team. - Establishing a secondary sound team.
- Voice actors.
- Hiring Steve MeretzkySteve MeretzkySteven Eric Meretzky is an American computer game developer, with dozens of titles to his credit. He has been involved in almost every aspect of game development, from design to production to quality assurance and box design...
as a design specialist for two weeks. - Trademark costs and advertising budget leading up to its expected release.
Characters
- Thrall played by Clancy BrownClancy BrownClarence J. "Clancy" Brown III is an American actor and voice actor. He is known for his roles in live action as The Kurgan in the cult classic film Highlander, Byron Hadley in the award-winning The Shawshank Redemption, Brother Justin Crowe in HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivàle, and Career...
(of HighlanderHighlander (film)Highlander is a 1986 fantasy action film directed by Russell Mulcahy and based on a story by Gregory Widen. It stars Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown, and Roxanne Hart. The film depicts the climax of an ages-old battle between immortal warriors, depicted through interwoven past and...
fame) - Orgrim Doomhammer played by Peter CullenPeter CullenPeter Claver Cullen is a Canadian voice actor, known as the voice of Eeyore in the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise, Optimus Prime and Ironhide in the original Transformers series, and the narrator in both of the original American Voltron series...
(of Optimus Prime, TransformersThe Transformers (TV series)The Transformers is an animated television series depicting a war among giant robots who could transform into vehicles, other objects and animal-like forms. Written and recorded in America, the series was animated in Japan and South Korea...
fame) - Drek'thar (the shaman) played by Tony JayTony JayTony Jay was an English actor, voice actor and singer. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in animation, film and computer games. Jay's distinctive baritone voice often landed him villainous roles...
- Zul'jin (Troll leader) played by Unknown
- Nazgrel (the shaman) played by Unknown
- Gazlowe played by Unknown
- Durotan played by Unknown
- Rend played by Unknown
- Maim played by Unknown
- Kargath Bladefist played by Unknown
- Deathwing played by Unknown
- Additional Voices: Bill Roper
See also
- Warcraft UniverseWarcraft UniverseWarcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media originally created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of Four core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and World of Warcraft...
- Starcraft: GhostStarCraft: GhostStarCraft: Ghost is a military science fiction stealth-action video game under suspended development by Blizzard Entertainment. Part of Blizzard's StarCraft series, the game was announced in 2002 and was to be developed by Nihilistic Software for the Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 video...
Notations
- WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans looked at by GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
. - Interview with Author of Lord of the Clans, Christie Golden
- Art of Warcraft, Brady Games, Pearson Education, IndianapolisIndianapolisIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, IndianaIndianaIndiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, 46290, United States of America, 2002. ISBN 0-7440-0081-5
External links
- Blizzard Entertainment - Official website