@Zolden: Go
When i talked about people which could be interested in sc arcade i meant mostly students actualy. And i mentioned unity because you like to compare sc mapping with it time to time.
I think the pipeline is basicaly following: producers with help of marketing guys studying the market and player demands, then they calculating the whole project (costs, deadlines, etc), taking the risks. After that they bringing their rough concept/vision to game designers and they start to go in detail, with all the balance issues, gameplay mechanics etcetera. Then artists and software engineers catch up by implementing those.
I dont know how far Blizz want to go with this "galaxy platform" but i think it may end up being some map marketplace with 1-5$ price range. Having lot of free-lancing game designers, which can provide some enjoyable experience for the target audience is always nice. I know what you think Zolden, the Unity is much better and all, but let's be objective here. The key problem is not scripting and programming but assets. It is time consuming to that point when it's unacceptable to make it by your own along with coding for "succesful-level-of-quality" game, and if you aware of getting cancer in age of 40. So as for my personal opinion the Unity is for developer teams, while this galaxy platform could become something for passionate individuals. Providing some simple cheap Arcade games when you got multiplayer platform, vast array of assets and whats most important the initial player base is achievable goal for one person. You see they choose this "Arcade" designation purposefully. Arcade means simple enjoyable games. You can see it also by their judgement criteria when they run map making contest and templar tv got some prize place while being pretty simple map. This contest was the first blizzard approbation if this is a ground they can stand on or quicksands.
While i don't approve this marketplace idea, nor i expect it or need it at all, this is also a possible option, simply because Blizzard already invested in this technology a LOT of money. However there is an obstacle that prevents them from doing so. I think the sc2 hadn't such success as wc3, and when i joining to the arcade there are very few people for each particular map (except the top-listed ones). I think this is due to some reasonable mistakes that were made with this whole arcade concept, but at least blizz taking attempts to reanimate it, mostly because as i said, lot of effort and money was invested in this engine and tools.
They most likely will be using the same galaxy platform with some improvements. They already invested enough for people's education. Also there is a slight chance that WC4 never happens due to this moba corruption. Back in wc3 days lot of player base was drawn with dota 1 (including myself, lol). Blizzard somewhat aware of this tendency, because you know, when they reading 1000 posts on bnet forums that sc2 is "DAED GAEM", they may come up with idea that it's not something wrong with sc2 but with the RTS genre in general which becomes extremely niche.
Epilogue
But the most epic fail of Blizzard was when they discard the IceFrog, thats for sure :)). Getting the game that was developed, balanced and polished for over 5 years for free and it's game designer in one pack was the best offer they will ever have, whatever payment IceFrog demanded. Somehow Valve knew this :)). So GJ Gabe Newell.
Well i just expressed my feelings when i launched this editor 1st time. The amount of stuff you get thrown in your face is ridiculous. I dont know what others felt but my mind tried to embrace whole thing to get the basic picture of whats going on here. So i figured my point relying on that feeling. Also what i found while working with data effects and actors is there are at least 2 different ways for implementation of a single idea, but when you get experienced with editor you will see that there is actualy only one way to make thing right and optimized. And it requires massive knowledge of the whole objects and data fields. Also there are many hidden surprises, when you dont know why thing desn't work. I remember how 3 years ago i discovered that missiles have "Suppress Death Event" flag after 2 days of figuring why i cant run death animation on my missile units.
This also describes the design concept of the editor. It is good for internal use, when i can go in adjoining room and ask from the software engineer how to do things. Basicaly i think it is made even in opposite way. The key people are game designers, and artist and software developers are service providers. The designers have demand and being supplied with stuff they want. So for users more data could be frustrating thats what i meant.
I dont think that editor need so many features. It's not the professional tool for a game developers after all. The way data system is organized is so you basicaly need 1 data object for each task. Blizzard already did a fairly good job on making this objects as unified as possible so the same object behaves differently in various constructions. Every new data object will drasticaly increase difficulty for a newcomers and the complexity of editor's architecture overal.
You may smile right now cuz i was the one who was bitching alot about the wc3 assets quality recently, but the point is Blizzard will implement mostly features that they need for LotV, for their designers' ideas. And then they will just share this editor build with us. We are small group of people which even dont pay anything to Blizz, so... no point for them to provide us some new tools. When you start building shit you want this and that and then you want to implement this idea and then more more and more. And then you want fantasy assets, then you change your mind and want new possibilities for physics engine or 2D sprite support! and Blizz like: "what the fuck is wrong with you ppl". And they are right.....
@Zolden: Go When i talked about people which could be interested in sc arcade i meant mostly students actualy. And i mentioned unity because you like to compare sc mapping with it time to time.
@Zolden: Go
I think the pipeline is basicaly following: producers with help of marketing guys studying the market and player demands, then they calculating the whole project (costs, deadlines, etc), taking the risks. After that they bringing their rough concept/vision to game designers and they start to go in detail, with all the balance issues, gameplay mechanics etcetera. Then artists and software engineers catch up by implementing those.
I dont know how far Blizz want to go with this "galaxy platform" but i think it may end up being some map marketplace with 1-5$ price range. Having lot of free-lancing game designers, which can provide some enjoyable experience for the target audience is always nice. I know what you think Zolden, the Unity is much better and all, but let's be objective here. The key problem is not scripting and programming but assets. It is time consuming to that point when it's unacceptable to make it by your own along with coding for "succesful-level-of-quality" game, and if you aware of getting cancer in age of 40. So as for my personal opinion the Unity is for developer teams, while this galaxy platform could become something for passionate individuals. Providing some simple cheap Arcade games when you got multiplayer platform, vast array of assets and whats most important the initial player base is achievable goal for one person. You see they choose this "Arcade" designation purposefully. Arcade means simple enjoyable games. You can see it also by their judgement criteria when they run map making contest and templar tv got some prize place while being pretty simple map. This contest was the first blizzard approbation if this is a ground they can stand on or quicksands.
While i don't approve this marketplace idea, nor i expect it or need it at all, this is also a possible option, simply because Blizzard already invested in this technology a LOT of money. However there is an obstacle that prevents them from doing so. I think the sc2 hadn't such success as wc3, and when i joining to the arcade there are very few people for each particular map (except the top-listed ones). I think this is due to some reasonable mistakes that were made with this whole arcade concept, but at least blizz taking attempts to reanimate it, mostly because as i said, lot of effort and money was invested in this engine and tools.
@OutsiderXE: Go
They most likely will be using the same galaxy platform with some improvements. They already invested enough for people's education. Also there is a slight chance that WC4 never happens due to this moba corruption. Back in wc3 days lot of player base was drawn with dota 1 (including myself, lol). Blizzard somewhat aware of this tendency, because you know, when they reading 1000 posts on bnet forums that sc2 is "DAED GAEM", they may come up with idea that it's not something wrong with sc2 but with the RTS genre in general which becomes extremely niche.
Epilogue
But the most epic fail of Blizzard was when they discard the IceFrog, thats for sure :)). Getting the game that was developed, balanced and polished for over 5 years for free and it's game designer in one pack was the best offer they will ever have, whatever payment IceFrog demanded. Somehow Valve knew this :)). So GJ Gabe Newell.
Well i just expressed my feelings when i launched this editor 1st time. The amount of stuff you get thrown in your face is ridiculous. I dont know what others felt but my mind tried to embrace whole thing to get the basic picture of whats going on here. So i figured my point relying on that feeling. Also what i found while working with data effects and actors is there are at least 2 different ways for implementation of a single idea, but when you get experienced with editor you will see that there is actualy only one way to make thing right and optimized. And it requires massive knowledge of the whole objects and data fields. Also there are many hidden surprises, when you dont know why thing desn't work. I remember how 3 years ago i discovered that missiles have "Suppress Death Event" flag after 2 days of figuring why i cant run death animation on my missile units.
This also describes the design concept of the editor. It is good for internal use, when i can go in adjoining room and ask from the software engineer how to do things. Basicaly i think it is made even in opposite way. The key people are game designers, and artist and software developers are service providers. The designers have demand and being supplied with stuff they want. So for users more data could be frustrating thats what i meant.
I dont think that editor need so many features. It's not the professional tool for a game developers after all. The way data system is organized is so you basicaly need 1 data object for each task. Blizzard already did a fairly good job on making this objects as unified as possible so the same object behaves differently in various constructions. Every new data object will drasticaly increase difficulty for a newcomers and the complexity of editor's architecture overal.
You may smile right now cuz i was the one who was bitching alot about the wc3 assets quality recently, but the point is Blizzard will implement mostly features that they need for LotV, for their designers' ideas. And then they will just share this editor build with us. We are small group of people which even dont pay anything to Blizz, so... no point for them to provide us some new tools. When you start building shit you want this and that and then you want to implement this idea and then more more and more. And then you want fantasy assets, then you change your mind and want new possibilities for physics engine or 2D sprite support! and Blizz like: "what the fuck is wrong with you ppl". And they are right.....