As part of our 30 year celebration, we were honored to hear from Greg Kasavin — creative director of Supergiant Games and author of one of our favorite articles about UQM — who graciously shared some thoughts on the game and its impact on him after these 30 years.
Happy 30th anniversary to one-of-the-greatest-games-of-all-time-if-you-ask-me, Star Control II! I’ve been an avid game player ever since, and can still safely say that, all this time later, I’ve still never played anything quite like it.
StarCon II‘s unique blend of action, exploration, and role-playing, and its spectacular science-fiction world filled with weird, wonderful, sometimes-scary, sometimes-funny alien species created an unforgettable and incredibly inspiring experience for me. And, unlike many other great games from that early-’90s DOS era, it still holds up really well, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the team behind The Ur-Quan Masters project, who have ensured this classic game can still be played and enjoyed.
I grew up wanting to become a game developer, playing everything I could get my hands on. But StarCon II stood out as one of a special few games that truly sparked my imagination and made me think “I wish I could someday work on something that could make others feel the way this made me feel.” I’ve now worked on close to 10 different games, many of them quite different from each other, though let me tell you… StarCon II remains a constant source of inspiration, both spiritually when it comes to finding a distinctive tone, and often practically as a design reference, too. Whenever I’ve been in design brainstorms and we’re thinking about interesting, imaginative player abilities, I always think of StarCon II.
When I was reflecting on this anniversary recently, I decided to fire up Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters for old time’s sake, start the campaign for the umpteenth time, play some of the awesome Super Melee combat mode. I still vividly recall many things about the game, such as how the Pkunk Fury starship has a chance to resurrect itself amid a glorious/hilarious Hallelujah!, and oh, the music…. But some details came back to me, such as how that same Pkunk ship regenerates its energy by ceaselessly insulting the opponent (“Loser! Idiot! Jerk!”). I laugh at almost nothing these days but busted out laughing at that, just as I must have when I was a kid, as the joy and imagination of this game came rushing back all in that one little aspect.
It’s difficult to single out the best part of StarCon II, which is part of why it’s so good. But for me it’s that great big personality that ultimately shines through. Of course its personality wouldn’t have meant as much if StarCon II wasn’t a blast to play. But the vibrant tone, the confident balance between absurd humor and serious high-stakes space opera, all of that helped open my eyes to what games could be.
The Ur-Quan Masters project is testament to the fact that this is a deeply loved game, and I hope many people out there will be playing and enjoying it not just another 30 years from now, but far into the future. If nothing else, it’ll give everybody something to do once the Ur-Quan arrive in the middle of the next century and cover our planet in their slave-shield and all that…!
Greg Kasavin is creative director at Supergiant Games, the small independent studio behind Hades, Pyre, Transistor, and Bastion. He has done the writing and contributed to the design of each game.