How Starcraft forged Age of Mythology Starcraft's release thunderstruck us at Ensemble Studios. We had been pottering along, making civs that we felt were interesting and different in many subtle ways. Every civ had disadvantages and advantages. We were fat and happy. I’m not saying we were entirely wrong, because Age of Empires was a huge hit. But Starcraft showed us just HOW asymmetrical a civilization could be. Starcraft had a mere three while we had a mighty 13. But every single aspect of the three Starcraft civs was alien. Instead of humans getting "a different upgrade), their buildings were movable spaceships. Zerg didn’t get a “barracks speed” boost – they spawned from giant monsters. The Protoss gated in units & buildings from another dimension. Every unit, building, and aspect was of each Starcraft species was unique. Of course all threee civs needed certain functionalities so they all, for instance, had anti-air units. But each functioned in its own way. 1/5