Editing Star Control II (section)

=== Fictional universe ===
Reiche and Ford wanted their new game to further investigate their self-described "superficial" stories and aliens from the original ''Star Control''.<ref name = "warstories"/> Thus, the story for ''Star Control II'' would greatly expand on those original characters, and add a few more.<ref name="Barton2016">{{cite book|author=Barton|first=Matt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UV7OBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA203|title=Honoring the Code: Conversations with Great Game Designers|date=April 19, 2016|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-1-4665-6754-2|pages=203–|access-date=October 22, 2020}}</ref>

This was the last time that Reiche would design a game using [[Pen-and-paper role-playing game|pen and paper]], including dozens of flow charts for the major plot points, player choices, and [[Dialogue tree|dialog trees]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=Walker|first=Alex|date=July 14, 2020|title=Star Control 2 Was Designed And Built Entirely On Hand-Drawn Flowcharts|url=https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/07/star-control-2-was-designed-and-built-entirely-on-hand-drawn-flowcharts/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720181416/https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/07/star-control-2-was-designed-and-built-entirely-on-hand-drawn-flowcharts/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 20, 2020|access-date=July 20, 2020|website=Kotaku Australia|language=en-AU}}</ref> Paul Reiche III describes this creative process, "I know it probably sounds weird, but when I design a game like this, I make drawings of the characters and stare at them. I hold little conversations with them. '''What do you guys do''?' And they tell me."<ref name="DeMaria2018">{{cite book|author=DeMaria|first=Rusel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dAF-DwAAQBAJ|title=High Score! Expanded: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games 3rd Edition|date=December 7, 2018|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-0-429-77139-2|access-date=October 22, 2020}}</ref> Early in the process, they used the first game's character and ship images to create simple visual stories about the two main sides of the conflict.<ref name="Barton2016"/> The main antagonist the Ur-Quan were already understood as a race of slavers in ''Star Control'', so Reiche developed their motivation by writing their backstory as slaves themselves.<ref name="DeMaria2018"/> To justify the Mycon's organic structures and high energy plasma, they decided that the Mycon lived beneath the planet's crust, and must have been artificially created to survive there.<ref name="Barton2016"/> Fred Ford inspired the character design for the Earth [[Space station|starbase]] commander, as well as the Pkunk's insult ability, while the Spathi were inspired by a running joke about Paul Reiche's desire for self-preservation.<ref name="Barton2016"/> The rich storytelling was a contrast to the first game's emphasis on [[player versus player]] combat, but they realized that their combat [[Artificial intelligence in video games|artificial intelligence]] could give story-loving players an option to delegate battles.<ref name = "GDC2015"/>

Once Reiche and Ford imagined the different alien personalities, Reiche hand-drew a flow chart for each alien's dialog options, which Ford would implement into the game with placeholder tags.<ref name=":5" /> However, the sheer quantity of writing and art proved to be challenging for the game's epic scale.<ref name="gamespotinterview">{{cite web|last=Kasavin|first=Greg|date=June 27, 2003|title=Greatest Games of All Time - Star Control II (Interview Feature)|url=http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/greatestgames/starcon22.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050305195839/http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/greatestgames/starcon22.html|archive-date=March 5, 2005|access-date=October 22, 2020|website=GameSpot}}</ref> Fred Ford surprised the team with his prolific coding, and it was the rest of the team who needed to catch-up with art, writing, music, and other assets.<ref name = "GDC2015"/> They quickly enlisted the help of friends and family to create game content.<ref name=gamespotinterview/> One crucial friend was ''[[Starflight]]'' creator [[Greg Johnson (game designer)|Greg Johnson]], who Reiche had previously helped on ''Starflight'' while sharing office space.<ref name = "GDC2015"/> Johnson ended up writing dialog for several aliens, as well as creating most of the artwork for the alien spaceships.<ref>{{cite web|author=Horowitz|first=Ken|date=February 22, 2005|title=Interview: Greg Johnson|url=https://www.sega-16.com/Interview-%20Greg%20Johnson.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317223632/https://www.sega-16.com/Interview-%20Greg%20Johnson.php|archive-date=March 17, 2007|access-date=October 22, 2020|publisher=Sega 16|quote='''Greg Johnson''': ''Star Control'' wasn't my game. I did help out on it, but that was really done by two good friends of mine Paul Reiche and Fred Ford. Paul and Fred run a game development studio called Toys For Bob. Back in the old days a bunch of us who developed games used to share a suite of offices, and basically just help each other out on our respective games. Paul let me write the dialogue for a number of the races in ''Star Control 2'' and I think I did the artwork for most of the spaceships, but that's it. It was Paul's design. To this day Star Control Melee continues to be one of the games I play the most. I think Paul is one of the most amazing game designers ever.}}</ref> They were also able to hire [[fantasy]] [[artist]] [[George Barr (artist)|George Barr]] through mutual friends,<ref>{{cite web|author=Hutchinson|first=Lee|date=October 26, 2018|title=Video: The people who helped make Star Control 2 did a ton of other stuff|url=https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/1e42a2c2-df36-44c3-8c94-b8c7994f7954mezzanine.txt|access-date=October 22, 2020|publisher=Ars Technica}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=GameSpy Staff|date=February 3, 2001|title=Interview with George Barr|url=http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/history/george_barr.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060313095138/http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/history/george_barr.shtml|archive-date=March 13, 2006|access-date=August 6, 2020|website=GameSpy}}</ref> who had inspired the game's "[[pulp magazine|pulp science-fiction]]" feel, and happened to be living nearby.<ref name = "GDC2015"/> Long-time friend [[Erol Otus]] was another collaborator,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.blackgate.com/2011/11/13/erol-otus-and-star-control-ii/ | title=Erol Otus and Star Control II – Black Gate | date=13 November 2011 }}</ref> who Reiche describes as contributing the widest range of content, including music, text, art, illustrations for the game manual, and (later) voice-acting.<ref name = "GDC2015"/>

The largest number of collaborators were needed for the game's numerous dialog options.<ref name = "GDC2015"/> The creators were admirers of the ''[[Monkey Island (series)|Monkey Island]]'' games, and aimed to achieve the same level of player choice and humor.<ref name="DeMaria2018"/> Reiche felt that each character needed their own [[font]] to match their distinct personality, and built a font-editing system to achieve this.<ref name = "GDC2015"/>