Shattered Nations is a cancelled sci-fi action / RTS game that was in development by Blizzard Entertainment. There is not much info on this lost project besides a teaser trailer in which we see a futuristic city and a flying helicopter. From the video description we can read that:
The game was set in a world which was at peace but one day fire rained down from the sky, in which people were forced to scavenge for food and technology. There was a 20 year nuclear winter which made the world into a vast wasteland. The player would have to search for technology and move your people around so that the civilization will thrive.
Rumors say that Shattered Nations evolved into Starcraft. In some issues of PC Champ (a Korean magazine from late 1995 to early 1996) derboo found a render image that shows one mech from Shattered Nations, but in a following issue, that same mech was described as the Goliath from Starcraft (The Goliath in the final game looks way different, though).
The original Starcraft was released in 1998, so it’s possible that in 3 years Blizzard decided to completely change Shattered Nations’ settings and story to create their popular RTS. It’s also possible that some of the Shattered Nations’ assets could have been reused in Starcraft. Sadly we don’t have any confirmation of this theory and even Blizzard refers to Shattered Nations as one of their cancelled games.
Thanks to derboo for the contribution!
Thanks to Jason for the english corrections!
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Many, many years ago I had a disc with some demo footage from Shattered Nations. I don’t know if it was supposed to be RTS or Turn-Based; the scenes I saw looked like Civilization meets Ascendancy, with a lot of tile-based city-building. I was really looking forward to it and was disappointed when it was cancelled.
i wonder if that video could still be found online.. do you remember where you found the demo disc?
He probably meant this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHBNiLLQJUA
It is from warcraft 2 CD. However gameplay he remembered is from Pax Imperia 2 trailer which was at that time wanted be published by Blizzard. None of Shattered Nations gameplay was seen, as I know.
In the book, Stay Awhile and Listen: Book 2 (2019), based on interviews primarily of ex-Blizzard staff, there is some details about Shattered Nations. On page 53 (in the ebook copy I have) it states the Shattered Nations was being developed at the same time as StarCraft. It is described as having been a turn-based strategy game and not a real-time strategy game.
Programmer Bill Fitch moved between StarCraft and Shattered Nations, which was stated as being designed by him, artist Stu Rose and producer Bill Roper. If anyone could get in touch with any of those three, that would be the best chance of getting further details about the cancelled game.
On page 56 (in the ebook copy I have) it states that Shattered Nations was cancelled in 1996 after the decision was made for StarCraft to be delayed in the aftermath of its E3 reception, where StarCraft was critiqued for being WarCraft in space rather than having a separate identity. Fitch, Rose and Roper were then put onto the StarCraft team on a full-time basis.
Stu Rose, who was interviewed for the book, is quoted as saying, “It got down to the point where we said, ‘We don’t have enough manpower for both projects,’ and Shattered Nations just wasn’t Blizzard. It was a turn-based game and it really didn’t fit with cool, fast-paced, and fun. We just dropped it like a hot potato.”
Pat Wyatt is quoted as saying Shattered Nations like WarCraft Adventures and Pax Imperia II was “fairly far along” in its development when it was cancelled.