Originally Posted by
Funderbunk
A little more about the specific Orc example, what I meant with the Orc is that in Dungeon Keeper, he was a pallette swap of the Troll with some new details pasted on, to me that screams "hello I was rushed for development because we didn't have time to create something new" (being a game design student, I know the pressures of deadline crunch when it comes to making a game), and despite ending up being an extremely cool unit, that was mostly because he was an awesome creature gameplay wise (I suppose they were trying to make up for it's rushed design?), and his design just still seems lackluster to me. So why not make something that plays like the Orc, has the same unit role, but just replace the design with some other cool monster? Like has been stated in this thread, there are reasons not to do this (recognizability, fandom) but there's also reasons to do it (discovery, creativity). I presented it as something to think about, not something that HAS to be changed. Like I said, it's an awesome creature, but will I weep if it's replaced? No, I won't. Just like I didn't weep when the Defiler (the Zerg caster unit I used extensively in StarCraft) was replaced with the Infestor (a cooler looking Zerg caster unit I now use extensively in StarCraft II).