An interesting little feature popped up on Kotaku.com earlier today; it's called "StarCraft: Ghost Lives On In StarCraft II," by Mike Fahey. The story features an interview with StarCraft II art director Sam Didier, in which Fahey sarcastically asks when StarCraft: Ghost is coming out. The reason I say "sarcastically" is because StarCraft: Ghost is widely-known throughout Blizzard's die-hard fans to be one of the biggest let-downs in the company's history. Originally announced back in 2002 as a spin-off of the original StarCraft, the game was meant to be a stealthy, third-person shooter released in a variety of console formats. But year after year, StarCraft: Ghost's development kept falling behind as console technology advanced; the game made Wired's annual Vaporware Awards in 2005. In 2006, Blizzard finally announced it was on "indefinite hold."

But in the recent Kotaku interview, Didier offered a little insight into the graphical design process that implies we might be seeing elements of StarCraft: Ghost in the upcoming StarCraft II:

"We actually looked at a lot of the art assets so we could include them in specific missions in the game, or if there was a specific installation in Ghost that we wanted to include in StarCraft II. We look at all our assets."

Didier also alludes that influences from the StarCraft: Ghosts novel that was published back in 2006 might appear in StarCraft II. "[...] we're definitely not throwing away the lore," he told Kotaku. If you thought you'd never even see a trace of StarCraft: Ghosts, you might be wrong. At the very least, we might see a little of the blood, sweat and tears that went into the game's development at some point in the upcoming StarCraft II trilogy.