The developer has a long-standing emotional connection with Blizzard's game.
Recently, the creator of Abiotic Factor, Jeff "Zag" Keene, spoke with PC Gamer and talked about his gaming preferences.
For example, he really likes PUBG: Battlegrounds — he has spent over 1000 hours in it. He is also a big fan of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness — he played it "long before he thought about creating games."
For Jeff, Blizzard's strategy became the first game that "really captivated" him.
The developer continues to play Warcraft II to this day — for him, this is the game that he will "never delete":
[...] There's something special about the games you played as a kid, isn't there? There's that nostalgia factor. Sometimes you just want to launch it. I go through a level from the campaign or a scenario, or just click on the screen. There's something cozy about those sounds and noise. Sometimes you launch a game just to hear the sounds again — it's like listening to an old favorite song.
Jeff also noted that this game helps him cope with stress — it's a kind of replacement for psychotherapy:
Interestingly, a couple of days before your letter, I was just launching [Warcraft II]. And I'm trying to remember why. I think I was exhausted at work then. I probably thought, "I just need this. Let this be my little distraction." I don't know. Maybe it's like a replacement for [psychotherapy]— guys just pick up and launch Warcraft II.
