Starcraft first made use of the word "pwned", which is popular with Internet users. It came about when a map designer misspelled the word. Then the game was published with the error. When a player had been beaten, the message "______ has been pwned" appeared. This was corrected using patches but remained in the vocabulary of '1337' or 'leet' speakers.
The Zerg facial structure is derived from dental x-ray scans of human skulls.
The game has many references and similarities to the science fiction film "Aliens", which includes unit styles, confirmation lines and designs:
Terran Marine: "How do I get out of this chickenshit outfit", said by private Hudson, in Aliens;
Terran Dropship: "We're in the pipe, five by five", "We're in for some chop", said by the corporal Ferro when approaching planet LV-426; also the unit icon and voice style are similar to corporal Ferro in Aliens;
Terran SCV similarly styled to the loader used in the ship's docking bay;
Zerg structures are similarly styled to the infested LV-426 colony;
Zerg hydralisk unit similarly styled to the xenomorph queen;
Terran ship interior, seen in movie sequence, similarly styled to the LV-426 colony.
The female, cybernetic guide for Terran game play is loosely designed from the artwork of H.R. Giger.