Archive for the ‘Blizzard’ Category:
BlizzCon 2008 Site Launches
August 8th, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
The BlizzCon 2008 official website has launched with a sneak preview of what’s in store, along with the panels that Blizzard will be running during the event, which takes place on October 10-11. You can check out the sneak preview after the jump.
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Diablo III’s Art Director Leaves: Drama Ensues
August 8th, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
It all started with Blizzard posting a new entry for the position of Diablo III Art Director its jobs page. But due to the lack of explanation on what happened to Brian Morrisroe, all the drama-lovers jumped to the conclusion that the Diablo III art team was in “total disarray” over 52,000 signatures complaining about the game’s art direction not being goth-tastic enough for their darkened souls.
Art Director
Blizzard Entertainment is currently looking for a talented, motivated, and experienced art director to lead the Diablo III art team. For this position, you must be highly organized with outstanding communication skills and proven experience in management. We’re looking for a proven track record of shipping AAA products in an art director role. Experience modeling and texturing assets for a diverse visual range of environments and a solid grasp of form, color, and light for both 2D and 3D art assets are also essential. You must be experienced at mentoring a team, able to work well in an environment of artists who are passionate about making great games, skilled in another art task (illustration, modeling, texturing, animation, or concept drawing), and well-versed in related tools (Maya, Photoshop, etc.).
Many sites and complainers alike were quick to jump on the bandwagon and drum up a spectacle over the issue in typical sensationalist fashion.
Brian has indeed quit the company, but as Kotaku reveals, his departure will have no impact over the game’s art direction.
Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to form a startup company “outside the game industry”, which is why we posted about the open position. That change won’t impact the game…we’re really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III, and the new person we bring aboard will work with other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward.
Those complaining about the colors have been denied, once again. Nobody gives a shit about your 52,000 signatures.
Crying Over Colors: Jay Wilson Responds
August 5th, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
MTV’s Multiplayer Blog has gotten in touch with Diablo 3’s Lead Designer, Jay Wilson, seeking his response to the brouhaha over the color and graphics related complaints that emerged shortly after Blizzard unveiled Diablo 3’s 20-minute gameplay trailer and accompanying screenshots more than a month ago.
Within the interview, Jay Wilson responds to six of the most popular Photoshopped Diablo 3 “before” and “after” screenshots, including the infamous and oft-cited homophobic “Necromancer’s Choice vs WOW Gayness” screenshot that spawned the whole mess on 4chan.
Following the jump are some snippets that should rile you up or make you happy, depending on which side of the fence you stand on.
Blizzard Plans Achievements Across All Games
August 2nd, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
Beginning with the implementation of achievements in Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard has announced its plans to implement achievements across all of its games, including the upcoming Diablo III and Starcraft II through the use of a Blizzard Level system tied to a single, universal Blizzard account. World of Warcraft designer Jeff Kaplan revealed some of the following details to MTV’s Multiplayer Blog.
“Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system,” he explained.
When the new Blizzard Accounts are active, a player’s ‘WoW’ points can be added to an overall score dubbed an account holder’s “Blizzard Level.” “It’s basically a gamerscore,” Kaplan said, when I made reference to Xbox Live’s Achievement system. “For now the points are just a ‘WoW’ character score. As we graduate to that Blizzard Account system, which is right on the horizon, it will switch over to a Blizzard Level.
Your ‘WoW’ score would be just one factor that will go into your Blizzard Level. And rather than call it a ’score,’ we just wanted it to be like you’re leveling up on Blizzard games… You’ll have this Blizzard identity, and you’ll be able to see things like ‘Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW. That sort of thing.”
There couldn’t be better news.
Blizzard Reveals Diablo III “Overthrown” Premium Statue
August 2nd, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
In commemorating the announcement of Diablo III last month, Blizzard and Sideshow Collectibles have revealed the Diablo III Premium Statue series with its first release of “Overthrown”, which depicts an aged barbarian atop the conquered Diablo, shouting towards the heavens in triumph of his victory.
The statue stands at a massive 18″ (457.2mm) high, and is hand-cast in high-quality polystone and meticulously painted to exacting standards, each piece is individually finished with a unique edition number.
Two versions of the statue are available for pre-order, which includes the regular edition or the Sideshow exclusive edition that features an alternate helmeted head.
Both statues are available at the price of US $300.00.
Blizzard on Execution over Innovation and their Next Game
August 1st, 2008 / / by Sp3tSnAz
Kotaku has two new interviews up with Blizzard devs, firstly about the innovation of their games, the other article is about whether their next game could ever topple WoW.
The first article is all about the innovation that WoW brought along like the rest system.
The second article talks about other MMOs that have tried to do better than WoW and then lead into talking about how they need to design their next game to be the next WoW killer.
What Activision Can And Can’t Change About Blizzard
August 1st, 2008 / / by Sp3tSnAz
Kotaku has a new article up with various Blizzard developers about the new merger with Activision as well as te innovation over at Blizzard. The article is mainly about the sorts of powers Activision has in terms of pricing mechanics and game design.
The main points that all Blizzard developers bring across is that they are not too worried, as their approach has always been to make games they love first, then design transaction models for them later.
Blizzard Denies Art Complainers Their Day
August 1st, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
Blizzard’s Jay Wilson, lead designer of Diablo III has finally posted a response to the users complaining about Diablo III’s colorful art direction with a definite show stopper of an interview in MTV’s Multiplayer Blog.
52,000 signatures certainly wasn’t enough to sway Blizzard’s opinion on the subject and make them scrap over 2 years of work. As most people know, e-petitions work about as well as goth clothing on… well… anyone. Except for goths. Those complaining about the game’s art direction are the goths of the internet.
But that’s just my take on it.
“There’s no going back now,” he said during an interview in a Manhattan hotel where Blizzard was showcasing their newest games. “We’re very happy with how the art style is. The art team’s happy. The company’s happy. We really like this art style, and we’re not changing it.”
We all know that regardless of the game’s art direction, Diablo III will most undoubtedly outsell its predecessors and achieve top honors, so there’s little anyone can do to dissuade Blizzard from its decision to make the game more accessible to everyone.
Jay also notes the decision didn’t come easy when he states that Diablo III carried a grim and gritty look two and a half years ago during the game’s first and second iterations, but with all the targets on screen it became difficult to see what was actually going on and that the light radius from previous games didn’t quite work in a true 3D environment. When they made the move to a third art style they realized it was time for a change.
Jay further notes that there will indeed be ‘dark’ environments all throughout the game in spite of the game’s brighter areas, so we can expect to see a significant degree of diversity throughout the game’s locations.
Further details can be read at MTV Multiplayer, so be sure to check out the full article.
Thanks Delacroix.
BlizzCon Tickets Set for August 11 Sale, DirecTV Broadcasting Live in HD
July 30th, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
Blizzard announced today that the tickets for BlizzCon 2008 will be available for sale this upcoming August 11 and that the show will be set to go on October 10-11 in Anaheim, California.
Tickets will be priced at $100 a pop and will be made available for purchase online at the BlizzCon website. Participants can probably expect to get a goodie bag upon arrival. If I lived in the United States, I’d certainly count myself among its participants.
Blizzard also noted that DirecTV will be providing live coverage of the event with a minimum of eight hours coverage on a pay per view basis. Starting in August, new subscribers to DirecTV will receive the event for free.
New Diablo III Media @ Official Site
July 24th, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
Blizzard has added three new pieces of artwork, two new screenshots, and one new wallpaper on the Official Website. Likewise, we have added the images to our gallery.
In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve also added a gallery of booth babes from ChinaJoy 2008 (It’s the Chinese E3) which you can check out here.
