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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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.
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August 8th, 2008 / / by Sp3tSnAz
The BlizzCon website for 2008 has been updated with news of what some of the developer panels will be on. There is three Diablo 3 ones, on lore and art, game design and class design.
Interestingly class design hints at a possibility of new classes being unveiled at the event.
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August 7th, 2008 / / by Sp3tSnAz
Blizzard has posted a new job offer up today on their website for Diablo 3. What’s very interesting about this post, is that it is regarding the art direction of the game.
This follows all the previous posts where Blizzard has stated that they do not want to change their current art direction. What is also of interest is what the current art director, Brian Morrisroe going to do on the game? Is he moving to another game? Did Blizzard not like his art style? Are they moving him to their un-announced game? Or is this simply Blizzard wanting to add another person to the art team to help them get a new angle to the other acts.
Let the speculations begin!
The details of the job requirements follow.
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August 6th, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
So, what’s the big fuss over the secret cow level in Diablo 2? Blizzard’s Bashiok comments:
Yeah, who doesn’t like fighting cows running around with halberds?
I disliked the secret cow level from a design standpoint though. It actually angered me that it existed at one point, maybe it kind of still does.
I’m not a designer, at all, but in my opinion and from a design standpoint I think the secret cow level was a failure. For a long time it was one of the most lucrative ways to level, and one of the best places to MF. For an easter egg, something fun and whimsical, to overshadow the entire rest of the game was a huge problem, and one that existed for far too long. It was a fun idea, a cool nod to the rumors that spawned it, but in execution it was just… game breaking in some ways.
Some players disagree, and dislike the changes made in 1.10 that made the Secret Cow Level less lucrative, to which Bashiok writes:
Well of course, everyone wants everything made easier for them, and that’s effectively what it was. This barrel of fish that not only acted as cheesy way to pull the slot machine lever, but almost rendered the rest of the game unnecessary.
The oversight, I believe, existed in the requirement for the current difficulty to be beaten as well as the Cow King kill. It’s easy enough to avoid the King or just have the level opened by other characters, and I can only guess that the amount of replay potential of the actual game was extremely undervalued.
Because you’re playing a game, and it should be respected that you’re playing that game. The cow level was not part of the game, it was an easter egg that made leveling and item finding far easier than the actual game. I’m inclined to almost call it cheating.
I’m really liking Bashiok. I’ve personally never been a big fan of the secret cow level in Diablo 2. Like Bashiok, I’ve always considered it to be a design failure that majorly detracted from most other parts of the game.
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August 6th, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
Blizzard’s community manager Bashiok has fielded multiple questions regarding Diablo III’s achievements and how Blizzard plans to implement them into the game.
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August 6th, 2008 / / by Sol Invictus
The often hilarious webcomic Penny Arcade has just done their own take on Diablo III’s color complainers, and it’s a sentiment that I verily support.
Verily.
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August 6th, 2008 / / by Sp3tSnAz
UGO has an article up with Jay Wilson, this time detailing some details of the multiplayer aspects of the game and how they will run.
The most exciting changes we discussed related to the new and improved Battle.net. Most of what’s going to happen is still in the planning stages, but fans can in general expect to see more integration between game and community. No one will be forced to sign on to Battle.net to play Diablo III, but characters created offline will not be playable online in the interests of limiting any potential for cheating the system.
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August 6th, 2008 / / by Sp3tSnAz
MTV Blog has another article up with Diablo 3’s lead designer, Jay Wilson (as pointed out by Adsci), which this time talks about the new classes in the game. The main thing to take out of the article is the fact that the Necromancer will not be included in the game, as the developers found him to be so good, that they had no way to update him.
They do however hint at a possibility that he will be put into the game in later expansions.
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August 6th, 2008 / / by Sp3tSnAz
Edge online has a new interview up with Diablo 3’s lead world designer, Leonard Boyarsky. The article mainly talks about the decision to stick with the isometric view camera as well as the new adventure type areas in the game. It also talks about the random aspects of the game.
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