The European Gaming Convention took place in Leipzig, Germany this year and there has been alot of goodies that came from this convention as far as Diablo 3 goes. No less than 6 different interviews with Jay Wilson has been uncovered with lots of juicy stuff and a whole lot of new graphics, so it was a really action packed event indeed it seems.

The first D3 team interview from the GC is up on IGN and it’s a good read. They spoke to D3 Lead Jay Wilson, and after getting the obligatory art direction question out of the way, they dug into some interesting game functions: inventory, skill use, monster design, health sytems, and more. A quote:

“A lot of people, I think, would say that’s a hallmark of the Diablo series, the potion system. We looked at it and said, ‘No, that just makes the game worse,’” said Wilson. “It doesn’t make it play like a better action game, it just kind of gives the player infinite health. It’s actually a fairly poor recovery mechanic because it forces the designers to design monsters that have to deal with a player that has infinite health. The only thing you can do is have monsters that can overcome that health and essentially one-shot you. That’s not a very interesting monster. It’s actually a horrible monster. But that’s the only option. The design shoehorned the designers into that kind of monster design. So we focused on a health system that actually forces the player to think tactically to recover health from monsters and to put them in some situations where they are low on health but have to walk into an enemy encounter anyway. That makes for a much more challenging encounter but it also makes for a situation where we can design the monsters to be a lot more interesting. We actually can lower damage on monsters. We want monsters to do less damage because we want them to wear you down over time and do things that are challenging in different ways.”

Gamespy has posted their own interview with Jay Wilson. This one is less a conversation about game mechanics and more a standard Q&A, with quotes from Jay about the features we’ll see in Battle.net 2.0, the state of the RPG genre, randomizing level design, D3’s planned financial model, and how D3 might handle PvP. Here are the highlights of the interview, and a quote for good measure:

(more…)

Both Blizzard Guru and Hellgate Guru report about a 5 page article in the australian gaming magazine PC Powerplay (#155) about Diablo 3 and thanks to a Blizzard Guru forum member we also have scans of the article presented below. As usual the ever nagging complaints about the graphics are adressed as well as some information on item randomization, health globes and new classes.

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

I am going to start on the new Diablo 3 design for diabloiiiblog.com today since I feel I want to get a flying start with it. I will begin by adding the “wrapper” as soon as possible and then the actual postbit. The sidebar will be a simple version where I will try not to poke things to much so it can remain widget friendly and the footer I will ponder on later as I am sure I want to add something down there as well eventually

I am preparing some advertising spots for the future (you never know) with a 468×60 adspot below each post, a 720×90 spot in the footer, a 300×250 spot in the sidebar and I will try a plugin for random adspots as well. It may sound like a bit to much, but I want to see how it looks and if its not working I’ll remove the areas that are not working.

Feedburner get alot of attention with graphic spots for RSS for posts as well as comments along with a feedburner counter. I am also going to add Technoracti features and work on making the social services sections a bit nicer.

When its in place I’ll start working on the details a bit, like fixing the gallery and the forum so it will look nice and bland with the new design.

It will take a while to get this done since I am home with my son, but I will at least have something to show by the weekend. If you want a sneak preview, please post a comment and I’ll give you a link to see the work in progress.

Join the forum discussion on this post - (3) Posts

The announcement of Diablo 3 has stirred the internet, but not the way one might think, but its the graphical aspect of the game that causes an all out cry for blood as it is less dark than Diablo and Diablo 2. To some this is worse than peeing on their grandmothers grave and to others its not so much of a deal.

Keith Lee answer the critics like this:

Keith Lee - One of the things that we considered when we were working on the visuals for Diablo III is the fact that color is your friend. We feel that color actually helps to create a lot of highlights in the game so that there is contrast. A great analogy is like in Lord of the Rings. Not everything is dark. It allows you to see what a creepy dungeon can be like but if everything is dark it doesn’t allow you to have a lot of contrast.

He continued: Diablo I and Diablo II are darker, and I think that the one of the main reasons why is the fact that in Diablo I, you’re basically in a dungeon the whole time. And in contrast to Diablo III, you’ll be exploring outdoors, you’ll be in dungeons, you’ll be experiencing so many different areas. We want to bring as much variety as we can when you’re playing the game so that you’re excited to check out new environments. We don’t want everything to look the same and that’s really what we’re trying to aim for.

Source: Diablofans.com

Personally I don’t mind some color as long as the game itself is enjoyable and playable like its predecessors, but what is your opinion? Add your voice here:

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts