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Jay Wilson interview from 1up.com
Here is an interview from www.1up.com with Jay Wilson. Jay discusses how his style has changed (and stayed the same) since joining the Blizzard team.
Some of the highlights:
- How they develop the classes. They focus on one class at a time and adjust the others as they make changes to the class they are working on.
- Diablo II players could use potions and run faster than monsters so class specific evasion abilities didn’t matter as much. Classes were too generic. They have created enemies that are difficult and each class has specific abilities that allow them to deal with the situations that the enemies create. Diablo is about combat and not crowd control but elements of light crowd control have improved the feel.
- A crafting system or something like it is likely. Rune words are gone so they are definitely replacing that system with some sort of light crafting.
- Legendary items will have a chance at having gem slots. This allows higher level items some diversity.
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=1&cId=3172030&p=1
Subscribe to the comments for this postDiablo III will use battle.net instead of including DRM
- Image via Wikipedia
Executive vice president of game design at Blizzard Rob Pardo says that Blizzard has “no particular plans” to institute DRM verification checks for Diablo III for piracy prevention. He states that their protection is “more similar to Steam than EA”. Great news considering the DRM screw ups we’ve seen lately.
Blizzard’s will use battle.net to stop pirates. If you want to play online you will have to use battle.net. I wonder how they will prevent open source battle.net clones though.
The rune slot system lets you choose how you play your class
Diablo 3’s rune system looks cool. Basically every class has rune slots that allow you to add effects to your class abilities. An example would be the witch doctors flaming skull. With the multi rune the skull bounces and destroys everything in it’s path. This allows you to customize your class and play it in the manner that you want it to be played.
Examples after the jump:
Diablo III will not be the end of the Diablo universe
Lead designer Jay Wilson had this to say:
We’re not saying this is the end of the ‘Diablo’ universe, but we are trying to bring this storyline to a close. It’s not just ‘Diablo III’ — we’ve got plans beyond.
Wilson also went on to say that characters would be returning from Diablo I, Diablo 2 and some of the books that focus on the universe.
Can’t say I blame them. Diablo is one of the reasons Blizzard is who they are today.
Diablo 3 art director resigns but game look will not change
It has been confirmed that “Diablo III” art director Brian Morrisroe has decided to leave Blizzard. Morrisroe has decided to form a startup company outside of the game industry. Blizzard reps have stated this this will not change the art style of the game or the release date. They posted the job opening on their site this week.
A Blizzard representative told MTV Multiplayer:
Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to form a startup technology company (outside the game industry), which is why we’ve posted about the open position. This 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 onboard will work with the other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward.
Some members of the fan community are suspicious of Morrisroe’s timing. There has been a recent pushback from a segment of the Diablo community about the art direction of the new game.
Diablo 3 Announced
Blizzard announced what we’ve all been waiting for: Diablo III. Gameplay looks fantastic. Here are some highlights from the FAQ.
- Returning to Sanctuary 20 years after Diablo 2.
- Custom 3D engine. Havok physics
- There are 5 character classes in the game. A new Witch Doctor class and the Barbarian class has been redone. Male and female looks to be possible for all classes.
- Building on previous random environments, Blizzard promises “a host of new ways to create random scripted events throughout the game.”
- Battle.net will offer some exciting new features
- The game will be released for PC and Mac simultaneously.