Diablo III Panels at BlizzCon

Posted August 11th, 2008 at 1:30:00 PM CDT by matt - 3 With the launching of the BlizzCon website we've learned which panels are planned for Diablo III at the October 10-11th conference.

Diablo III Class Design
You've witnessed the raw physical power of the barbarian and the terrifying alchemy and diseases of the witch doctor. Now you can learn more about these heroes -- and see if any other champions emerge to defend the mortal world.

Diablo III Game Design
Get a detailed look at the design and development process behind the visceral gameplay of Diablo III. We'll explore the influence previous Diablo games have had, as well as the new and exciting features the upcoming sequel has to offer.

Diablo III - Lore and Art
From lore to spell effects, from creature design to quests -- sit down with our writers and artists as they discuss the creative process of building Diablo III's rich world of Sanctuary.

As expected, it seems 1 or more new classes will be unveiled at BlizzCon.

Q&A With a Russian Fansite

Posted August 5th, 2008 at 2:43:07 PM CDT by matt - 2 Bashiok was kind enough today to answer several questions that were translated over and posted on the battle.net forum by the Blizzard.ru Russian forum community.

Q. As we all know, one of the lead developers is Leonard Boyarsky. He is well known for working on such projects as: Fallout and Arcanum. May we suppose, that the world map in D3 will look like the one from Fallout or Arcanum so we will travel through it in a real time and encounter monsters?

A. Act transitions haven't really been discussed externally. It would be cool to have something a bit more engaging; however, I think the Diablo II style zoom-zoom to the next act ...worked.

Q. Will there be a risk of falling into the abyss or off the bridge being knocked or pushed by the monster?

A. No. Unless it's part of a special event or something.

Q. Would it be possible to filter games by any installed game mod if there will be an Open Battle.Net in D3?

A. We've never supported and don't intend to support "mods" for Diablo II or III.

Q. Its clearly understandable that there will be some forest landscapes (like jungles around Kurast) in D3. Will the forest landscapes reflect the atmosphere of an ancient, deep and sombre forest? Or there will be just pre-made paths, like in Diablo II?

A. We haven't announced/shown any locations beyond those on the website.

Q. In the gameplay movie we saw a final battle with a boss, where with his brutal strength he bit the player's head off. Can such situation be possible while playing Diablo 3? For e.g.: after reaching some breakpoint (critical point) in character's health, the boss smashes the hero with some unique ability?

A. That's what we would like to do. We'd like it that when a player dies to a boss we may have a special/random event or death animation specific to that boss. So if you're going to die or have died to a boss, there's a random chance that you'll see something other than a normal death. That's the dream any way.

Q. Will there be the alternation between day and night? If so, will it influence the game in some way? E.g. different mobs at night and day (some mobs that can be met only during day/night etc), character's skills or weapon will gain additional mods (to enhance attack and damage etc)?

A. Not that I know of.

Q. Will it be possible to see the total bonuses given by the weapons, armor, etc on the screen without calculating them manually? E.g. will there be any screen that will show that all your stuff gives +20 to str and 5 to dex etc

A. The UI is still under some design revision, but currently in Diablo III you can open your character sheet, and when mousing over a stat it lists what your total stat is and then breaks it down to base stat plus any modification. So for instance Vitality may list: "24 (22+2)" if you've got something giving you +2 to Vitality.

That's the current design any how, but I don't see any reason for it to change.

Q. Which question would you like to ask yourself and then answer? :)

A. What's your favorite thing about playing Diablo III right now?
- Blood sprays. They never get old. Zombies seem to just be chock full of the stuff.

Developer Panel Videos

Posted August 1st, 2008 at 10:14:59 PM CDT by matt - 1 Quick update, for those who didn't catch the 2 panels at the Worldwide Invitational conference, we've uploaded the over 1 hour of footage to the site's media section.

Game Design
World Lore & Environment Art

Taking down bosses, one limb at a time

Posted July 28th, 2008 at 2:13:43 PM CDT by mike - 5 As a new week begins and Blizzard is back in the office, more new info tidbits have surfaced over on the battle.net forums. In response to a request to have damage marks appear on your enemy as you engage them, Bashiok has turned that down to offer a much cooler approach where you will actually be able to dismember the boss or perhaps even... bathe in their blood.

For boss fights we don't really want to just start throwing "damage decals" on them. It can very easily be too subtle if you're fighting a smaller boss or one that has odd geometry to it, and it can also end up that no matter the flavor, style, and cool look to a boss you just end up fighting a big gory mess.

Also we think that we can go a lot further than just simple decals and get something much cooler out of a boss fight. So what we hope to do for at least the bosses where it makes sense is to show more apparent and visually noticeable damage states. Instead of a blood splatter they may actually lose a limb, or a piece or armor, or - like the Thousand Pounder - may transform in some dramatic way changing how the fight progresses. We want to go a lot further than just showing sword slashes and instead use dramatic and noticeable (which can be difficult in a game like this) ways to indicate a boss' current state.

Speaking of battle damage though, and I don't think this came across in the gameplay video or any of the screenshots as of yet, but when an enemy dies a critical death it actually drenches your hero in blood if you're within proximity of the spray. It's awesome.

Media section updates

Posted July 24th, 2008 at 1:55:14 PM CDT by matt - 17 In somewhat of a small scale update, the official Diablo III website has added 2 screenshots and 3 pieces of concept art. As such, we've mirrored these updates in our media section.

The screenshots seem to be from the areas demonstrated in the gameplay video, and one of the art pieces is a screencap of the cinematic trailer... but hey, an update's an update.

Using one of the new concept art pieces as a guide, we've added a new monster into the bestiary.

- Mistress of Pain