Diablo 3 designer comments on fans’ edited screenshots, more
Uh oh. As MTV Multiplayer puts it, the tables have turned on the disgruntled fans. Diablo III‘s lead designer, Jay Wilson, finally stepped up to the plate to take on the fans’ edited screenshots. And we can tell you right now that the full story isn’t going to be music to your ears, if the edited art-style was your bread and butter. But what we can say is that Blizzard has their reasons. Learn more about how Diablo 3 matured to “rainbows.”
MTV Multiplayer, the big snoops that they are over the Diablo III drama, finally got Lead Designer Jay Wilson on board to talk about the screenshots that surfaced not long after Blizzard‘s World Wide Invitational dropped the nuclear bomb that was Diablo 3. And what he had to say about the suggested themes showcased by the fan-edited screenshots was they can’t be done.
Or won’t. “WeÂ’re very happy with how the art style is. The art teamÂ’s happy. The companyÂ’s happy. We really like this art style, and weÂ’re not changing it,” said he, who tirelessly responded to criticisms against D3‘s radical makeover.
If you’ve been involved heavily in the Diablo 3, you would know that fans of the revered game franchise have expressed concern over Diablo 3‘s direction in art style – enough to pull an online petition garnering 50,000 or so signatures. Against the sub-2000 signature petition lined up against it, it was unmatched.
Fans accused Diablo 3 of being too influenced by World of Warcraft‘s colorful art style, and turning the world of Sanctuary into a cartoon – with rainbows. Wilson responded with:
We donÂ’t think itÂ’s that big a deal; we just think it adds a lot of interest to that scene. We donÂ’t have specific plans to fill “Diablo” with rainbows. ItÂ’s not like we restarted the project and were like “Diablo III – now with rainbows!” Although I will say the pitch that I originally did, once we decided what we were going to do, said “Diablo III – now with pants.” Because we added a pants slot.
Generally, Wilson says that the color and themes are designed in a way to add variety – variety that was in some manner introduced in Diablo 2. Changing of environments and sceneries was to keep from making long grinds too monotonous for players.
That concept also reflected on the game’s approach to visibility. Characters have to stand out enough to be readily identified during lots of action. The designer also pointed out that some scene renders suggested in the screenshots would need a more capable graphics engine to achieve the desired output.
All points considered, however, there’s a lot of replies being murmured at the opposite front. And one we’ve heard is that the screenshots are only mock ups (photo-editing software could only do so much) and that light radius will allow players to be readily identified within dark areas.
Plenty more are bubbling up from the opposition, but we’ll wait for an official stand from the petitioners themselves. Stay tuned for that.
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