Flagship Studios art director on Hellgate:London architecture

David Glenn has a lot of experience designing demonic architecture. Understandable, considering he was chief background artist for Blizzard‘s classic Diablo 2 before working as art director for Flagship Studios‘ Hellgate: London. Glenn talks more about his work designing “evil” backgrounds after the jump.

He may possess a degree in architecture, but David Glenn doesn’t design “ordinary-looking” buildings.  His structures lie more along the lines of the dark, the apocalyptic and the demonic. Glenn, you see, works as art director for Flagship Studios, and he talked a bit about his work on Hellgate: London in a recent interview.

Glenn said that he drew inspiration from a variety of sources for his work on Diablo 2 and Hellgate: London, including medieval fantasy and and such movies as Excalibur and Aliens. The dark, gritty nature of the latter movie, in particular, influenced Glenn a lot.

The art director also commented on the issue of likenesses of real world structures appearing in games. According to Glenn, his structures are a mishmash of the real and the fantastical. For example, renowned buildings such as St. Paul’s Cathedral offer players a recognizable facade, but the actual demon-infested interior is a different story.

Glenn also touched upon a variety of other topics, such as the difference in organizational cultures between Blizzard Entertainment and Flagships Studios, and the technical aspects of randomizing dungeons in Diablo 2. If you’d like more information (as well as a record of the interview in MP3 format), feel free to click on the source link below and you’ll be whisked away to the full interview.