Diablo 3 unchanged after Art Director quits

I hope once the game comes out, that someone makes a mod so the game looks more like Diablo 1/2/2X.
still don't like the current art direction as much as I would like to.

I think that will be the first mod that comes out.

You know when you read something without actually reading anything?... I know it, all too well.

Here I go again..

as much as i LOVE diablo and what they're doing with it I'd actually like the first mod to be a total conversion! only because I wouldn't mind playing in a more contemporary world ... like the Vampire series maybe...(or hellgate, which is a shame it wasn't great )

back on topic. it's odd and (slightly dissapointing) that a lead role cuts out half way through development, cuz its surely going to cut up the release date

It sucks to see a good artist leave Blizzard but I don't blame him for leaving for something better. I still don't see why people are giving the devs crap about the color palette. I think now with the way technology has advanced, maybe they can create the world of Diablo the way they orginally pictured it in their minds. IDK....I'm still buying a copy.

I think it looks amazing. Myself and everyone I've spoken to have spaffed many pairs of pants watching the trailer. I never really liked the darkness, it was sometimes hard to see what was going on. This still feels dark to me, but everything is visible and exciting.

The guys who dump on the art, are wrong.

I agree that the people who are whining about the way D3 looks need to find something else to do and give Blizzard a chance to actually develop the game first. We've so far only seen just two different zones.

"If you don't like it, don't play i" is what I think. You can make one yourself so you can get exactly what you want.
I'm sure all the people against the colors would've been rather angsty if D2 would've been previewed with Arcane Sanctum and the desert of Act 2. It's only a part of it, so just because Blizzzard chose to show the two zones first doesn't mean much at this point.

The level of whining the more vibrant and unique colors have raised are the product of small people who are able to adapt to new, which makes me rather sad seeing as I've considered gamers to be the open minded people. I guess we're seeing a change in that, where we will begin to see the divide between "conservative" players and the "adaptive" players.

Unfortunate that Blizzard lost an important designer, but I'm sure it wasn't all of a sudden or for the wrong reasons.

There's got to be something under the covers here... very unusual for an art director to quit so close to a deadline. There must have been some fundamental disagreement with lead designers/developers that caused him to move on. A part of me worries that he left because they were pressuring him to make it more like those idiot fan manglings of the screenshots.

p.s.: spellcheck your blurb on the main page.

Originally Posted by MrMonroe
very unusual for an art director to quit so close to a deadline.

I dont expect blizzard are anywhere near a deadline for D3, look how long ago Starcraft 2 was announced compared to projected release dates etc.

Originally Posted by billysielu
... Myself and everyone I've spoken to have spaffed many pairs of pants watching the trailer...

I really did lol.

Take it everyone's seen the article on Multiplayerblog, '‘Diablo III’ Designer Turns Tables, Judges Fans’ Screenshots':
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/08/04/diablo-iii-designer-turns-tables/

I don't know what the big deal is about the look of the game, it looks gorgeous. I really hate it when a game comes out and it appears to have been made entirely in shades of brown and gray (Gears of War I'm looking at you).

Why can't people understand that it's not finished yet, they have loads of time to change anything including the colour!

Let them be and they shall deliver the goods.

As I recall, Diablo 2 didn't start off any more vivid, either, nor had the first Diablo:

http://newd2event.net/img/maps/act1/TamoeHighland.jpg
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/5194/tristram2jh.jpg

So what's the fu**ing deal, with these twats mouthing off about the new game? Have we seen the River of Flames or the final boss battle, yet? So all of this furore is over the game's conceptual opening regions, which doesn't look any different from either of its predecessors over the last 11 years.

I think it still looks good too, but theres no denying Diablo 3 has a distinct Warcraft (and to some extent WoW) feel to the graphics. Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo always has different visual styles imo, but I guess people should just learn to live with the fact that all Blizzard's games now will have a cartoony, colour saturated look. Just look at D3 and SC2.

I like the new art direction. I do hope they get rid of those rainbows though.

I also like the new art direction, and so does everyone I showed it to.

So I don't understand all the criticism from some.

Never really bin a big Diablo fan but will give it a look over

I will reserve judgement for the time we've seen what? a few minutes of gameplay very early in the game and development cycle. D2 was muddy and dark but I think that was more in line with the graphics of the time Also remember act 2 took place in a desert that was all sandy colored and not that dark. The art director had some good points about if everything is grey in a 3d engine things become hard to see and it doesn't work on a 3d engine. He also said that the later levels where much darker.

I'mjust hoping the game will be a little more gruesome, I remember fondly all the blood stains, skeletons in torture racks, harems full of dead concubines etc.

Agreed with the people saying it's way too early, as posted before.

MrMonroe, which deadline are you talking about? The work put into games increase as their development cycle gets closer its end, so in those terms understanding the timing doesn't require any conspiracy theories. They wanted to do it once they're well on their way but not in a critical phase of developement is how I would see it. Good luck waiting for D3 if you're of the opinion it's coming out soon, you might want to think of something to do in between though =]

CowBlazed yeah it's true Blizzard is using more vibrant color palettes now than before, but since when have Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo looked anything but cartoony?

The whole Diablo 3 issue is not solely because of the colouring, it's the whole Warcraft-like design and textures of the in-game fixtures and surfaces. Dont get me wrong, the D3 demo was truly amazing when looking at the special moves, general game play and 3D environments. I think Blizzard has truly done an amazing job in this regard. But the smooth surfaces, cartoon like, lit up, "pretty" fixtures and beautiful outside world has nothing to do with what made Diablo one of the best selling games in history. If you knew nothing of the Diablo series and picked up D3 for the first time, you'd probably be amazed. I, as a hardcore Diablo fan am horrified to see each and every element which initially made Diablo, Diablo ... disappear.

I agree with Blizzard that the game as a whole would probably be more enjoyable having diverse environments, but IF I happen to stumble into a dungeon, it must LOOK like a dungeon and not a scene cut and pasted from Warcraft.! In the demo, where the barbarian spoke to Deckard Cain - the interaction IS AN EXACT REPLICA OF WHAT WARCRAFT LOOKS LIKE!

I've read Blizzard say that they were undoubtedly influenced by WoW when creating D3. I think the whole problem lies in that single sentence....

I signed th petition and will be first in line to get a D3 mod.

Diablo III is still in developement, one could say it's in early developement as well, since Blizzard can show a teaser and still work on a game for years. Drawing harsh conclusions from a part of two zones showed as a teaser is hardly reasonable nor well founded by any stretch.

There is a major difference in how things look when you change from 600x480 or 800x600 resolutions to full 1280x1024 or above. The sheer lack of amount of pixels available in the previous games made it impossible to make anything look as lively or vibrant as they can now. That's hardly a reason to not to, but if you want to keep playing on those resolutions I'm sure nobody minds, as long as you're happy with it.

Kiepa you sound like you know better how to design games than Blizzard does. How does a dungeon look like to you? Why is one thing a "proper dungeon" and another one isn't? Is a dungeon not a dungeon just because you are limiting yourself and your perspective to a certain set of attributes? Some others (including the designers) might not see the same attributes as relevant, ever thought of that?

I've also played both of the previous games for countless hours and still occasionally do. I also think they are outdated while legendary pieces of hack and slash gaming history. So don't bother putting me in the "new age gamer" section to wave a hand at what I'm saying.

Games and designers evolve and want to do things differently. Gamers are obviously starting to fall behind.

Originally Posted by Sathy
Snipp..

What a fickle bunch gamers are.... Starting to think the old adage of "you can never please a woman" applies to computer gamers aswell.:)

Sathy:(Diablo III is still in developement, one could say it's in early developement as well, since Blizzard can show a teaser and still work on a game for years. Drawing harsh conclusions from a part of two zones showed as a teaser is hardly reasonable nor well founded by any stretch.)

"Harsh conclusions nor well founded by any stretch"? Son, have you been following the story the last couple of months or do YOU go around posting unfounded replies?

Lead “Diablo III” designer Jay Wilson said that even though 55,000 “Diablo” fans have signed a petition asking Blizzard to return to the darker, more gothic look of the old “Diablo” games, the new, vibrant art style is here to stay.

“There’s no going back now,” he said during an interview in a Manhattan hotel where Blizzard was showcasing their newest games. “We’re very happy with how the art style is. The art team’s happy. The company’s happy. We really like this art style, and we’re not changing it.”

Whether D3 is still in development phase or whether it's a day before the release, the art direction "IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE". I see it as moronic to call a solid statement like that "unfounded by any stretch".

I don't recall either saying that I want to play at poor resolutions. I looked hard through my original post, but I just cant find myself making that statement. And a dungeon is MOST CERTAINLY NOT just a dungeon. You want to tell me that if a 5 year old girl draws a dungeon and serial killer draws a dungeon it's going to look the same? Diablo is about setting a dark, macabre mood. That's what made D1 famous - the fact that it broke away from the trends. Dark, scary, confined dungeons (which actually makes you feel like you are in one) with your character's sight limited to his/her light radius. If the "dungeon" in the demo is anything to go by it would feel like my character is strolling through a nice WoW field. It's lit up, beautiful fixtures and no limited sight. The tension and scariness of the first Diablo seems to be lost with D3, which leaves it up to superbly produced ambience music to set the mood. While a 3D game will always be 'smoother' and more clean cut than its 2D counterparts, probably 100's of thousands of diablo fans including myself feel that Blizzard is spitting in the faces of their loyal fans by seemingly incorporating too many Warcraft elements. Diablo is not Warcraft.

I don't know of many fans who were disappointed when D2 came out. Odd that there's a massive online petition going on now against D3. Maybe it's just me. And while you can never please everyone ... why change the core of a winning recipe to this extent? To win over WoW players perhaps? Hmmmm...

Sorry to see that my post failed to deliver it's point, as you've obviously missed nearly everything I said Kiepa, might have something to do with what it takes to be needing to call others boys to make it easier for yourself to believe you're right. Well gramps, lets try it again, really crystal clear and in slow motion this time.

Having seen parts of two zones and drawing conclusions how the rest of the game will look like from it is clearly the the way to go, as you've so well pointed out. After all Blizzards honchos have said the rest of the game (we haven't yet seen) will be full of rainbows, purple fluffy bunnies and all things anti-gothic. That's what I said, and that's what you missed. Oh, and remember Blizzard stating at WWI08 (I think) that they want the zones to feel different? I know it's not fun to not know how the finished game will look like. Well, except for you and the other 54 999 people.

I'm sure your theory of catering to WoW fans is correct too. After all, it's not gameplay or story people are interested in, nevermind good games in general, but the pretty cartoon graphics that come with it. Yes!

Why should game developers be stuck in "this is how it's always been done"?
Blizzard are known from making games the way they see fit, and have so far done a great job at it. Expecting them to bend to the will of people who are so saturated by how things were that they're unable to see anything beyond that...I can't help but finding it amusing.

Next time try to read whole sentences instead of ignoring the actual message and focusing on the more "annoying words", please.

That's your reply?? I think you should put those thick, not-so-hip glasses of yours on sonny and actually read what I said. From what I've heard so far I can only hope that 'words' are the only things you put into other people's mouths. I rest my case....

Better?
http://www-users.mat.uni.torun.pl/~rembol/eng/diablo2_1.jpg
Worse?
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/06/3male-witch-doctor-using-ho.jpg

D3 Looks good to me, from what I've seen.

^No doubt.