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"No Turning Back" on Diablo III Art

Kris Graft's picture

By Kris Graft

August 1, 2008

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“You need to be able to tell those things apart fast, and you can’t do that when your world is gray and your creatures are gray.”

A petition with over 52,000 signatures isn't enough to change Blizzard Entertainment's more colorful art direction for Diablo III.

“There’s no going back now,” lead designer Jay Wilson told MTV Multiplayer. “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.”

Diablo III has adopted an art style more colorful than the dark palette used for previous Diablo games. Fans of the franchise took offense at what they called World of Warcraft-esque visuals, and launched a petition demanding the art direction for Diablo III change.

Signers of the petition say Diablo III is also too cartoony.

Wilson said that previous Diablo III concepts did use darker, grittier (i.e. grayer, browner) graphics. But those colors were not conducive to good gameplay in a 3D game with an isometric view.

“When you have 30 creatures on screen--and four or five different types--target prioritization is a factor,” he said. “You need to be able to tell those things apart fast, and you can’t do that when your world is gray and your creatures are gray.”

It wasn't until the third iteration that the Diablo team settled for relatively colorful graphics.

“I don’t know that we can convince people who don’t like the art direction that they’re ever going to like it,” Wilson added. “In terms of tone, they will find the game as dark as any of the previous ones and in some ways darker. And I think that’s probably, hopefully, enough to satisfy them."

Belairophon's picture
On October 14th Belairophon said:

It will work... Bastards who don't like the "art" can go play some other shit. It's not rocket science.

carg0's picture
On August 2nd carg0 said:

ya' know one would think that after all they've accomplished by now they would've earned (at the very least) the benefit of the doubt. no other developer in the industry comes even remotely close to the focus, dedication and pure creativity exemplified by Blizzard.

Diablo 3, like Starcraft 2, is going to be epic. end of story. blizzard has never given it's fans ANY reason to doubt them.

now if i could only find a way to make the wait more bearable...

Pedro A. Tavares's picture
On August 2nd Pedro A. Tavares said:

So very true. As soon as I saw the petition going around I knew this would be the end result. Blizzard has no reason to doubt itself or its' vision, and we as Blizzard fans have no reason to doubt them.

SwiftRanger's picture
On August 2nd SwiftRanger said:

Well, it's just a certain complaint blown out of proportion (which I would blame on the press not having anything else actually interesting to report on during this period of the year). Blizzard sometimes does change their games when people notice something they don't like (as with the enemy corpses that disappeared way too soon in the WWI gameplay video, Blizzard have already said they are working on a solution to keep them visible somewhat longer).

Wilson's last comment is the most important one: the tone needs to be right. Everyone can see some minor visual WoW influences here and there but Diablo III still seems to look and play like a pure Diablo game. I don't think you should be expecting fast and intense action (every click actually has real 'weight' so to speak), virginal sacrifices, a war between Hell and Heaven, the omission of Dwarfs, Elves and Orcs in a WarCraft game. This a different kind of medieval 'fantasy' setting for sure.

The DIII announcement checked all the right boxes (by being the same and feeling fresh in the right areas) if you ask me, unlike StarCraft II to be honest.