Q&A with Jay Wilson, Lead Designer

We cornered Wilson and forced him to reveal why the devil made him do it.
 
PC Gamer: How has working on World of Warcraft affected Diablo III’s development?

Jay Wilson: I’d say WoW has a lot of influence. We’ve learned a lot of things: monster design, character creation, team play, online security - it’s kind of endless. I think Diablo fans [will] be concerned that they don’t just want it to be a clone of World of Warcraft - but if you look at WoW, there’s a lot of things in there that they pulled from Diablo II. It’s important to recognize that every game is a next step.

PCG: What do you think Diablo fans will be most excited about in the new game?

JW: Our co-op focus is something that we’re really proud of. I think Diablo and Diablo II were always focused on co-op, but they unintentionally did things that harmed the co-op game. We’ve really learned from that and are getting rid of [those things]. How we do loot drops is a big change for us. It used to be in Diablo II that everyone fought over the loot - the Barbs and the Paladins usually managed to win that fight, and we changed that system completely so that essentially whatever drops, drops individually for each player. So, when a monster dies, if you’ve got three people in the game, it can actually drop three different things, one for each person, and then people just see their own drops, so if you see it on the ground, you can pick it up. Overall, not only is it more friendly to cooperative play, it also doesn’t encourage people to fight - it encourages people to work together. What we found is that it actually encourages a lot of trading.

PCG: Is it a co-op game over a single-player game?

JW: I wouldn’t say “over” a single-player game - that makes it sound like we’ve sacrificed something from our single-player game, and I think it’s just that we don’t really distinguish. For us, a single-player game is a co-op game with one person. I think the only thing you lose by playing single-player is the fun of having other people around, but certainly, every system is designed to be good for single-player and co-op.

PCG: What were the key design challenges and opportunities in terms of actually evolving the Diablo gameplay?

JW: The hardest thing when you’re dealing with a much-loved franchise is balancing satisfying the fan base against making a game that stands on its own. That’s a hard challenge, because you end up looking at things that maybe people don’t look at very objectively. When we were looking at the health system, we weren’t sure - people might like potions and the potion system that was in D2, not necessarily because it’s good, but because it’s familiar.

PCG: So the health potions are gone for good?

JW: We still have potions in the game, but they’re a backup. It really becomes hard to decide what’s sacred and what’s not, so for us on the design side, one of the things that was most important was to be the voice of reason and say, “These are the things that actually matter” and to boil things down to their simplest form. For example, there was a lot of conversation like that when we first talked about, "Should we make an isometric game? Should we make a first-person game? Should we make a third-person game? Should we make an MMO? Well, what do we want to play?" And we want to play a true Diablo and Diablo II sequel - we wanted to keep that gameplay going. So that kind of made a decision for us.

And then on the other side, we kind of liked how approachable the Diablo series was. So now you look and say, “Well, how does that apply to all your features?” Well, controls have to stay simple, so that we had all of these decisions to make: “OK, we don’t like the potion thing, and we really like the hotbars from WoW, so we’ll have a hotbar but it’ll occupy the same space as the potion bar, and because it occupies that limited space, it will remain simple.” It’s a good example of how we went through the decision process; it’s a lot about boiling down to the core principles that allow you to iterate without stagnating.

PCG: Any one big thing you wish you’d had the chance to talk about but didn’t?

JW: I wish people had asked a few more story questions, because we’re bringing back a lot of characters from the previous games. The Barbarian has his own story, and it’s actually meant to be the same Barbarian from D2, the same person. A lot of those characters, we’re trying to pull forward and give them a real place in the Diablo universe - a history and a feeling of depth that I don’t think the previous games have done enough justice to. It’s a great universe with the coolest lore, and we really want to make sure this game serves that.

Q&A with Keith Lee, Lead Producer

Lee responds to fan feedback and when “when it’s done” might actually be.

PCG: The game’s reportedly been in development for three years. What has taken up the bulk of that time?

Keith Lee: First and foremost, we concentrated on the gameplay. One of our goals is to create a deeper role-playing game with stronger action elements. We actually went through three different art-style changes. And we’ve tasked ourselves to expand upon the story and to draw people into the lore behind the gameplay.

PCG: That sounds like “everything.” The game’s reveal elicited some... er, strong reactions. It’s easy to focus on the disapprovals, but is there an upside to seeing fans freak out about your creative decisions?

KL: We absolutely see an upside to any type of feedback. We truly believe the Diablo community is an important part of the game, and we read all of their opinions, both positive and negative. We can never promise we’ll make changes based on community feedback, as there are a multitude of underlying considerations that players are not aware of, but we definitely feel the creative direction we’ve decided upon is the best way to evolve the franchise.

PCG: The cynics have already said they look forward to playing Diablo III when it ships in 2011. Do you feel any pressure to prove them wrong?

Our main goal is to make sure that the game stays true to its core values and satisfies the high expectations of the Diablo community and our own development team. We want Diablo III to be fast-paced, action-packed, full of lore and gore, and as polished as possible.

Aug 1, 2008