DiabloFans

DiabloFans: First Nate, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I really enjoyed the book and I am excited to dive into some questions.

Nate Kenyon: Glad to be here. Thanks for having me on. And I'm really happy that you liked the book.

DiabloFans: "The Order" focuses on an event with Deckard Cain and leads up to Diablo III. Can you tell us a little more on what the book is about?

Nate: It takes place a few years after D2 and leads up to D3. Its a while after the battle at the mountain [Arreat]. Most of the people that were in that believe that the danger is over and they returned to their families. Deckard has not. He has continued to wander Sanctuary. He's become obsessed with a growing number of signs that indicate that there is going to be a new invasion coming form the burning Hells that's going to dwarf everything else that has come before it. He is determined to follow those signs and anything that might help him stop this demon uprising. As well, to find out if there are any Horadrim left or if he is the last remaining Horadrim.

He is a haunted man, we can get into that a little more later. His history and past, things he has kept buried forever, are going to come back to the surface in this book. Rear their ugly heads so to speak. So he travels Sanctuary and eventually ends up with Leah and rescues here. They go on the road together to try to find the Horadrim, if there are any left and stop the uprising of a man known as the Dark One, the evil villain in this novel. That's the plot in the nutshell.

DiabloFans: What efforts were made to help bridge gap with old players and bring in the new players?

Nate: This was a really conscious attempt to reboot the franchise. Coming into this, that was one of Blizzard's main goals.They wanted to refresh the novel, give it a different style, a different voice. Use this book to educate new fans and to give hardcore Diablo fans a new perspective on the lore. That was a real big focus and a concern of mine because I was a little worried it would bog down the plot. I really wanted to make sure the plot is exciting and we wanted to make sure that followed through and is the main thrust of the narrative. So I did this by using a lot of memories, flashbacks, dream sequences in different pieces that inform the major events of D1 and D2 as they relate to the novel.

DiabloFans: How much did you work with Blizzard in creating the novel?

Nate: Blizzard is very involved, as you would probably guess. They're an incredible team. They're creative, driven. They are demanding in a good way. They come to me with a story idea, it's relatively brief. In this case, it was definitely a significant story they developed that they wanted to riff off of along with the other stated goals like rebooting, re-educating the fans, that sort of stuff.

I took a look at that and thought it was interesting so we had some conference calls where we begin to brainstorm, hash out some details. I give some of my thoughts on it. Some things that concern me, interest me, excite me. Those are really some exciting times. It's collaborative, fun. These guys are great. I love working with them.

After that, with both the novels I have written for them, I finished the conference calls, take some time, digest some of it and work on a very detailed outline after several months of research; really digging into all of the Diablo lore. Once that outline is done, I pass that along to them and they fly me out there. We have a day or two long brainstorming session at the Blizzard headquarters. That's just amazing. An all day affair of energy, creative juices flowing, people throwing ideas back and forth. What they like and what they don't like. Through that, we hash out a revision of the outline and I give them a new version that satisfies everybody. Then I am off and running and writing the book.

During the course of the writing, it's pretty solitary for me. But I will bounce things off of Blizzard, their lore team, the people in the creative team to make sure things are working. After that, we go through some re-writes and get to the point where we are all really happy with it.

DiabloFans: Going off of that, are there any examples that you can think where you came up with an idea and they didn't like or one that they had not originally planned but liked your idea and wanted to add it in?

Nate: Yeah. There are lots of those. The story that they give to me, there is definitely a compelling kernel there but there is not a ton of detail or back story developed usually. That's the stuff that I work on and we work on together. We can talk about Cain's story a bit more but I don't want to spoil too much. But I think that one of my biggest interest in writing this was to develop Deckard Cain. Develop his back story, history, what drives him, what he is haunted by. To me, that is one of the most important things, of any novel, that you care about the characters. That they are important to you, that you identify with them, that you understand who they are and why they do what they do.

As important as Deckard Cain is to the Diablo IP, his story has never been told. He is a bit of a mystery in a lot of ways. I wanted to change that. I wanted to make him human, make him real. I wanted to give him drama and things he had to deal with. That was something that I suggested. And some significant plot points around his life I suggested doing which kind of change the whole thrust of the novel, which they loved. And there are many examples like that.

Adding the Monk is a character that was not originally in the idea. I don't think it was even in the final outline. It was something that came up early in my writing, where I felt like that I really needed something. I wanted to bring in something from Diablo 3. There was a lot of stuff in the book form D1 and D2; characters that you all recognize, certainly parts of Sanctuary, Deckard Cain's history, D1 and D2 history. I wanted to bring in a character from D3, a new character. Kind of define a class and it was helpful for the story. Things like that that worked out.

There are lots of ideas that don't work out but it's usually because Blizzard wants to do something different. They have reasons for it. They might say 'hey that's a really cool idea but it won't work because we want to do X, Y, Z in an upcoming game, or book, or whatever.' So its just doesn't work. That happens all of the time.

DiabloFans: Well, that actually answers my next question. I was going to ask you about the depth added to Decakard Cain and how much of that was your idea. I thought you did a great job of adding depth to Deckard Cain. I felt like I could connect with him as a character a lot more than I could from previously playing the games.

Nate: That's great news. That's great to hear. I think that is one of the most important things I could have done. I think he's fascinating. I love his character, the drama in it. It's funny because he has been such an iconic character, people know him and he's been, obviously, so important. But he's always been the 'wise old man' on the side; a secondary character. This book is his book. We almost called it "Deckard Cain" as a title. It's really his story. It gives him the chance to take center stage for the first time and that was really interesting for me.

DiabloFans: There is a lot of lore for the Diablo franchise. There are the games and other books. What kind of research did you do to write this book?

Nate: I did everything I could. One of the things that is just essential for me, I respect the fans so much. There are so many of them and they love the IP so much. They have been waiting a long time for this game and associated content. So, one thing I wanted to do was not let the fans down. That was really important for me. I wanted to get it right.

I spent a long time. This book was probably at least a year of my life. Months, early on, were spent just reading everything; all of the books, the Blizzard internal docs, the information they gave me about D3, the wikis, talking to fans. What ever I could to get familiar with it. I had played the games myself when i was younger. I had some familiarity but nothing at the level I wanted to get to. So, that was a really long and fun process for me. I didn't want to start writing until I felt it was kind of my own universe in a way. You get so familiar with it that you feel comfortable writing in it.

DiabloFans: I will say as a Diablo fan, I thought you did a great job. Reading it, I felt like I was reading an actual Diablo book as oppose to some other fantasy book.

Nate: That's great. That's good to hear. That's what I wanted.

DiabloFan: Along with that, Diablo is known for having a dark tone to it. Your previous works have these same tone. With your experience, was there any time where you wrote something and thought maybe it was too dark or did you let yourself run wild?

Nate: One of the reasons Blizzard and I thought I was a good fit for this book was because Blizzard really wanted to take it in a new direction. They wanted it darker, grittier, more horrific than previous things that had been done. They see the franchise as a horror franchise, there are many elements to it. They really wanted to play that up. I remember many times talking to them and they were like 'let loose. As dark as you want.' So, I didn't hold back.

I wrote it in some ways like I would write some of my original novels. I didn't try to change my style a lot and I think they wanted that too. They wanted a little more contemporary, grittier fresh tone to it. It all worked really well. The process worked really well. The story was definitely right down the right alley for me. And some of the things that I contributed to the story were some of the darker elements. Particularly, a creepy new monster, for example, in this book that has never been seen before. There is stuff like that that is definitely part of my background.

DiabloFans: Deckard Cain and Leah are two of the main characters in the book. Along with them, you added a Monk. How or why did you chose this class over the other new classes?

Nate: We talked about that a little earlier. Basically, it was a fairly late edition. I felt that I was beginning to write the book that we needed someone else as a main heroic character that could travel with them. I wanted to bring a new character class in. This book is really an attempt to bridge the three games. To bring everything into one place. To give fans background and information that will inform D3. So, it seemed like a perfect fit for me.

I wanted someone to contrast Deckard Cain. Let's face it, Cain as a epic hero is a pretty unusual choice. That has its own complications in writing it. To have a young, muscle-bound, physically gifted Monk along side him and a little girl on the road was really interesting. That was one reason, of mainy, that I decided to include the Monk. Thankfully, Blizzard said 'go for it.'

DiabloFans: For the antagonists of the story, there are some well-known antagonists that people will know but there are also some new ones to the franchise such as the Dark One. Was this something you came up with or something that Blizzard wanted added in?

Nate: The Dark One was part of the original story arc. So, it was a matter of fleshing him out. Coming up with his back story, why he is who he is. I think it is just as important for villains to be complex, well-rounded, to have histories, to have reasons for why they are who they are. I want readers to read my villains and be 'Oh, o.k. I get why they got to this point. Maybe it would not have been me but I understand it.' That was important to develop that part.

I won't spoil it by telling about the demonic influence in this book. That is certainly there. That was a central thrust to the story from the beginning for various reasons. But it was fun to develop that and the odd relationship between the two of them.

One of the things I really loved setting this up was the parallel. The Dark One, to me, is almost Deckard Cain's alter ego, a parallel universe in a way. I wanted to do that intentionally. Cain is not perfect by any means. He has dark parts to his past that readers will see when they read the book. I wanted the Dark One to be someone Cain could almost see himself as 'that could have been me', or at least an echo of him. The Dark One is also an inspiring scholar. He wants to be a great person, a leader but doesn't have the character for it for various reasons and chooses a different path. Hopefully that works. There's a parallel there, a setting of the book to make that work throughout.

DiabloFans: Is there any part of your story, characters or lore wise, that made it into the game? A specific example I thought of while reading the book is that through some events, Leah obtains a bow and in the early part of Diablo 3, we see her using a bow.

Nate: That's a great question, very perceptive of you to pick up on the bow thing. It actually went the other direction on that one. In the course of me writing this, I was trying to flesh out Leah's character and come up with details of her life. I think it was somebody on the creative team who said 'hey, you know what would be cool? Show the origins of her interest and skill with a bow and arrow.' I took that thought and built what ultimately resulted in the book, in the scene where she begins to acquire that skill.

The game was pretty largely developed when I came on board to write this thing. But Blizzard, as a company, they all work close together, share ideas, and cross-reference things. They are kind of working back and forth and I had a meeting or two with their game development people too to talk about some of this stuff. I don't know if there was anything that worked itself in the game from the book or anything I directly did. Most of the stuff worked in the other direction, came from the game to influence my novel.

What I did do was to develop some of the back story to things you'll see in the game and experience in the game. Things that were not explained in the game but gave me the opportunity to explain them in the novel. Those are things that I am really excited and thrilled to have contributed. Something that they may have not just fleshed out to that extent, that I was able to flesh out.

DiabloFans: As you mentioned, you created a specific demon, I won't spoil anything for the readers. I thought they were very interesting and would make great fodder for Diablo 3. I was hoping to bash some of them in the game.

Nate: (Hahaha) I don't know... I probably shouldn't talk about anything about the game. I do think that would be really cool. I thought they were cool creepy creatures. I would love to bash some myself.

DiabloFans: There are some well-known spells and items in the book from the games. Is it hard writing something like that in a literary way for a game franchise?

Nate: It can be. Blizzard is really conscious about that in a good way. They have told me, both when I wrote StarCraft and Diablo, they intentionally don't want writers to recreate a game experience in a novel. I agree with them. That is a really tricky thing to do. But at the same time, you want readers and die hard Diablo fans to recognize the universe and see these things in action.

There are some things that appear in this book that you are familiar with and readers will be familiar with that are really iconic items and pieces of lore. I hopefully handled in a good way within the narrative. They are not stuck in there. They are there for a reason. They are only in their if they made sense for the plot and the book itself. That was the way I tried to handle it. I didn't want to do anything literally too game-y but, at the same time, I wanted to work them into the plot that would make readers interested and satisfied by it.

DiabloFans: Again, not to spoil anything for the readers, but there is a particular item in the book that I enjoyed reading a literary explanation of how it worked.

Nate: I think I know what you are talking about. That was really fun. That came up at the very end of our brainstorming session when I flew out there to meet everybody. We were at a coffee shop, sitting there late in the evening and we were like 'You know what would be really cool? If we could work this in.' I was like 'I am going to find a way to do it.' Actually writing it out, working it out, I didn't even need to try to work it in. It was actually perfect, 'we have to do that right here.'

DiabloFans: Last question. Do you have any plans on working with Blizzard again with any future projects?

Nate: I love my experience with Blizzard. I really enjoyed both books I have done so far. I know that both Blizzard and I have talked about working together again. I know that they would love to do it and I would love to do it. It just a matter of trying to work things out at this point. But I am pretty sure we will find a good project to do together.

DiabloFans: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.

Nate: Thanks for having me and I was glad to talk to you.

Blizzard was kind enough to give us an advanced copy of "The Order". Being a huge fan of everything Diablo, especially the lore, I could not wait to read every page. Add to that the May 15 release date, so you know that there are a couple of spoilers hidden within its pages, putting the book down was an impossibility.

Summary
The book begins with a energetic 11 year old boy, Deckard Cain. Despite his mother's warnings, Deckard refuses to believe his fate. That is, of course, until his fate catches up with him. Now years after the destruction of the Worldstone, Deckard does not believe that the worst is over. While almost everyone has moved on to a normal life, Deckard remains ever cautious of an impending doom. Traveling Sanctuary looking for any and every clue of what's to happen, Deckard's journey leads him on a path to save the world; a burden he puts solely upon himself.

Along his travels, Deckard meets up with an old friend but he is discomforted by the state he finds her in. Without want, Deckard becomes the guardian of a young female. Leah, 8 years old, is thrust upon the journey that Deckard has started. While "bad things" have always surrounded Leah's life, she is completely unprepared for the events she is about to encounter.

While making their way, Deckard and Leah happen upon a spirited Monk, a Monk whose destined to protect the scholar on his journey. While preparing himself for this battle, the Monk has gone against his orders to leave the monastery in order to fulfill he prophecy. Armed with his mind and his body, the Monk has found himself paired up with Deckard and Leah on an attempt to stop the evil flowing into their world.

On Deckard's quest to find other members of the Horadrim order, they find out about a man that proves to be anything but what they had expected. The Dark One has begun to spread his evil amongst the citizens of Sanctuary. While his ultimate goal is still unknown, Deckard and his partners travel to the depths of darkness to stop the Dark One from completing his goal.

Review
"The Order" is posed to not only fill in some of the gap missing between Diablo II and Diablo III, but it is also used to help new fans catch up with the events that have lead up to Diablo III. This is perhaps one of my favorite parts of the book. While other Diablo books have related to the lore of Diablo, none feel more like the game of Diablo then "The Order". With each reference to the first two games, I am reinvigorated by the story. Reading the memories of Cain while locked in a cage, hung above the burning town of Tristram brought me back twelve years ago when I first encountered this same event. Every memory, vision, and thought of Deckard Cain is riddled with the past as we hear even more of the actions that lead to the events that we have already played through.

Another great thing that author Nate Kenyon has done is turn a great video game into a great novel. Many efforts were made to help the reader relate to the player in all of us. Tons of iconic moves, events, and items appear within the novel. From the Monk's agile spirited moves to Leah's bow in Diablo III, players will feel right at home reading this tale. I will say, that out of all of the Diablo books, this is the first one to feel like the game as oppose to just a story existing within the IP. Don't get me wrong. The novel is just that, a novel. You won't be reading any game mechanics or anything of the sort. Instead, expect a great telling of these skills and items. There is one item in particular that especially excited me when reading the book but I'll let you discover that on your own.

Staying true Diablo, once more, the book is as dark as the Diablo we all remember. At some points, I remember getting the chills that you get from a scary movie, or the first time the Butcher ran after you. The Dark One is a true villain who does things that would make your skin crawl. Nate Kenyon has also added a demon, among the slue that you are already familiar with, that will make you want to bash their skulls in with an epic Barbarian bash. Hanging bodies, sacrifices, and shadows of all forms litter the pages to give the book the same dark feel that we all know and love from Diablo.

The best thing to come from the novel is the character Deckard Cain. While we all know our identifying friend, you won't truly know this elderly scholar until you read the book. Nate Kenyon has done a great job of adding true depth to the character we have grown familiar with. The only real information we ever had on Deckard's past was that he was the last of the Horadrim. Not much else was known of the iconic figure. That is all about to change. In "The Order" we find out about the true events that have cause Deckard to become the man he is, for better or worse. You will find yourself caring more for Deckard Cain than you ever have before.

Without spoiling anything, as much as I would love to, "The Order" is a must read for every Diablo fan. If you are an older fan, like myself, you will love hearing the re-telling of the games we have already beaten a hundred times. Our beloved Deckard Cain becomes a real character as we find out about his past. If you are new to the franchise, the novel is a great way to get caught up on the events you might have missed out on. While the book is not a must to understand Diablo III, it will add more depth to the older stories as well as fill in some of the gaps from Diablo III. Do yourself a favor and read this book. After all, everyone will have to take a break eventually from Diablo III and what better way to fill it than with more Diablo.

Release Schedules

• At most companies he has found that the schedules that they make are called "Right to Left" meaning they start at when they want to ship, and basically say "we can only do this amount of game to hit that date." However at Blizzard they start out with "What is the game we want to make" and then they figure out how long its going to take.
• They have deadlines but they never announce them until they are 100% sure they are going to hit the date because they are always going to be trying new things. If they are not happy with the results, they will just keep trying new things.
• They always want to have that option to say "Wait, no, its not perfect yet".

PvP

• They wanted PvP to be there at launch, but they feel at the initial release people are going to be very focused on PvE and they didn't want to put out a PvP experience that was not perfect.
• They had so much work on the PvE side, they felt is was better to just wait, and do it right! They would have liked it to be there at launch, however.

Pleasing Fans

• The first goal is to get the game to a level they can love. Next they need to open it up to the rest of the company. The team works on something for so many years, they need that fresh look on the game. However, even they are professionals. So then the next step is to open it up to the community and get feedback from there.
• Every week he gets feedback given to him from many regions rounded up from the forums.
• They want to see what the fans are saying that they agree with. If they agree they make that change.

Inspiration

• All games give them inspiration, everyone at blizzard are gamers, but not just gamers but "students of design" who study what works and does not work.
• They also gain inspiration from movies and art. Basically anything that inspires them gets added.
• They have a philosophy that every voice matters, and that extends to the world for them. They want to absorb it all.

Production

• He has been working in the industry for over 20 years, and Diablo III was by far the most challenging game.
• When you look at the finished game it looks kind of simple compared to other games (production wise), but because of what the game engine is doing with all the random possibilities they can't even test all the possibilities because there are infinite possibilities. This makes it extremely challenging.

Beta

• They love having betas as it really helps them test in ways they just can't. You can easily have bugs that only show up when only 100,000 people are playing.
• It also lets them get that last minute feedback from the community that they really love.
• The open beta helped them find a good 12 to 15 issues that they didn't know about until all those players joined the servers. Though this may have been frustrating for the players, it was fantastic for Blizzard. They were able to find these issues and have them already fixed for when the game is released.

Cinematics

• As much work goes into the cinematics as what goes into the game itself.
• They must stay in constant contact with the cinematics team becasue if something does not match up, its not something they can just go back and change.
• They need to make sure the story and the environments match up.
• They have only just recently finished up all the cinematics in the game!!

Localization

• Digital copy will be available on may 15th. Physical copy will be in stores June 7th for Argentina.
• They put a LOT of effort into the translation. It will feel like that game is made for just them.

Most popular character

• Classes designed so that each character has a different play style.
• All classes are equally strong but in different ways.
• Classes will probably be decided on by play style preference.
• Alex's favorite classes are the Barbarian and the Wizard.

Inspiration

• Team is taken out to watch new movies for inspiration.
• Inspiration is taken from all over.

Auction House

• Wanted to provide a safe environment since it was going to happen outside of the game anyway.

Randomization

• Almost everything in the game is random.
• Dungeons may have 25 rooms but those are pooled from 75-100 rooms.
• Monster locations and groupings are random with elites randomly added.

20 years later

• They wanted to move the story forward to get people past the Diablo II events.
• Makes the demonic invasion fresh for the characters in the game and new to our characters.
• Makes Deckard Cain's prophecy harder for the characters to believe.

Developing Diablo

• All staff were huge fans of the franchise.
• Wanted to retain the core of Diablo but expand with newer technology
• Some things they tried but took back out because it derailed too far from the original games.
• Ended with a lot of new changes to get use to but hopefully feels the same as the other Diablo games.
• Wanted to create a game that new and old players would enjoy.

Consoles

• Still not announcing any console title but they do have a console team to help create a game that was made for consoles and not just a port.

Alex's job

• Alex works with every department and his day-to-day is extremely different but over all, he loves the creativity and perfectionism his job requires to create high quality games.
• The team does not always agree and those creative tensions create better ideas.
• The skill system was something that they worked on extensively and one of his greatest efforts.

Localization

• Blizzard is expanding globally so they spent extra time with their localization and top tier translators to help create a game that felt like it was made for them instead of just translated.