Really just a different voice from the same crew that is the D3 team. What I found interesting was this:
...no-one believes the ramblings of the now-aged Deckard Cain and everything has turned into a somewhat baffling legend.
Scope for our hero then to do some exploring to see if those decrepit senile ramblings of Cain's are true? So Cain was really right after all...
The opportunity for humour as well to balance the dark story line - perhaps Cain drifting off on a tangent, his mind awash with dementia?
Additionally the article made me think about the potion/orb system:
[the] health globe system replaces piles of potions with glowing red orbs, dropped by slain enemies, that heal you and anyone near you when they're touched. This makes the game more mobile and in co-operative situations lets you save your partner from a quick death, rewarding those who keep close to each other.
Yes! The new health system makes it a little harder for us to tag along on the edges of battle in normal mode while our friendly uber helper from hell lays waste to all.
I wouldn't say *much* harder to help at this stage without more details. The effective radius will have to be wide to incorporate ranged party members similar to D2 amazons and necromancers.
wow... looks like the D3 petition got to someone
oops didnt see there was already a thread about this, my bad.
But Kudos to him for having the courage to make his own startup company.
Best of luck to him.
this implies it currently has diablo feeling.
he is a studmuffin
I may think about that in the future but for right now, it's not in my interest to start working for Blizzard in the near future.
I should have mentioned that the post-processing filters don't necessarily have to completely desaturate everything onscreen and replace it with grey and brown. In fact most of the greys and browns you would see in a game like GOW are entirely intentional and are mostly due to the actual texturing and lighting. I referenced it because the post-processing filters for the Unreal 3 engine have a range of capabilities that I think would be useful for this type of project. I suggested it because it could actually reproduce the effect people are looking for while not alienating lower-spec users. Avoiding all the technicalities, I'm just going to link you to this article that demonstrates how various filter presets can actually reproduce some of the curve profiles that people have been applying to various D3 screens: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6180936/index.html (halfway down, post processing ex). They do look awfully similar don't they, and in the technical sense it's actually much better than just turning your monitor brightness down.
And just for the record, I'd like to see more color than D2, and way more than GOW, but I think they've gotten a bit overzealous with their use of color in D3, and it could afford to be dialed back a bit.
It's all about money now-a-days.
No, seriously, considering how Mythos is capable of creating a fully dnyamic shadow and light system in a 3D environment, I hope whomever is in charge is able to pull something off for Diablo 3.
Without any major changes to the art direction, the implamentaion of a darker environment through subtle shadows (and perhaps fog for outdoor areas) will not only retain the colors, but enhance their vibrancy through contrast... as well as maintain a consistent trademark theme of the Diablo series.
Even a rainbow can look hauntingly symbolic when shown through a clearing of fog in a zombie infested clearing.
Environmental lighting and fog effects can make all the difference in how the atmosphere is portrayed.
For me being an art director for a big named company and then starting my own company when many new game companies go under within a few years, and tend to not make much money in the beginning...
This guy is a financial idiot. But than again he probably wanted something new.
I didn't think it said anything about a new game company, thought he was just going off to start some other business?
Anyway, looks like the petition had an effect, after all
I HIGHLY doubt the petition had any effect on this guy deciding to quit his very high paying job to create his own company.
If he did dislike the art direction, I'm sure he did so LONG before the petition.
They've been working on this current art for at least a year. He didn't have a problem with it all this time then when some people on the internet complained about he he said "HEY! They're right! I should quit this job!"
I really doubt it. Most self respecting artists won't be swayed by what people say, especially people he doesn't even know or work for.
The worst thing you can do to a programmer is change the spec on them midstream (I suspect the same is true for artists), Blizzard knows this and that's why they are telling unhappy people like me to suck it up and take it. My hope is the message comes across loud and clear so that subsequent releases get back on track, in the mean time I will suck it up and try to enjoy the light luvin monsters.
You don't know for sure that he quit himself. It's possible that they fired him and made it look like he resigned.