This is a Diablo III fansite, so I am gonna try to stick to that. Below you have a couple of quotes from the interview. You can read other comments made by Bill Roper concerning the Diablo III art direction through page four and five. His opinion on Diablo III is very valuable. Personally, myself and all the crew (and fans) wish Bill Roper the best in the immediate present and future. I know these are very hard times. I held one of the first, if not the first, Hellgate: London fan site interviews with Bill Roper on August 27, 2005. And, prior to that, was surprised to get emailed by him for other personal matters. I have always been a fan of him and his work. As such, it pains me as much and as close as it would a brother.
GFW: Have you thought about how you would feel if they get some team together and actually somehow cobble it into a game? Are you going to have mixed feelings -- like you're glad that somebody was finally able to put this baby out -- or do you wish that it just got killed with you guys?
BR: I think what I would really want to see is that there was some way where Travis [Baldree] and his guys were able to finish their game. It's pretty different from, for example, how I feel about the Diablo III stuff. I'm excited to see Diablo III, because it's a whole new thing. They've got a whole new direction on it. They have a few of the guys that worked at Blizzard North still around, but there's a whole new team on it, and it's like, OK, it's their license, and they're trying to really move the bar and do something different with the Diablo license. Yeah, I'm excited when I see what they're coming up with.
GFW: What was your own gut reaction to the art direction?
BR: I just thought it was different. I think the thing I always liked about the Blizzard North and Blizzard HQ constructs is the fact that they were two very distinct groups. At Irvine, we had a way that we approached things -- game development, art style, from color to character shapes, everything -- that was very distinct from the guys at Blizzard North. I think that it made it pretty compelling when you bought the Diablo titles. You got something that was markedly different from what you got out of a WarCraft or StarCraft. I think now, because everything's down there, you're seeing the Irvine take on the Diablo universe. So it's just the direction they're going with the people they have and the mindset there. I always liked the fact that Diablo was very dark and Gothic and gritty and edgy, but I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the direction they've gone. They just chose to go a different way.
I think the core Diablo fans are saying, "We really like the dark, edgy, gritty look of that game!" We had people impaled on spikes, for god's sake. And now it's kind of bright and airy and doesn't quite feel the same. But I dunno. I look at it, and it's got high production quality, and it looks like it's going to be really fun to play. I think that wall of zombies is the coolest concept for a spell maybe ever. It's not any different in terms of gameplay mechanics, but it's so cleverly thought-out. I'm gonna raise a wall of undead! Oh my god, why didn't we ever think of that! It's genius! So I look forward to that. Again, it's a take on something, even if it's different. With Mythos, it's a thing where...it's mostly done, and you want the guys who were working on it, pouring their vision into it, their heart and soul into it, to be the ones who complete it. Short of somebody else being involved with the project, I don't really see that happening.
And what graphs? I did not say, and noone said, that effects are more important than gameplay. You are making it seem like only gameplay is important. You must admit that other stuff than that makes a good game.
It actually takes good visuals to have good gameplay, so they go hand in hand. You can't seperate the two and say "you dont need this, but without that, there is no game"
UI and Visuals are just as important as gameplay. and each affect eachother about equally. None of these are what make a great game, however. It's how the producer puts them all together is what makes an epic game.
When was the decision made to form Runic Games?
Immediately after the dissolution of Flagship Studios, we knew we wanted to get back to doing what we'd started with Mythos.
"
interesting. who said they stopped making mythos?
p.s. this is what Sol meant
How many other former Flagship employees are working at Runic?
The entire Flagship Seattle team - 14 all told - has signed onto Runic Games.
so you are, in fact, wrong, EMP.
True i admit it, but there is nothing to complain about becouse, diablo 3 will have good graph cool effects and best gameplay... you doubt that then you have not a clue what blizzard are abel too do. Still saying play the game befor complaining, sure there are things that i dont like either take zombie wall, i hate it. but its to early too say so i'll wait, until the game is out, then i will send my hate mails
Any way too compare grils too a pc games was bad, i agree. We will make it a car instead!
They are going to be making a new game, but they have not announced what it is yet namely because they are still sorting things out with the office lease and setting the company up right now.
Their intention is to basically make a game that's built upon the same principle foundations as Mythos, but with a proper plan this time around. Mythos' preproduction took a single day, because it was never originally planned to be a fully fledged game as it was a testbed for Hellgate's networking. It eventually evolved into something more than that, but unfortunately the company got shut down before they could really go anywhere with it.
So what's going to happen is that Runic will probably begin work on a new game, possibly with middleware engine technology so that they can begin work on the game as soon as possible, with all the lessons they learned from their work on Mythos.
Anyone can establish a company, but if they fuck up and bring other people down with them then they need to be held accountable for it.
What Bill doesn't mention in the interview is why HanbitSoft got bought over by T3. The reason is simple: HanbitSoft invested so much into Hellgate that when Hellgate failed, it took them down with it. He shouldn't act so surprised about the change of leadership at the company.
What he doesn't mention either is the fact that the game was in development for over 4 years, including post-release when content was, and still is sparse and lacking. Most games are only in development for 2-3 years and manage to deliver superior products. Hold him accountable.
Don't judge the musical score of D3 before you've actually heard it. It's unfair to the current composer and his team at Blizzard.
Hey, me too. I really expect to see something good out of Runic.
Car comparisons sounds good.
Okay having Pokemon graphics in Diablo 3 is like a Shelby Cobra because it was based off of a non-masculine Mazda Miata.
Have to agree with Ryan above me; the future of PvP in WoW is horrible in WotLK(Entire vehicle concept should be scrapped) and ill be leaning towards Warhammer's RvR.
Allright sorry then, my bad!
Wrong. They are the same tired, and defeated arguments and misinformed phrases over and over again. No one wants to hear about how Diablo 3 is a "Copy Paste WoW" anymore. It isn't.
Wrong. The models for D3 are way more detailed - not to mention - 3D! Also, WoW is NOT an influence. Blizzard's art teams are the influence and they created WoW so you might see some similarities there, but it is not COPY PASTE WoW. That much is obvious.
Wrong. You and many others of your ilk are having problems making decent arguments so you resort to exaggerations and bring pokemon into the mix. You can't form a single decent point so you have to resort to false analogies and ridiculous comparison scenarios that box the argument into your narrow point of view.
Wrong. That's out of context. D3 is stylized. Pokemon is cartoony. There is a difference.
Wrong. Your english just sucks. It has always sucked. And it has always led to you misunderstanding most of the reasonable things people have typed to you. You can't even comprehend a joke most of the time - let alone a point about art direction.
Anyways, i really don't think bill Roper is the top of the gaming industry. I don't like a lot of his choices and direction. Mythos was terrible to play (at least IMO) And the fact that blizzard north did not want Floating Numbers when they were creating D3 was a dissapointment. I actually like them.
One second while I dig up the Jay Wilson interview.
“There’s a lot of back and forth between the two games, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. We look at ‘World of Warcraft’ and the art style there is more cartoony than we wanted, but in terms of target identification and having a world that feels like you can move through it and spend lots of time in it, there’s a lot of elements to the art style that really work. We wanted an art style that really feels like Blizzard. And we pull new influences from a lot of areas. I think people over-emphasize the ‘World of Warcraft’ comparison. But are we influenced by ‘World of Warcraft’? Of course. As I think anyone who makes games nowadays, they have to be.”
-Jay Wilson
That being said, I don't mind the Art Direction. Blindly following a developer was pretty cute though.
Edit: I think Bill was making a good point about Blizz North having a totally different feel than Irvine, now that everything is back there, it's hard not to be influenced by their biggest franchise.
Anyway I think Bill had the best analysis I ever saw on D3, saying that the studio is actually aiming for easier gameplay and clearer graphics. In my opinion you can't get much more accurate than that in describing the overhaul in the series, health globes seem to be easier to handle than having to stock potions (although I'm sure there will be difficulties imposed to the player as the game progresses). I wonder how he thought the game would be if it was made by the same team as D1 and D2. My only concern with his opinion was that maybe Blizzard is choosing the least hard options to make this game, changing the graphics from gothic to a more consistant choice from their other games, keeping the overall gameplay the same, and as far as we know, placing their bets on cooperative gameplay. I wish I knew for sure how the game will turn out, my expectations are great but I only hope this game is a challange to the new team as much as the last games were to the greatly missed Blizzard North team.
Btw, it was one of the most emotional interviews I've ever read, I really wish the best to all the people who were on this unfortunate battle which was the downfall of Flagship and I look forward to a game which will be on the same level as the team deserved.
P.S. I have nothing against Bill Roper. He sounds pretty honest in the interview. The fact is that Hellgate is a sucky game - he even said it himself that it failed.
P.P.S. The art discussion is really getting old. People seem to not care about the game at all, just how it looks. And even then I don't see reasons for frustration, bitching and exaggeration, because it's pretty much perfect. If you ask me, most places in D2 looked mediocre and bland compared to D1. D3 is bringing more life and character into the mix while keeping awesome atmosphere from the prequels. On top of that, it's trying to step forward and introduce more elaborate game mechanics and quality content. Kind of like a transition that happened from D1 to D2, just on a smaller scale. D3 is closer to D2 than D2 was to D1. After playing D1, and seeing D2 for the first time, I was really disappointed but later got to love it for the gameplay and gameplay only. This time around, I was twitching in awe, seeing what they did with D3, art-wise and gameplay-wise - it surpassed all my expectations and I really believe it's doing justice to the Diablo lore and universe. I also happen to value this opinion of mine a great deal seeing as Blizzard happens to feel the same way - and they are a company that never makes mistakes.
One minute while I put the quotes back into CONTEXT.
WoW did NOT influence the art style of Diablo 3. WoW did influence the way in which they approached making the game as they learned a lot from WoW - as Jay Wilson has said. You took my quote out of context.
But to say that WoW's art style influenced Diablo 3's art style is ridiculous. It's the artists that conjure the art style - not the previous art they've worked on. People are getting the horse before the cart on this one.
Sorry, Kenzai. I still have you on ignore. I just responded to your rant because someone else quoted it.
He gets it!