snowstormThe latest quarterly update takes us deep into hellish environments and dungeons Diablo 4showing the various biomes we’ll explore in the game (whenever activated).
In an informative new blog post, Blizzard has shared a series of videos exploring the world of Diablo IV – a world that clearly lives up to the grim and oppressive atmosphere of its predecessors.
As you can probably tell from our video above (which merges all of Blizzard’s game clips into one easy-to-view montage), the development team is using the “Old Masters” you might know from the art world as inspiration for its visual aesthetic .
But, for example, what does Rembrandt have to do with Diablo? Well, according to art director Chris Ryder, the studio has been focusing on the artisan painter’s controlled use of detail, tonal range, and professional palettes to enhance the world of Diablo 4…we think the show (at least if the studio The shared video is for reference).
Ryder also noted that the company wants to focus on “returning to the dark.” The backbone of this design philosophy embodies Sanctuary’s idea that “a dangerous and dark medieval gothic world”, Blizzard intends to “play the iconic Diablo gameplay footage, choosing where to add or remove details to enhance the game space. readability or highlight visual interest as needed”.
The result, Blizzard hopes, is a game that feels dark and depressing, but also beautiful and readable. Ryder said the goal of Diablo 4 was “for believability, not realism” — which would make sense for a game that plays on its highly fantasy elements like Diablo 4. As such, you can expect “weather and lights to play a more visually prominent role” than you’ve seen in past Diablo games.
In the video, we visit the coast of Scorsglen, Orbei Abbey, Kyovoshad settlement, several dungeons of the temple, and we also see some “forgotten places in the world”. Using these visual stimuli as a springboard, Associate Art Director Brian Fletcher noted that Diablo IV will offer “more diverse dungeons than ever before.” That should be good for replayability, then.
“In order to support over 150+ dungeons, we had to change the way we made the environment art so that it was flexible enough to be used in multiple locations, not just in one dungeon,” Fletcher said – and the team’s approach It sounds interesting to be working on making sure the new environment can support it.
“New dungeon features, such as seamless floor transitions or traversals, are exciting, but my favorite new feature is what we call tile set transition scenarios: these scenarios allow us to combine two different Tilesets connected together. Imagine running through a dungeon only to find a hole in the wall that seamlessly takes you into a vast network of underground caverns. While maintaining the randomness that changes with each dungeon run layout.
Diablo 4 was announced alongside Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon in November 2019. At the time of writing, neither game has a release date.
A flood of stories about Activision Blizzard overshadowed the game’s development after reports surfaced that the company had fostered a toxic culture. The allegations came to light as a result of a lawsuit brought by the state of California over workplace bullying, harassment and sex discrimination.
To address the company’s future problems, Actvision plans to address workplace abuse and improve its recruiting practices.
Since the games were announced, Microsoft has agreed to buy Activision Blizzard for a jaw-dropping $68.7 billion.
