Blizzard has delivered some impressive and pleasing content for Diablo fans with their latest quarterly update, which included a deep dive into where they're at with Diablo IV. There is a lot to digest and look at, so be prepared for a long read if you check out the full post! Game director Luis Barriga announced that they will be returning to a blog format for their Diablo IV news which is great for fans that like to really dig into the content and what's happening behind the scenes.
John Muller, the Art Director for Diablo IV, shared quite a few beautiful images of the characters that players can look forward to playing when the game is released. I've included a few of the notable ones below. He also shared the following:
"When I think back to the beginning, I think at the highest level, our goal was to make the characters in Diablo IV look as artistic and as hand-crafted as possible using the latest tools and techniques. Over time, our ambitions around what we thought we could achieve evolved and really solidified into what you see today. We wanted to use the latest tools and techniques, but we did have a concern about leaning into ‘realism’ in a way that wouldn’t have that hand-crafted feeling we felt was fundamental to a Blizzard game. We didn’t want the characters to feel procedural or generic because of these processes. We also embraced realism in terms of materials and character appearance. I think the touchpoint being the amazing pre-rendered look from the Diablo III cinematics. We loved those and it felt like a strong foundation to build upon in regards to the characters and achieving that warm quality that came through in the cinematics but in a real-time game environment. We thought it was ambitious, but possible. This of course is a simplified summary of the thousands of conversations it took to achieve the results we have today, but what's meaningful is that during the journey nobody was arguing for our limitations. Nobody ever said we shouldn't, we couldn't, or we can't...everyone said yes, even when it meant starting over or throwing out work, everyone really pushed and brought their best to this work. I think this is one of the truly unique aspects of Blizzard...we all said 'Yes, and...' instead of 'No, because...' it's a wonderful aspect of working here."
"That singular focus and commitment to quality led us down a very long, winding, and challenging path to where we are today. The challenges required us to completely rebuild our rendering engine and authoring tools. We needed to assemble a world-class character team comprised of artists, tools engineers, rigging specialists, lighting and surfacing experts. This was a complete overhaul."
As if the new images weren't enough to tickle fans fancies, Blizzard also released a slew of new videos announcing and highlighting new characters, monsters, and more! I've included a few of them below for you to take a look at, including the announcement trailer for Diablo IV's Rogue character.
You can find the full post with additional image, videos and information, by clicking here and visiting the official Blizzard post.
What are your thoughts on all of the content we got to see in the blog post from Blizzard? Are you excited for Diablo IV to release? Have you already pre-ordered it or have the money set aside for it? Let us know how excited you are by shooting us a comment below!