You’ll be aware on the ongoing growls of Diablo fans that claim the corpse-exploding action of the Diablo III screens are too WoW-esque and kidified. MTV’s Multiplayer blog has done something neat, and got DIII’s Designer, Jay Wilson, to comment on the community’s altered screens . For example: “More rain? It’s funny because if watch later on in the [debut gameplay] video, we have more rain. It is much stronger than that. I’m sure they got rid of the rainbow. Yeah, rainbow — gone. I think our artist just put [the rainbow] in there because they knew that’d be controversial. And I’m sure they were like, “Well we’ll see how far we can push it.” Beneath the fun, it’s an interesting look in the reasoning behind decisions. I’d love to see more of this kind of directors-commentary stuff. Until then, go read.
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Found this posted in the Kotaku thread and it made me laugh:
Posted by ShaggE at 12:26AM
“Doom 3 is too dark!”
“Next gen is brown lololol!”
“More liek “Gears of Brown”, amirite?”
—A wild Diablo 3 appears!—
“OMG WHY FOR IT HAS A COLORS??? IT ARE SHOULD BE GRAYZ! BLIZZERD IS A SUCK!”
That’s why you can’t listen to what people want… because we change our minds every damn day.
Also, this VG cats:
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=224
The bit about “And now for Realism! …brown?” makes me smile a sad smile.
REPLY
@Ian
When I say cartoony, I actually am referring to the models/textures, not the colors. While I don’t think the colors evoke gothic horror like the original (which had the best atmosphere of the series, if not the best gameplay), they’re more traditional fantasy than cartoon. The creature models aren’t such a problem either, it’s the surroundings — look at the exaggerated angles and flat shading on some of the stairs and stonework, for example.
I have no doubts that they’ll nail the gameplay, but the atmosphere just doesn’t do it for me. They’ve only shown a little bit of the game, and maybe the rest is much more atmospheric. However, if that’s the case, they only themselves to blame for screwing up the hype.
@ Diogo Ribeiro:
“I think this phenomenon should be studied – game communities whose visions of development attempt to squash developer’s freedom of expression.”
Check out the third bullet point from the bottom of
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/06/15/the-sunday-papers-22/
Or, direct link here: http://fallout3.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/thesispdf.pdf
The hardcore Blizzard fan is an elusive, mysterious beast. Living only in shadow, the bright and vibrant colors that emit from their monitors reveal their unkempt neckbeards and portly frames, scaring off potential mates. So it is understandable why they would worry about Diablo III’s color palette.
@Funky Badger — smudgy skulls and DOOM WARZ OV DOOM == “mature and edgy,” of course! At least, as long as everything one knows about art one learned from squinting at ESRB ratings stickers.
It’s interesting how people who have no real interest in the actual matter at hand always side with the devs. No one seems to care which style looks better, it’s just JEE GOLLY JEEPERS! A CHANCE TO DEFEND DEVELOPERS!
I bet these twits weed themselves over lensflares a few years ago. Rainbows on the other hand Oho no, Geyyyyyyyy.
I find Stalker a good counterpoint to this kind of thing; for all its apparent gloom and hardcoreness its very colourful and naturalistic. I’m sure some old Diablo fans caught themselves admiring the sunset making the stone glow pink and then had rush off and shower, then cue up some Danzig, porn and Ultimate Fighting Channel all at once.
(although there is one of those fan screenies that gets a pleasing Frazzetta-ness from the adjustment)
i really don’t see how people can judge a game and say that the it’s to “cartoony” when all they have seen is one dungeon and a small area outside. I mean, the the story we know of so far says things have been peaceful for around 20 years. That’s plenty of time for hell’s grip on the world to fade some and for things to go back to normal…i always thought the games were so dark because of the hordes of demons, not because the world of diablo was always dark and grainy. I’m sure as things start to turn evil again, the world effected by it will darken up some.
Personally, i like the brighter art style and feel it fits just fine in a Diablo game… but really, i’m sure all these “fans” making screen shots are the same people that cause the price of black dye for armor in MMOs to skyrocket so i just ignore them as much as i can.
I think the whole “wrong tone” argument is just a bit short-sighted. Most games show a progression from easy to hard, from light to dark, from familiar to unfamiliar as you progress onto later levels. Why would Diablo III be any different, especially considering what we’ve seen to date is clearly from very early in the game? I agree wholeheartedly with Jay Wilson’s comments that there’s more at stake with art direction than simply what you imagine will look good – that’s the philosophy that has made Blizzard’s game so successful over the years. But there’re clearly enough hints to be gleaned by reading between the lines to indicate that the tone of the game changes as you progress through it. After all the effort that people put into analysing the splash screen trailer that led up to this announcement, you’d have thought more lateral thinking would be evident now. In terms of individual stylistic choices, that’s the Blizzard look – has been ever since Warcraft 2.
@Caiman
“In terms of individual stylistic choices, that’s the Blizzard look – has been ever since Warcraft 2.”
Do you mean Warcraft 3? Warcraft 2 was released before the original Diablo. At any rate, WC3’s art direction was fine for mainstream fantasy with a strong tongue-in-cheek element. However, if that’s the tone they shoot for with Diablo 3 then it’s going to drop it a few notches for me (despite still being an almost guaranteed sale). The art should serve the design, not vice versa. If they aren’t even shooting for a tone of (not tongue-in-cheek) horror, it’ll be a damn disappointment.
I do hope the game gets darker over time, and I agree that you can’t judge the entire game by one outdoor level and one dungeon, but I don’t expect the style to change, and I don’t know if they can wring anything truly spooky out of that art style. I haven’t seen anything in their screenshots and movies that’s really says “satanic horror”. It could easily be Dungeon Siege 3 for all I could tell.
Seems to be a certain degree of contempt for the voicing of opinions by members of the Diablo fanbase? Keep in mind that the enthusiasm of that same fanbase is what made Diablo the success it is, so to then mock them for their dedication to the game and their trepidation over what they see as disappointing developments in the game design is to wish to remove the ladder supporting you for not being suitably comfortable.
As for whether they’re right or not, I leave it to the more artistically talented to decide. Frankly, Blizzard has stated it’s views, they’re not going to change it. Seems like that’s that, and you either buy it or you don’t.
Also, there seems to be a certain dislike between those who prefer more realistic but dull artistic styles and more stylized and colourful variants. May I take this opportunity (Entirely self-aware of the slight hypocrisy in doing so) to say, get over yourself you bloody idiots. The very nature of art is that it is subjective, so then to proclaim your own as more suitable is an excercise in futility previously saved only for movie tie-in game reviews.
I don’t see why all the focus on color. The real problem is the lack of any shadows worth the name in the Blizzard screenshots. Everything looks flat and overexposed to me, which is what makes the fan modifications seem to pop so much more (until you realize that they are too desaturated…) They should turn up the contrast or something. Fortunately some of that can be fixed with monitor settings.
In fact, perhaps it all can. I wonder how much of the complaints are caused by different monitor settings. On my laptop, blacks aren’t black at all, so the shadows hardly even register. I would be very surprised if the Diablo 3 art team is using crappy LCDs like mine. On CRT monitors or modern LCDs the blacks are much better, and that would make a lot of difference…
@Chaos Theory:
Thanks for the heads up :)
Penny Arcade have interviewed the guy who made the “realistic” screenshots:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/8/6/
The landscape is ‘constantly changing’ a little, but it’s not “an environment that looks completely different than one you’ve ever seen before. And when they change environments, the contrast is huge.”
I’ve been playing it for hours and hours and I’m still walking through bits that look and feel the same as the start of the game to me, and looking at the check points on the map I will be for hours and hours to come. The small (samey aswell) dungeons along the way break it up a little but it’s begun to feel very stagnant/sterile IMO.
Fans are subhuman scum and should never be paid any attention at all. Give them what they need, never what they want.
Why did they remove the rainbow?! WHY?
The game looks grand. What was the point of “fans” editing day time screenshots into night time though? Surely the game still uses the day/night cycles found in D2 so those environments will look darker than what we’ve seen of them? Indoor stuff, okay, edit all you want, as long as Blizzard ignore you and stick to their good art like they do :)
@WB: Quite.
Not feeling the D2 = horror/terror etc vibe either. FEAR; now that’s horror. D2, point and click collect-a-thon (and no bad thing for it etc. etc.)
Why are “people” so down on greys and browns anyway? Either art style and design are good or they’re not. If every game looked as good as Gears I’d be happy (and anyway, at the other end of the colour spectrum is Halo)
@Funky Badger
I don’t know what world you live in or what eye condition you may have, but when i go outside there are more than two colors to look at. A world made up of browns and grays doesn’t look very realistic at all. It’s not really that people have problems with those colors in cases where it has become the artistic style of the game(like some movies), it’s the fact that brown and gray has became the standard color pallet for “realistic” looking games that people have problems with.
Colour palette is one of he least important aspects of game design, and certainly has no intrinsic merit in and of itself. Unless you’re some kind of chromatofascist…
Did they remove the pot of chipped gems at the end of the rainbow too?! Nooo!
Valve disagrees; check their TF2 documents for details.
its satisfying to know that my views about the colour scheme are shared with the guys making it. also his reasoning for the why the chosen look was the best was very interesting.
also i think the fact that some fans think they know better than the people that make the game is a little insulting to them, im not saying giving feedback is a bad thing but jeez give them some credit.
@ Darth Benedict
People are siding with the developers because they’re right, not because they’re developers.
Developers who know what they’re doing; what a crazy world we live in!
Anyhoo, all I would add to Diablo III graphics-wise is more detailed textures and maybe more anisotropic filtering. Otherwise, I think it’s perfect and the decision of the developers to choose function over “form” was a smart (and, dare I say, ballsy) one. I would bet my right hand that it pays off in the end.
Besides, there are things other than darkness that can contribute to a scary atmosphere. Did any of you see the mangled remains of corpses following our heroes everywhere they went? The ominous, claustrophobia inducing corridors teeming with unlife? Hell, did any of you HEAR the gameplay trailer? I wouldn’t doubt if those sound effects came straight out of a butcher shop slash watermellon smashing parlour. My lady-friend had to excuse herself from the room because the sound of exploding corpses (coupled with the SIGHT of exploding corpses) wrenched her gut so.
Anyone who thinks Diablo III should go the way of the broody teenager has an exceptionally narrow-minded view about what constitutes creepy-ness.
Expanding on what R. said, to quote Henry Ford:
@Pwnzerfaust
your right hand eh? i may have to hold you too that. hehehe
@Pwnzerfaust:
Perhaps, but they always side with the devs, so it’s hard to tell.
If the contrast and brightness of the game annoys someone so much, why not do the easy option and lower contrast, gamma, brightness on their monitor for darker game experience? It’s that easy.
A grey-and-brown saturated color palette means monotony and dingy ugliness more often than not. Look at Quake II, for example. But of course anything can be done well with the right touch. Gears of War is certainly fairly monochrome, but the soaring architecture and so on tend to make up for it. Besides, a war zone *should* look a bit battered.
I’m getting sick of people blaming everybody who’s criticising DIII art direction for wanting “next-gen brown”. Its about smooth textures and pastel colors which take any horror and “realism” which could make it Diablo like.
That was enlightening =) It demonstrates how a trained eye in game development works really different from a consumer eye, lot’s of things go into the background so the player can have a cool experience, without knowing how, it’s like magic, lol.
First time I looked at this modified shots I was like “Yeah! That’s what D3 should look like!” but after reading the interview I realized, for instance, that D2 (which I’m playing at the moment) really have this bright, colorful planes, and the actual contrast of passing from that scenario to a depressing, gore-filled tomb, helps to emphasize the impression.
Conclusion, leave the work to the pros =D