The director of the expected video game signs the new quarterly report, where he ensures that the game is progressing in its development despite the COVID-19.
Blizzard Entertainment has released a new quarterly report dedicated to Diablo IV offering a project status update. The title, which is still in development, has been irreparably affected by the consequences of the pandemic, but according to Luis Barriga, director of the long-awaited work, the fact of working from home has not hindered progress in that process.
Open world: this will be Sanctuary
One of the differential aspects of Diablo IV is that it will be an open world. The title will have a strong plot component, as is usual in the series, but its openness in dimensions will allow the content to be greater. Taking more or less time to complete each region will depend on whether we prefer to focus only on that story or if we get lost in the parallel missions that we could call secondary.
Devil IV
One of Barriga’s most prominent activities is that of the settlements. “Although we have a lot of open world activities like crafts, events, PvP around the world and side missions, perhaps the most popular open world feature was the settlements,” he says. These are places where there will be a multitude of enemies that, once released, will become outposts with friendly characters and a transporter.
Changes in storytelling
The storytelling has evolved on several fronts, they say. One of them, the conversations. Unlike Diablo III, where there were windows that had the characters’ names and portraits, this time, “to tackle the conversations, we are experimenting with a mixture of manually choreographed cameras and others generated with tools. For simple interactions with NPCs, we zoom in on the characters (but maintaining a general isometric appearance) and use an animation library to project the main idea of the conversations. ”
Devil IV
On the other hand, the video sequences. “In this case we take the camera and use it to tell the story in a similar way to a movie, so we are going to reserve this technique for the most important moments”, so that “these video sequences have great advantages, such as they allow us to show your character in the armor he is wearing at the time. ”
Multiplayer: “It was quite a challenge”
The multiplayer section is challenging for the Blizzard team. “Our goal has always been to incorporate elements of games with a shared world without giving the impression that the game is a massive multiplayer territory.” Barriga wants to make it clear that this is a philosophy, much less a technical limitation, because “you lose the essence of Diablo” when you constantly cross paths with other players.
We recall that, despite the cancellation of BlizzCon 2020 in person, the studio is working on a digital alternative for the beginning of 2021. Diablo IV will be released soon on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Track | Blizzard
