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The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

graybeardgames.com

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Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#11

Post by stevenwoo »

pferde wrote: post #8
shawabawa3 wrote: post #6

Interestingly ahead of its time in that they had the idea of "DLC"'s already, in the form of small interchangeable expansion packs. Apparently that never worked out, maybe because without the ease of downloading it wouldn't have sold enough against a single big expansion

I think this idea, at least in the exact form as described in the PDF, was scrapped later due to addition to randomly generated items. Having expansion packs which add more items does not make a lot of sense in that context.

Here are some ways it could make sense (but would have to be careful to not upset game balance): a.) more unique items (D1 has a small set of unique items) b.) new suffix/prefix to add to item modifier lists c.) in addition/response to the new suffix/prefix could add new resistance/attack types only available with expansion pack d.) could make multiplay require same expansion packs on each system to encourage upgrading

Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#12

Post by freeflight »

pferde wrote: post #8
shawabawa3 wrote: post #6

Interestingly ahead of its time in that they had the idea of "DLC"'s already, in the form of small interchangeable expansion packs. Apparently that never worked out, maybe because without the ease of downloading it wouldn't have sold enough against a single big expansion

I think this idea, at least in the exact form as described in the PDF, was scrapped later due to addition to randomly generated items. Having expansion packs which add more items does not make a lot of sense in that context.

They can and did still add new weapon types to randomize (+more attributes for that) and add more unique weapons/item types in general with the Hellfire expansion.

Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#13

Post by nilkn »

I'd really enjoy seeing a modern ARPG that is legitimately unsettling and dark in the way that Diablo was (and D2, to a slightly lesser extent). We've got D3, which has really fun gameplay but feels commercialized and looks like WoW, and we've got PoE, which has a lot of really brilliant ideas and has a darker theme but at no point is ever actually unsettling.

Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#14

Post by digi_owl »

shawabawa3 wrote: post #6

Interestingly ahead of its time in that they had the idea of "DLC"'s already, in the form of small interchangeable expansion packs. Apparently that never worked out, maybe because without the ease of downloading it wouldn't have sold enough against a single big expansion

Not really surprising.

Expansion packs have existed in one form or another for ages, these days they are just that much easier to distribute via Steam and similar services.

Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#15

Post by Reedx »

David Brevik released that just after the Diablo postmortem from GDC a couple years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VscdPA6sUkc

Worth watching for any fans of the original and if you want more context around that pitch. Lots of interesting tidbits about the origins of Diablo and Blizzard North.

And an amusing moment during the Q&A: Someone in the audience went up and gave David some money to make up for pirating the game when he was a kid.

Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#16

Post by valbaca »

nilkn wrote: post #13

I'd really enjoy seeing a modern ARPG that is legitimately unsettling and dark in the way that Diablo was (and D2, to a slightly lesser extent). We've got D3, which has really fun gameplay but feels commercialized and looks like WoW, and we've got PoE, which has a lot of really brilliant ideas and has a darker theme but at no point is ever actually unsettling.

I'd really recommend "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice". Headphones REQUIRED :D

Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#17

Post by digi_owl »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #9

Worth noting to those who haven't read the pitch: the original design for Diablo was turn-based . The hexagonal movement system was causing a huge headache for the programmers, however, and eventually they decided to make it real-time. The now-defunct Gametrailers did an amazing retrospective on the Diablo series at some point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83bFa9qL8XQ EDIT: I also thought some of the side illustra…

I swear i have seen some video from a conference or similar where Brevik talks about being staunchly in the turn-based camp, until he sat down and implemented real-time (the game already ran on a system of ticks so he basically allowed the ticks to run even without any input from the player) over a weekend and had his proverbial mind blown by the experience.

Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#18

Post by sametmax »

Humdeee wrote: post #10

Fond memories of this as a kid. I remember after playing it for a while with friends and coming across BoBaFett's trainer and DooM-Gaze's (sic?) trainer enabling god-mode, fast spellcast, maxed stats, Godly Plate of the Whale armor, King's Sword of Haste, dropping elixirs all over town around Deckard Cain, etc. I was legitimately scared at my age to step into the cracks of hell to go after Diablo when they opened beh…

Moo. I said moo.

Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#19

Post by callinyouin »

Humdeee wrote: post #10

Fond memories of this as a kid. I remember after playing it for a while with friends and coming across BoBaFett's trainer and DooM-Gaze's (sic?) trainer enabling god-mode, fast spellcast, maxed stats, Godly Plate of the Whale armor, King's Sword of Haste, dropping elixirs all over town around Deckard Cain, etc. I was legitimately scared at my age to step into the cracks of hell to go after Diablo when they opened beh…

I had pretty much the exact same experience and it seems we're about the same age. It was my first exposure to online gaming and I remember being so amazed that you could play a game like that over the internet with total strangers!

Cheating was a big downside to playing on battle.net though, in my experience. It got so bad that you would enter a game and another player would either crash the game (by dropping a modified ear IIRC) or everyone would be playing with god-mode on. And creating an open, "legit" game only enticed cheaters to join in order to kill everyone. Oh well. My friends and I had plenty of fun playing over IPX and later LAN, or having password protected games on battle.net with people I met in the chat rooms.

I was surprised to find that only a handful of years ago people were still playing on battle.net. Not a lot, but enough to join a couple games and have some fun. Didn't see any cheating, either.

Re: The original pitch for Diablo (1994) [pdf]

#20

Post by AndrewOMartin »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #9

Worth noting to those who haven't read the pitch: the original design for Diablo was turn-based . The hexagonal movement system was causing a huge headache for the programmers, however, and eventually they decided to make it real-time. The now-defunct Gametrailers did an amazing retrospective on the Diablo series at some point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83bFa9qL8XQ EDIT: I also thought some of the side illustra…

Allow me to quote Diablo developer David Brevik describing when he finally yielded to demands and hacked together a "real time" version of his turn-based Diablo, by making turns elapse the rate of 20 turns a second.

'I remember taking the mouse, and I clicked on the mouse, and the warrior walked over and and smacked the skeleton down, and I was like "Oh my god! That was awesome!".'

'And the sun shone through the window, and God passed by, and the angels sung, and sure enough that was when the ARPG was kind of born at that moment, and I was lucky enough to be there.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VscdPA6sUkc?t=27m

If you're in this part of this comment thread, you'll probably enjoy the whole video.

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