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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]

#61

Post by danso »

lou1306 wrote: post #33
hitekker wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, isometric grids don't work well in gameplay. I beat "Into The Breach" 3 times on hard mode with 3 different classes, and I can safely say that a top-down perspective would have been more intuitive. It feels like every time I look at the map, I need to rotate the image 45 degrees in my head before I could process what unit needs to do what.

> Generally, isometric grids don't work well in gameplay. As with any general rule, there are some great exceptions, such as RTSs (Age of Empires, Starcraft) and city builders (SimCity 3000, Caesar 3).

And X-COM, and Jagged Alliance 2, and Ultima VII

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

#63

Post by e12e »

AndrewOMartin wrote: post #20
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 wind…

This is really significant ; I remember playing a real-time (multilayer) Angband variant for like a minute: the gameplay didn’t translate at all to "realtime".

It's one of my strongest experiences of ux ever. The actual realisation of going from turn based balanced fun to tick based balanced fun is far from obvious!

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

#64

Post by ecesena »

zupa-hu wrote: post #54

For anyone curious, as per the pdf they planned the development to take 12 months. According to wikipedia, they pitched Blizzard in January 1995, released the game on 31st December 1996. So that is ~24 months if they started working immediately. They probably didn't. Plus the pdf doesn't mention sales and marketing (Edit: in the schedule). Seems quite an amazing execution. Please correct any mistakes I made.

I was about to ask, thank you for adding the data from wikipedia. It’s absolutely remarkable.

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

#65

Post by djur »

AndrewOMartin wrote: post #20
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 wind…

Ultima Underworld (1993), Ultima Underworld II (1994), Ultima VII (1994), and The Elder Scrolls: Arena (1994) all come to mind quickly as computer-based action RPGs that preceded Diablo (1996). And the Japanese were making top-down action RPGs as early as the '80s, especially those made by Nihon Falcom (Ys) and Quintet (Soul Blazer). I would particularly cite Brandish (1991, Nihon Falcom) as a similar type of realtime action dungeon crawler (although it wasn't released in the West until 1995).

All that isn't to diminish the substantial achievements of Diablo, which was quite innovative. The fast, smooth gameplay was novel, as was the setting. It was compulsively playable and accessible while a lot of earlier action RPGs were kind of clunky. The art design was superb -- everything from the dreary, gothic environs to the satisfying animation and sound of a pile of gold bursting forth from a slain enemy. It's fair to say that Diablo was a milestone in ARPG history and highly influential.

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

#66

Post by brandmeyer »

The initial pitch barely mentions the part of the game that makes it so ~~much fun~~addicting: You get to beat on pinatas until some loot pops out. Then collect the loot and/or convert it into in-game currency.

Diablo was one of the earliest games to start exercising those little dopamine hits of microjoy when the monsters go pop, hoping for just one more bit of treasure/xp/whatever.

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

#67

Post by gumballhead »

My first experience with programming was making a "dump file" editor for my Diablo character in 8th grade with Visual Basic.

Someone had built a utility to dump the memory for your character to a file, where if you knew or could figure out the addresses, you could edit it and load it back into the game. I spent a lot of time changing a value in game, dumping the memory, and running a little diff tool I built to figure out where everything was. Then I built a little editor that could edit your character and item stats with a ui that looked like the game.

Such huge nostalgia for that game. StarCraft Remastered really brought back memories too. Blizzard is so, so good at game design.

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

#68

Post by thebooktocome »

wil421 wrote: post #60
jsgo wrote: post #48

I miss this game moreso than probably any others in the series, maybe any game at all outside of perhaps Chrono Trigger. There were trainers and what not, but I remember after playing through it trying to create a "godmode" character proper (no trainer) by specifically hunting for tomes to increase spells. That was probably the thing that bummed me most about D2 and subsequently D3 in that leveling spells after you'd…

I just noticed Chrono Trigger is available for iOS. Haven’t bought it yet but I hope the port is a good one. I also enjoyed FF7 on my iPhone. Glad to see Square is rereleasing titles for mobile. I would kill for Nintendo to release a few old titles on iOS.

Warning: the iOS port (and also the PC version on Steam) of Chrono Trigger is widely regarded as terrible. Same with FFVI and FFV.

Luckily the old 3DS port of Chrono Trigger is good. The only way I know to play FFVI now is with an SNES Classic: an overpriced raspberry pi.

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

#69

Post by milesvp »

hitekker wrote: post #26
rntksi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to try Grim Dawn. If Turn-based works too then Darkest Dungeon.

I'd recommend against Darkest Dungeon. Whereas Diablo 1 & 2 carefully cultivated its gothic aura, DD went full-on edge and melodrama.

I respectfully disagree. Darkest Dungeon captured the essence of Lovecraft in ways I've not seen anywhere else. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes brutally hard turn based 1 dimensional combat. The game requires a lot of compromises and you will suffer casualties. It's a rare game where I spend almost as much time preparing for a dungeon run as I take doing the run. The artwork also really spoke to me.

About the one warning I give about the game, is that it doesn't explain in game enough early game. I got frustrated because the early game is really punishing and it's too hard to figure things out since many interactions are probabilistic. I finally found a wiki on the game which allowed me to understand what I was doing wrong (and which dungeon artifacts should be skipped when no protection). After that I fell in love with the gamr.

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

#70

Post by jsgo »

thebooktocome wrote: post #68
wil421 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just noticed Chrono Trigger is available for iOS. Haven’t bought it yet but I hope the port is a good one. I also enjoyed FF7 on my iPhone. Glad to see Square is rereleasing titles for mobile. I would kill for Nintendo to release a few old titles on iOS.

Warning: the iOS port (and also the PC version on Steam) of Chrono Trigger is widely regarded as terrible. Same with FFVI and FFV. Luckily the old 3DS port of Chrono Trigger is good. The only way I know to play FFVI now is with an SNES Classic: an overpriced raspberry pi.

yeah, if you have a DS, go with the Chrono Trigger port. I can't speak to iOS, but I tried some Final Fantasy port and gave up because I hated the controls. The PC version, I have a 3440x1440 screen, it renders as a regular 1440p screen in full screen and the tiles are nauseating. The only resolution that looks okay is 800x600.
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