blizzard Diablo 2 Creators on the Rumored Remaster: No Censoring, It's a Tough Job

[Starym 3,801]

 

IGN had a chat with original Diablo 2 developers Max Schaefer (Executive Producer, co-founder of Blizzard North) and Matt Uelmen (Composer), and while talking about their latest project, Torchlight 3, they were asked about the rumored Diablo 2: Resurrected remaster. First, Schaefer talked about the actual remastering itself, and the technical hurdles it might involve:

Quote

First of all, I think it's probably impossible to really capture it... It wasn't even a true 3D game, everything was rendered sprites and so to really capture the exact feel of what happens when you click in a 3D environment is going to be challenging at best.

[The development team on the remaster is] going to have to spend a lot of their time [on capturing that feeling], not just on recreating maybe slightly higher fidelity graphics and all that... that's the easy part. It's easy to go back and kind of 1:1, make the game look better. It's going to be the feel and the atmosphere that are kind of inherent in the technology that was behind it, which was... at this point we can look back and say it's kind of 'spaghetti code.'

It was [built using a] custom engine... it was stuff that hadn't been done before. I would assume that a remaster is going to be done using an established graphics engine with its own conventions and its own quirks, and so much of what made [Diablo II] special was the feel and the intangibles, so it's a daunting task. The ideal remaster would be something that actually retains that feel and that atmosphere, that has a modern take on the graphics. Honestly, I hope they pull it off. I'm glad they're doing it and I don't have to.

Then the two talked about the mature side of the game, and what they were able to show off since it was pixels (and a more lax era for things like that, with Blizzard being a smaller company), with a concern there would be some pretty hard decisions on how to recreate some of the more mature scenes in current engines. Uelemen also said that as long as it has more violence, gore and nakedness, it would stay true to the spirit of the original.

Check out the full IGN article, including the full video here!

[darkgreenwax 413]

is there any possibility of making it a high-scale 2d sprite type deal? basically diablo 2 but smooth out all the pixelation? i'd be fine with that.

[benOwar 20]

3 hours ago, TyZone said:

is there any possibility of making it a high-scale 2d sprite type deal? basically diablo 2 but smooth out all the pixelation? i'd be fine with that.

same. the game is good in its entirety, i would also just aim for a graphic polishment and maybe a few tweaks on the ui/ux but that should be all.

[Arcling 898]

Yes, that's what most would expect. Unlikely that they are going to alter anything significant, but that question about censorship is interesting, if they could keep same age category.