Blizzard has rejected a petition by fans over Diablo 3‘s colorful art style.
The petition got over 50,000 signatures, all from fans who say they don’t like the colorful style of Diablo 3. And in an MTV Multiplayer interview, Blizzard had rejected the petition, saying they like and welcome the art-style, and that it wasn’t an easy choice (they “struggled with” the art-style change “the most”) but there’s no going back now.
To quote Lead Designer Jay Wilson,
“We’re very happy with how the art style is. The art team’s happy. The company’s happy. We really like this art style, and we’re not changing it.” He went on to talk about how Diablo 3 at one time was very different from it’s current form. And that that version’s art-style was very close to Diablo 2’s, featuring darker, desaturated colors and lots of grey and brown tones. But he said it simply didn’t work in 3D. “When you have 30 creatures on screen — and four or five different types — target prioritization is a factor,” he said. “You need to be able to tell those things apart fast, and you can’t do that when your world is gray and your creatures are gray.”
Take a look at Diablo III’s colorful style in this video showing the evolution of the combat system.
He also discussed how other Blizzard games, such as World of Warcraft, have influenced Diablo 3. Which is another part of the new Diablo that fans have been critical of. “I think it’s impossible for us to not be influenced by our other creations. There’s a lot of back and forth between the two games, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. We look at ‘World of Warcraft’ and the art style there is more cartoony than we wanted, but in terms of target identification and having a world that feels like you can move through it and spend lots of time in it, there’s a lot of elements to the art style that really work.”
“We wanted an art style that really feels like Blizzard. And we pull new influences from a lot of areas. I think people over-emphasize the ‘World of Warcraft’ comparison. But are we influenced by ‘World of Warcraft’? Of course. As I think anyone who makes games nowadays, they have to be.”