Official Blizzard Quote:
We’re focusing on customization through items as they can be seen better from how far away the camera is from the character.

OK, so no character customization except for items. I guess I can live with that, just promise me this will speed up development, so you’re ready for 2011 release!

First, I’m really looking forward to playing it. More importantly, however, I’d like to see Blizzard’s marketing machine be done with Starcraft 2 and the upcoming WoW expansion (Dec release?).

Are we going to see a July 2011 release for Diablo 3? I’m keeping my fingers crossed it’s even sooner than that!

In addition to the Diablo 3 jokes, Blizzard also introduced a matchmaking service for Battle.net.

The default search on the site is for a Psionic alien, looking for a hot date, between levels of 30 and 60!

The final news item in the April’s jokes series concerns Blizzard’s foray into mobile gaming. They have introduced two games for iPhone/iPad:

Blackthorne 2: Thorne Harder – Guide Kyle Blackthorne on an epic quest to save Earth from almost certain destruction in this long-awaited sequel.
Queen’s Quest – Using a revolutionary new “natural language interface,” Queen’s Quest will challenge you like no game has ever before.

Jay Wilson: Throughout the history of patches on Diablo II, there were a lot of updates to runewords and they really powerful from when they were introduced. At one time or another though all of the different item types were the most powerful, like unique items were the best, or rare items at some point.

Our general approach for Diablo III is to make sure that every type of item has a place to be useful. For example, maybe we’ll have a legendary item, which is the new name for our unique items, be the best helm, whereas rares will have the most powerful chest armor, and so on. Having a spread like that will allow for a more varied itemization system we hope.

I think we’ll still be stuck collecting exotic components but time will tell if Diablo 3 will be like Diablo 2 item-wise.

It does look very much like the same skill in Starcraft II – the one that the Protoss mothership had. Anyway, it’s a fine animation, hopefully the finished game isn’t too heavy… I don’t want to upgrade my hardware so I can stop time.

So what’s cooking in Blizzard’s lair when it comes to the death mechanic in Diablo 3? Listen to this:

Before I get in to what we are doing let me go over some things we want to avoid with a death mechanic. We want to separate being in town and being out on a quest/adventure/dungeon as much as possible. Leaving the safety of a town should not be a decision you take lightly. We don’t want to remove the sense of suspense and danger by making town something you’re always going back to pretty much whenever you like.

The intent is to create a greater separation from being in town, and not, and to make your time away from town a lot more tense.

On that same note we also don’t want to remove the player from the action. Throwing them back to town for every death really breaks up the action, and not in a fun, interesting, or necessary way.

So, with these things in mind we’ve found that a check point system works really well. Throughout your adventures, and generally at the ends of each “floor” of a dungeon your character is saved to a checkpoint. When you die you’re dropped back at the last checkpoint with a small amount of health, and the rest regenerates slowly. It’s obviously a very forgiving system as it is. It’s just too early to put a ton of thought in to what penalties there should be, if any, added on top of it.

Regardless, potential penalties aside, this is the death mechanic we’re currently using and it’s working really well so far.

OK, so they’ve borrowed the last point saved mechanic from any recent game that I’ve played. Not too original but I’m not complaining too much either.

Update: Wildgames have Torchlight for just $6.99 – download it now!

Turns out the team has some Blizzard North veterans like Peter Hu; Erich and Max Schaefer, and some artists. The best piece of news? You don’t have to wait till 2011 to play it. It’ll be on Steam in 5 days!

Get into the Diablo 3 beta!

You get an email the second Blizzard announce the Diablo 3 beta.

For those of us impatient enough (isn’t that everyone?), a Diablo III custom map has been released.

You need Warcraft III in order to play it and the map is still in beta. However, I’m really amazed at the graphics – the world editor is indeed powerful enough to change the game completely. It does look like Diablo III.

Download Diablo 3 beta map

P.S. Maybe it was my bad luck with skill selection as a Wizard but even the first wave of zombies proved insurmountable for me!