Almighty Video Game Designer

Zhao Yunting said, “Manager, I have a question.

Zhao Yunting was responsible for operations and promotions. She was currently working on Onmyoji’s day to day operations, but obviously she would be responsible for promoting the new game when they come out.

Chen Mo nodded, “Yep, go ahead.”

“I’m not worried about the game quality, my main concern is that the game is really heavy and gore and violence, like corpses in prisons, blood pools, and even a necromancer. Could the game get pass the committee review?” asked Zhao Yunting

“I’ve already spoken to the Game Committee. The game will be rated 18+, so the review shouldn’t be a concern. You guys don’t have to tiptoe around the things that might make it difficult to pass the review. There’s no need to cut down on the corpses, blood, limbs, give it your all and make sure it doesn’t affect the atmosphere of the game,” assured Chen Mo.

Su Jinyu exclaimed, “Incredibly, the honorary committee member can do whatever he wants.”

Chen Mo laughed, “Less talking more working. Alright, now that you guys understand the game, we can start working on it. Hongxi, I’ll send you an overview of the story in a bit, so prepare yourself for that.

“The story will have its unique Diablo theme. The players must always feel a sense of hopelessness in this world. Take a look at the Dark Ages, Black Death, death by burning, soul cleansing, gibbeting, iron maiden… These could all be used in the game, especially things that are associated with hell.” said Chen Mo.

Zheng Hongxi wiped sweat off his forehead, “Alright, I’ll try my best…”

—

After going through the design document, everybody started working on various aspects of Diablo, wasting no time.

As the others were doing research and understanding the design concept, Chen Mo wasted no time and used Memory Playback Potions to take notes on aspects of the design of Diablo.

The difficulty of developing this game came from using assets from two different games, the story and basic gameplay from Diablo 3, but the art style, atmosphere, settings, and highlights from Diablo 2. He must recall both games and think about how to combine them together.

First, the story will follow Diablo 3.

From an unknown hitting Tristram Cathedral, so beating Skeleton King Leroic in the first act, to defeating the Lord of Lies in the second act, infiltrating Bastion Keep and the Heart of Sin defeating Azmodan in act three, before reaching High Heavens to defeat Diablo.

The story of Diablo 3 was really high quality and wasn’t any worse than Diablo 2. But because of the artstyle and the representation of it in general, Diablo 3’s story felt lacking. This wasn’t because of the story itself, but due to narrative techniques and overall style.

The changes in the scenes of Diablo 3 was also really well done. Field of Misery, Desert, Snowy Plains, Hell, and Heaven, were all well done, and were even referenced many times by action RPG game developers in china;

Other than the main story, the players can also learn more about the world through notes, letters, or narratives from the NPCs.

Second, classes and combat systems will be based on Diablo 3 with some balancing changes.

The players can pick two primary abilities, four secondary abilities, and three passives. The abilities and controls were of a familiar design and was much better than Diablo 2.

Moreover, the players aren’t required to relearn abilities or visit special locations in order to change abilities, making it new player friendly, increasing the potential player base.

Although Diablo 3’s abilities system were criticised by fans to be one dimensional as there were only so many viable strategies, Diablo 3’s abilities system was actually really rich. It was due to the addition of ranks that players tried their best to discover the best strategy then subsequently being copied by other players that the system became monotonous.

Therefore, the reason it seemed monotonous was entirely due to the ranked system.

Many felt that Diablo 2’s ability system was better, but if a ranked ladder was introduced to this system, the players would do the same min-maxing, which would end up the same as Diablo 3.

As long as there was a tangible target for the players for the players to reach, these hack and slash games become incredibly monotonous as they give up exploring the game for optimal strategy and builds.

Chen Mo wanted to make some changes to the ability and equipment systems to make the game less monotonous.

Third, the equipment system will be based on Diablo 2.

Although Diablo 3 had a random attribute system like Diablo 2, it didn’t work as well because of the introduction of a equipment ceiling. For example, a certain class must get certain equipment to allow a build to work, rendering the other equipment useless.

Chen Mo planned to improve equipment drop rates, increase the randomness of attributes, and increase the number of equipment available to remedy this.

Of course, this could make the game difficult to balance. A strong class with strong abilities and strong equipment, who knows what the players are capable of under so many random elements.

It was a single player game after all, and as Chen Mo didn’t plan to include a market system, the randomness wouldn’t affect the game too much.

Fourth, the difficulty of the game. Chen Mo wanted to slightly increase the difficulty and the players must complete the game under the default difficulty.

This will be a challenge to new players as bosses will require fitness and skill to beat. Combined with the artstyle and field of view, the players would be struggling when they play the game as they could die at a single misstep.

The difficulty will be slightly decreased after multiple deaths, but basically the players couldn’t cruise through the story with no obstacles in their way.