Former Diablo II dev speaks out on Diablo III

by Jason Dobson { Jul 13th 2008 at 10:30PM }

The fervor has begun to die down following Diablo III's Parisian unveiling, giving former Blizzard North employee and Diablo II dev Michael Huang time enough to brave the cooling hellfire and speak out. On his mind are some Diablo III design choices that Huang says are "counter to the decisions the original Diablo team members would have made."

One thing sticking in the self-professed foodie's craw are "floating numbers" that drift above an opponent's head in the upcoming sequel to give an arithmetic angle to the carnage, a feature that was pitched by the game's current devs during the making of Diablo II but "refused" by Blizzard North. Another is the re-use of existing classes, including the Barbarian, a character Huang describes as the "most broken" class in Diablo II due to his unfair ability to leap. It's interesting to see how much negativity has been poured on the upcoming sequel given what little we've seen, though as Huang writes that he's already all but written off PC gaming as a whole anyway, we suggest he simply sit back and wait for the day that he'll be able to play the game with his thumbs.

[Via N4G]

Tags: blizzard, diablo, diablo-2, diablo-3

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Huey2k2 @ Jul 13th 2008 10:41PM

Didn't these guys break off to form Flagship studios?

The now broken up Flagship studios?

Don't get me wrong I have a lot of respect for the guy and everything he has done. Diablo and Diablo 2 are some of my favourite games of all time, but it sounds to me like he's just sour that he's not working on it.

Xoviet chiK @ Jul 13th 2008 10:49PM

Huang didn't go to Flagship, he went to Castaway Entertainment... Which, coincidentally, also folded earlier this year.

Rambler @ Jul 13th 2008 11:59PM

Yea, He needs to just keep his mouth shut. He decided to leave, so it's no longer his project and no one cares for his opinion.

Maybe if Blizzard North would have survived maybe we'd already be playing Diablo 3

eldee @ Jul 14th 2008 12:02AM

Yeah, forgive me if I side with blizzard and their seemingly infallible lineup of games versus some washed up ex-blizzard developer.

NoHitHair @ Jul 14th 2008 1:24AM

I'm not sure which is the more troubling of the above posts: the blind faith or the inability to attempt to view more than one's own perspective. This isn't some hack developer speaking, he's an individual who employed a direct hand in the creation of Diablo II.

Blizzard may have a solid lineup of games they've developed but that hardly makes them infallible. Over the past years, in fact, my confidence in them has plummeted. For example, despite Warcraft III's excellent interface and character and story integration, many of their design choices regarding gameplay mechanics were a result of laziness. The brilliant balancing that bled through Starcraft's playable races definitely did not translate to WCIII.

World of Warcraft is also a good example of a Blizzard refocused on accessibility rather than playability and fun. That game used to be difficult, enduring and rewarding. Now there's no point to working towards anything because eventually they'll simply hand it to you on a silver platter.

Diablo III does worry me. I don't know enough about the game to place my faith either way but Blizzard's recent track record (incidentally around the time Vivendi entered the picture) is very unsettling. I'm terrified that one of the last untainted large developers has already begun to succumb to "please everybody syndrome". Time will tell.

eldee @ Jul 14th 2008 1:46AM

I guess the snotty elitists need to just play the game and stop bitching so much about the 'good old days' maybe? The "please everyone" approach seems to work just fine, seeing as every game they release is a goldmine.

Shawn @ Jul 14th 2008 1:48AM

Nohithair, you know what's troubling? your post points out other posters points of view in defense of this ex-blizzard sour grapes developer, and you know why that's irritating? The FRIGGING hack has "written" of the PC as a platform, that's proof enough that I could give two shits about wtf he thinks. Only a blind fool with his head in the sand would say or think such a thing, epsecially coming from his position, but then again, his choice in leaving Blizzard doesn't seem like it worked out to good for 'em, so I'm questioning this fools ability to make good decisions. I love seeing people froth with jealousy over Blizzard's success, and all the idiots who feel the need to think it's cool to rail against anything Blizzard, screw that ridiculous behavior.

The fact that we've only seen minutes, let me repeat, MINUTES, of gameplay, and to have such a firestorm of BS makes me want to knock the teeth out of some people, you would think people are stabbing babies. The one thing we do know is, Blizzard's track record is almost perfect, that's a fact, and it's a damn good indicator that they can put out a game worthy of our cash, wtf else do we want?

I say, F 'em.

Dirt @ Jul 14th 2008 9:24AM

I think the guy deserves more credit than "The FRIGGING hack" ..

Seriously, the guy wrote Diablo 2, one of the best roguelikes to grace our PCs. I mean, it will be very unlikely that Diablo 3 will top Diablo 2. Sure, it'll be a great game, but for it to actually top the game and be played for 8 years after its been released is going to be next to impossible.

I think the guy has more leverage than anyone that has spoken about the Diablo 3 design choices than anyone else out here. Calling him a "hack" was just poor.

Scott @ Jul 13th 2008 10:49PM

mikehuang.com seems to be kinda dead.

mirilene @ Jul 13th 2008 10:50PM

What, no QQ about how there were shades of actual color in the game too? This guy must be a failed wine maker along with a failed mmo-but-not maker, what with all those sour grapes.

kapow @ Jul 13th 2008 11:02PM

Don't hate, congratulate.

t_m @ Jul 13th 2008 11:03PM

Joystiq has (as usual) managed to twist his words and make it into some form of flamebait attack on diablo3.

If you can get the site to work it turns out to be a mildly interesting but totally non-inflamatory comment about the mildly different approaches of the different Blizzard studios.

MarMar @ Jul 13th 2008 11:10PM

what is this, reason? this is the place where any caution or concern raised by parents/criminal justice professionals/priests/public servants is put on witch trial for violating our first amendment right to kill hookers and jerk off in baby blood while hijacking airplanes!!! i'm sorry, you're a hero but you have to leave. You've changed since you've left the vault!

BananaBoat @ Jul 13th 2008 11:18PM

The writeup does make it sound like the guy is BAWWWing, but then again, I can't get the website to work either so...I can't say whether it is or not.

We shall see, if the site ever goes back up.

BananaBoat @ Jul 14th 2008 2:08AM

Finally got to read his blog entry. Turns out he was absolutely BAWWWWWing about how Blizzard is doing things that he wouldn't have if he were working on the game.

I'm glad this guy isn't working on the game, or atleast, noone with his train of thought. What the Barbarian lacked in ranged attacks, he made up for in the ability to quickly overcome a large distance with leap. It didn't give the Barbarian any sort of advantage over the other classes (Sorcs had a teleport skill if I'm recalling properly). Taking Barbs out wouldn't have made much sense either, since only a few decades have passed since the last fight with Diablo, and the Barbs would still theoretically be around. Then again, if you have Barbs, why not Necros, Zons, Paladins (well..ok...maybe not paladins), and Sorcs? If you are going to include one, it doesn't make much sense not to include them all.

Whatever, I'm just hoping that the visual style gets a little bit more dark before the game is released. I don't want to play Diablo: WOW edition any more than I want to play WOW.

mundox @ Jul 13th 2008 11:09PM

"for the day that he'll be able to play the game with his thumbs."

Yeah, never...

chispito @ Jul 13th 2008 11:13PM

I don't really care about the numbers, although I do agree that it would be nice if they were totally different classes (I mean, as totally different as the sorceress and mage, and rogue and amazon were, at least).

Most importantly, I hope the 3D perspective means I don't have to constantly play with the map overlay. That killed the visuals of D2.

Vidikron (FU) @ Jul 13th 2008 11:34PM

What would you expect them to do differently? In D2 you you could run the map full screen or in a corner. What other option(s) would you like?

chispito @ Jul 13th 2008 11:36PM

I meant that it was really hard to tell where doors were without referencing the map. It wasn't because you would get lost, per se, you just couldn't see anything.

Ghen @ Jul 14th 2008 7:43AM

It was only 640x480 at release... Doors were hard to see because they were only 30ish pixels =)

Bryan @ Jul 13th 2008 11:14PM

Given the ex-Diablo team's masterpiece that was Failgate London, I wouldn't piss and moan about things you don't like about Blizzard's games. They seem to be doing just fine without that group.

mrelusive @ Jul 13th 2008 11:26PM

Um... yeah. Huang didn't work on Failgate.

Thanks for playing.

eldee @ Jul 14th 2008 12:17AM

No, but Castaway (the company he did work for) tanked as well without the benefit of even TRYING to release a abysmal game before they went under. This guy hasn't done jack since Diablo 2, end of story.

s00pcan @ Jul 13th 2008 11:16PM

I played titan quest just fine with a controller. No reason you couldn't do that with a game as simple as diablo.

Geist @ Jul 14th 2008 4:16AM

Try using the sorceress with a controller. Good luck dying.

Churchy @ Jul 13th 2008 11:23PM

haha @ barbarian being broken cause it can jump. The barb is super lackluster later on when you have your sorceresses and necros are killing eveything on the screen from far back with like 2 spells. Then there's the barb who has to jump up then take the time to individually smack everything on screen.

Sounds like this guy is a bit whiny.

Vidikron (FU) @ Jul 13th 2008 11:37PM

Necros? They nerfed those guys early on. They were useless for most of DII's run.

LK @ Jul 13th 2008 11:40PM

Barbarians the "most broken" because of leap? That dude don't even know the game he worked on. Shit, Sorceresses get to teleport everywhere, skipping the all the random dungeons in seconds.

That dude is just grasping for straws and he is just jealous for the attention. Don't give guys like him an article, Joystiq.

farside @ Jul 13th 2008 11:55PM

No doubt the guys at Blizzard North made a great couple game in their days... but I for one think it's great that Blizzard is not looking at Diablo 3 through the perspective of what the defunked Blizzard North would have done or choices they made when creating a game 8 or so years ago. I personally don't want iterations Diablo to become mindless repeats of stagnant recycled designs (even winning ones). The designers at Blizzard are some of the best in the business and I can’t wait to see their take on a Diablo game. In regards to Barbarian’s ability to leap… that seems more like a balancing flaw with Diablo 2 rather than a valid criticism of Diablo 3’s design (as we’ve seen so very little).

juju187 @ Jul 14th 2008 12:22AM

i would like to play any blizzard game with my thumbs,
gimme anything blizz

Shawn @ Jul 14th 2008 1:59AM

why is it that PC gamers generally have no problem owning and playing console games, me included, but there's a constant barrage of bitching and complaining from console gamers about getting a console version for every friggin pc game, blah blah, just play the goddman thing on your PC, there's a very good chance it will run on just about every PC, and this game is built from the ground up for the mouse and keyboard, there's no f'ing way I would ever want to play Diablo with my thumbs, ever, never ever. Gears? MGS4? GT? Forza? that's more like it.

Vidikron (FU) @ Jul 14th 2008 2:15AM

@Shawn

Coming from someone that plays both, I don't believe that is true at all. PC-only gamers are constantly whining about, and displaying an elitist atittude toward, consoles all the time. Go to any PC gaming forum and it's easy to see. Hell, it happens here all the time too. Look at your own comments compared to what he posted. All he did was make it known that he wished Blizzard would produce some console games, yet you accuse him of bitching and whining. What he said doesn't come across like that at all, but your response does.

Geist @ Jul 14th 2008 4:18AM

Vid: That's because you never hear of a game being 'dumbed down' because it's being released on PCs.

juju187 @ Jul 14th 2008 11:58AM

if you want to sit at your computer to play games, drink mtn. dew, view bootleg movies all at the same time cool, but not my thing. I rather sit in front of my 47" in my lazyboy with wireless control drinking a beer while i play. They made games for the console before whats the problem. Also with all the hacking and boting in PC gaming you can keep that shit...

Shawn @ Jul 14th 2008 12:20PM

Vid, I find it just the opposite, in great numbers but so be it. I'm downloading the Too Human demo right now, and I'm happy I've got off from work today, what can I say, just pointing out an observation.

Sean @ Jul 14th 2008 2:16PM

Shawn: because you take a gamble that the stupid DRM prevalent in PC games will break in the future.

I swore off all PC games after Morrowind stopped working on my PC because the DRM didn't like my new dvd burner.

These are not problems you have with console games.

t_m @ Jul 14th 2008 12:30AM

"When I left Blizzard in '03, Blizzard North had done quite a bit of pre-production work on Diablo III, as well as some protoyping on the 3d-game engine. Today at the Blizzard Invitational in Paris, they announced the release of Diablo III. Since much of the work we had done on Diablo III was concept and prototype work, seeing the development they've done over the last 5 years was very interesting; while some of the concepts we were developing definitely looks like it made it through to the version of the game they displayed, some of the design choices they appear to have made seem counter to the decisions the original Diablo team members would have made had they remained on development of the title -- the most apparent change that I can point to is the appearance of "floating numbers" as seen in the gameplay video -- this was a feature that Blizzard Irvine continually "suggested" during development on Diablo II, which Blizzard North refused to implement -- with development now located within Irvine, the decision to add floating numbers to the game isn't one which surprises me.

One of the design choices which again shows Blizzard Irvine's hand in the changes made is the re-appearance of the Barbarian character class -- the original design documents for Diablo III included a set of all new character classes, with no reappearance of old character classes (our reasons for this was simple -- since we were enhancing and improving the skill system, we didn't want to try and adapt old skills into a new system -- we'd rather create all new skills for the new character classes. The return of the Barbarian class feels like a change that was made after development of the title was moved to Irvine 3 years ago.

One of the reasons why the Barbarian return shocks me so much is that I always felt that the Barbarian character class was the most broken of the classes in Diablo II. The Barbarian's ability to Leap, for instance gave him advantage over other classes which had to walk around the barrier -- it is the showcasing of this skill in the video (during which a bridge crumbles away, leaving no way to cross the gap) which makes me wonder if they have an alternate way for other characters to cross the gap or if all the characters have Leap now.

Of course, going 3D means that a lot of the things that were hard to do with sprites (such as actual armor looks being reflected on the character) is much easier using polygons and textures, as well as real 3d lighting. The use of a physics engine (Havoc, according to the game specs) is also a nice touch.

While I have more or less given up on the PC as a gaming platform, I'm glad to see that Blizzard is still committed to releasing titles that aren't first-person shooters; such a shame that we won't be seeing this title on the shelves for another year or two at the earliest."

Shawn @ Jul 14th 2008 1:56AM

well, now he can pick up a mouse again and play the game for what it is, instead of worrying about which platform it's coming out on. Since he's not a PC gamer anymore, why does this story even matter? He's long removed from Blizzard anyway. I think I'll have to agree here, Joystiq made a mountain out of a hole in the ground, you're right.

Charlie_Six @ Jul 14th 2008 3:15AM

Wait.. Diablo 3 will have floating numbers when damage is dealt???? That's pretty lame if true!

Zsavior @ Jul 14th 2008 3:32AM

I fine this post hilarious, it show the reasons why gamers receive no respect from the industry. And I will leave it at that.

Suichimo @ Jul 14th 2008 4:33AM

Sure a Barbarian could get wherever they wanted on screen. So could a Sorc with Teleport... or anyone who happened by a 3os armor and had a few spare Jah+Ith+Ber.

If you want to go and look at a broken character go and check out a Blessed Hammer spamming Paladin with that exact runeword I mentioned above. Nothing like being teleported on and hammered to death.

P.S. A Barb's best way of large scale movement wasn't leap. It was leap attack as it had no range on it.

Savok @ Jul 14th 2008 6:32AM

"Stop it! Stop having fun with Leap Attack!"

Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jul 14th 2008 8:16AM

Oh c'mon!! I just want senselessly bash monsters!!!!!

And Barbarian was, is and will always be broken in the bashing games: it doesn't have any intellect and *surprise* it was never needed to play Diablo to begin with. So it is most fitting class for the game.

deadjesterx @ Jul 14th 2008 8:30AM

Wow, bashing Diablo 3 is getting pretty popular. I'm just getting a kick out of all the negative crap about a game that we've seen a whole 20 minutes of.

To be fair, Huang does't really hate on the game like many ill-informed fans. Yet just because he is a former Diablo dev doesn't mean his opinion is somehow more "correct" than anyone else's. Just because he worked on a blockbuster game in the past doesn't mean he's some super-dev that can turn sh*t into gold. Example: Flagship Studios and Hellgate. (Yes, I realize Huang has nothing to do with Hellgate, but the team was made up of a lot of former Diablo devs.)

And for the record, Vivendi has little say with what Blizzard does. They bought them and then pretty much said "Keep doing what you're doing." From what I understand, the top guy in Blizzard communicates with the top guy from Vivendi and that's it. Vivendi doesn't even do QA for Blizzard.

GoldenS1104 @ Jul 14th 2008 9:18AM

Wait, why exactly does the Barbarian's ability to jump make the class broken? What about teleport? If you ask me that was more useful than jumping.

Joe @ Jul 14th 2008 12:03PM

Weren't barbs immune to damage/untargetable when leaping? That may be what he means. But I don't remember many barbs on bnet using leap a ton, since most people seemed to build them as the (especially yawn-inducing) whirlwind barbs.

I don't really remember barbs being very much of a factor in PVP, although I wasn't a huge participant. That seemed to be mostly overrun with Sorcs and Amazons, although it changed with each patch.

But really, the biggest broken bit in Diablo II's classes was the tendency to encourage builds that just spammed out one ability, like whirl barbs and nova sorcs. It would be nice if the new game made people focus a little more on flexibility.

Jfk Aok @ Jul 14th 2008 3:44PM

If Blizzard treated their employees better, they wouldn't have to constantly "refuel" with talent after every release. In that sense, they've become the microsoft of gaming software...and it will probably catch up to them soon. I'm not sure I agree or disagree with this guy, but I feel his pain. Getting hired by blizzard sounds like a compliment and a blessing...then you get shat on both work-hours wise, and don't get compensated pay-wise. Then that blessing has flipped on you. What do you do? You stay and take the spit in your eye with a smile or do you leave and try to make it right with your own company? Well, you're probably damned if you do and damned if you don't. And while you're struggling to make sense of the industry, blizzard (not their employees...but the company) just rakes in the dough.