In an interview with IncGamers, Bill Roper talks frankly about his time in the industry discussing Hellgate and Diablo, and how he feels about the new art style Diablo 3 has taken.
An excerpt:
"I was very personally and emotionally invested in the company and in the game, so when everything ended up shutting down, that was a difficult time for me. I'm proud that we managed to start a company – actually, not just one, but two: Flagship and Ping0."
IGN : Remember Hellgate: London? The dark fantasy action role-playing game came out in 2007 for PC, a year before developer Flagship Studios went bankrupt. Since then, various free-to-play and online revivals have come and gone. Now, 17 years after the release of Hellgate: London, it’s back.
I remember some friends and I all bought Hellgate: London day one because it was made by some original Diablo devs. We had fun playing it, good memories.
Diablo 4 is going to be more visually appealing on PC, with ray tracing arriving on March 26.
The game is saved we have better lighting in a game that has a top down view hazahh
Who says a dud game can't have a video game comeback?
Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky have to be up there. We're lucky and cursed, equally, to have games that can be updated now. For folks old enough to remember the Sega/SNES into PS1 and even 2 eras, if a game came out that was half baked (*cough*Angel of Darkness*cough*) that was it, no redemption. At the same time, having the option for updates shouldn't be an excuse for half assing games.
I remember when the Nintendo Seal of Approval meant something.
All those games had to release without bugs.
Awesome interview, nice to see Bill talk to openly about his work.
Such a shame about Hellgate. At least for us westerners.
Decent interview. Not much of particular note in there but it's really interesting to see how he felt about the whole Hellgate thing, at least. I'm surprised he was this candid.
That's really nice. I did have quite a bit of love for Hellgate AND Mythos, so it's ins a morbid sense actually nice to know he was devastated after it broke.
I don't mean it in a horrible way, but just that obviously he invested a lot of energy into it, and it's a little bit like losing a child, albeit brainchild.
Point is, he won;t be doing that mistake again! =)
I am sad that Flagship and Hellgate had to end the way it did. And personally would love Bill Roper returning to Blizzard someday.
He's a great guy. I'm thrilled to have met him at the New York Comic Con.