Another D2 Designer Comments on D3

Diablo 3 is being designed by an entirely new design team; no one now working on D3 played a key role in creating D2, or were part of the team who first began work on D3, back in 2002 at Blizzard North. What do the D2 guys think of the direction in which Blizzard is steering their creation? Michael Huang was the Technical Director on Diablo 2 and worked on the earliest version of Diablo 3. He thinks D3 looks great and not cartoony, appreciates the design opportunities a full 3D engine allows, and likes that the game world is expanding. He has some disagreements as well though, such as with the decision to bring back the Barbarian character.

"Michael Huang: I remember when we were developing Diablo II, and many people asked us why we didn’t bring the Warrior (from Diablo I) back, and our response was that we had designed the Barbarian class. We could have brought the Warrior back and added all the same skills as the Barbarian and named him Warrior, but we didn’t. By creating the Barbarian class, we opened up a lot more possibilities and expanded the Diablo universe; with this new class, we could create a new backstory to the character, give him a tribe, a homeland, and motivations for fighting the Prime Evils."