With all of the commotion surrounding the recent announcement of Diablo 3, a lot of questions are being asked regarding all aspects of the game. I sat down at a panel at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational to discuss the world lore and environment art of Blizzard's latest creation.
Blizzard has recognized that there is unexplored potential in Diablo 1 and Diablo 2. Overall, the Diablo franchise is much darker than any of Blizzard's other properties. The story itself is about angels and demons compared to other games in the same genre. The Diablo universe is a world. It's a civilization on it's own and therefore, has a history and Diablo 3 is going to tap into that history more than ever before.
We are introduced to Caldeum. Caldeum is a new city not previously explored, however it is the largest trade center in all Sanctuary. Caldeum is mentioned in the lore, yet until now, has simply been just a name. The writers hope to take more from what is already established and build upon it. On the other hand, the game is made more immersive as well by introducing additional areas that we won't see, however play a part in the game. Skovos is one of these societies. They are an ancient society that hasn't had a lot of contact with the world and because of this have a different view. Even their founding is different. Skovos came into existence because of an angel and her human lover.
Expanding upon the historical details allowed for deeper characters because deeper characters need culture. Therefore, in Diablo 3, we will be able to distinguish more between a character and learn from their dress, speech, influences, and hints about their daily life. They are going from using long speeches to explain a culture to using the environment and the power of observation to establish a presence.
The purpose of a story in a game is to give context to a players' actions Some players care about the story, others would rather just skip past it, however the story deepens the universe as a whole. To do this, characters will have more voice and dialog than the predecessors. The environment will also tell part of the story in order to engage those players that would prefer to just skip past it.
