Diablo’s Immortal Path to Hell, for Blizzard, had started on the wrong foot. Its presentation at BlizzCon 2018 was met with boos from fans hoping for a new Diablo title for their PC, along with the stigma of mobile gaming. It’s been just over 3 years since this presentation and after many auditions and fan feedback for the company, it has resulted in the release of a title that meets Blizzard’s internal goals, but also attracts fans.
A few days before its launch, we had the opportunity to speak directly with the people behind the development. In this case, we spoke with White Cheng, director of the game, and Biwen Yao, executive producer, who told us about their experience developing the game, as well as how they listened to fans, helping to deliver a game that, according to its developers, was to the taste of players.
lessons learned
“I think our vision of Diablo Immortal has not changed,” Peiwen Yao replied immediately after asking what lessons had been learned since its introduction. “We want to bring something new to our players, not only to our old fans, but also to our new fans. For Wyat Cheng, hearing fan feedback about each experience was what helped Diablo Immortal. For us, it’s about building a game, which is very ambitious,” he said. Because there are a lot of systems in the title that players can stick to.” “I think this episode benefited a lot from the testing we were able to do. We’ve had three rounds of public testing over the past year and a half, and we’ve made a number of changes to improve it. »
A dark world for everyone
Diablo is a multiplayer game, with very deep screens, stats, and lore. Transferring this experience from a PC game to a mobile phone is not an easy task, considering all the changes that need to be implemented, but retaining its essence. Diablo Immortal is temporarily located between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3, and fans will find “a lot of familiar characters”, but there’s more than just a header in an experience meant to be balanced and accessible to any type of player.
“From the beginning, we had this iconic dark gothic world, and just by looking at the visuals, and the scenery, you are instantly drawn to it,” Cheng said. We welcome you and guide you. We put a lot of effort into the first user experience, which is what we like to call, the first 30 minutes of the game. This first user experience went through many revisions during the different trial periods. In terms of controls, Diablo Immortal can be played however you like, And while Cheng emphasized that it is a “mobile game,” a lot of work has been done to bring the experience to different devices.” On mobile, you have a touch screen. Basically, if you think about this, on the left you’ll find something like the controller, and then on the right you have the ability buttons. We’ve added console support and it fits very well,” Cheng said. “On PC, we’ve taken the time to implement tap-to-move so that players familiar from previous Diablo games can continue to do so. “We envision it as a mobile game, to make it more accessible to more people. But if you really want to sit in a comfortable place with a bigger screen and you want to bring your mobile progress to your PC and you want to connect your console, that’s it.”
the roots of evil
Finally, another point discussed is the one that has sparked controversy among its fans regardless of the game: monetization and microtransactions. Although it’s a title as old as Diablo, some aspects of the current game come into the equation, like microtransactions and even the Battle Pass, which according to polls “was also very popular.”
“One of our goals is to provide different ways to play,” Yao said. “You have to keep in mind that this is an MMAORPG, you have to play for real and you have to train your skills. Some people like things, and they buy things like skins, which is also cool.” Pretty ambitious plans for post-launch content, and I think gamers understand that too, right? Cheng said. “We don’t sell bonus XP, we don’t sell gear, we don’t want to cheat those parts of the game, and we want to make sure that the best way to advance your character is to always play the game. During the beta we tested monetization and I would say the most popular purchase is the offer The special you get right after completing the dungeon of the Forgotten Tower. As you progress through the story of the main quest and go through the dungeons, there are completely optional offers.”
Diablo Immortal arrived on iOS, Android, and PC on June 2.
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