More Blizzard North Diablo 3 Shots Surface

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

We all know Diablo 3 moved in a slightly different direction from its predecessors. We also know Blizzard North had started working on Diablo 3 prior to closing down. Over the years numerous work in progress shots of that version have appeared and now there's some more.

These shots from 2D/3D artist Oscar Cuesta who was a Senior 3D artist at Blizzard North and Blizzard. Oscar now works as an Art Director / Senior Artist at Tequila Works.

According to Oscar, these images are from around 2005 and he adds, "At the time, models were pretty low polygon and we were only using base color maps". Despite this, I think you'll agree these are pretty fantastic and in-line with the art style we perhaps would have expected to see in the third game. They are pretty rough but you can see the darker mood Blizzard North was going for.

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More screens at the link.
 
IIRC, the original idea was the Diablo wasn't even in the main game. His brothers were the main bosses, and then Diablo was the boss of the expansion.

The first level was Heaven, and the enemies there had a really cool thing where they could adapt to attacks and it looks like the Borg absorbing phaser blasts on TNG.
 
These look a lot more similar to the final game than the old shots. Many elements of Winterstone and the Barbarian are identical. The heaven layout and boundaries have something of the final version too.
This was 2-3 years before the reveal of D3.
 
Looks surprisingly good considering the era.
 

We all know Diablo 3 moved in a slightly different direction from its predecessors. We also know Blizzard North had started working on Diablo 3 prior to closing down. Over the years numerous work in progress shots of that version have appeared and now there's some more.

These shots from 2D/3D artist Oscar Cuesta who was a Senior 3D artist at Blizzard North and Blizzard. Oscar now works as an Art Director / Senior Artist at Tequila Works.

According to Oscar, these images are from around 2005 and he adds, "At the time, models were pretty low polygon and we were only using base color maps". Despite this, I think you'll agree these are pretty fantastic and in-line with the art style we perhaps would have expected to see in the third game. They are pretty rough but you can see the darker mood Blizzard North was going for.

full


More screens at the link.

Interesting info
 
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