Diablo IV March 2022 Quarterly Update - The Art, World, and Dungeons of Sanctuary

Today Blizzard has released their 1st Quarter Update for Diablo IV. The focus this time is on the visual experience of the game, and how the artists use the classic Diablo camera and the environments design to enable the «dark, low-fantasy gothic horror» experience that Diablo Fans love. A few highlights of the presentation stand out to us.

Open world: Unlike previous titles, it appears the Diablo IV world will allow players to travel organically from region to region in this «dangerous and dark medieval world.» Inhabited, interactable landscapes: In the salt flats or the misty coast, for example, objects move in the breeze, can be destroyed or opened, and help to tell the story. Return to Darkness: The environment, interactives, and lighting work are all coordinated to support the overall themes with detail, tonal range, and palette reminiscent of the Old Masters.

Without further preamble, let's hear from the Blizzard Team.

Summary Today we have artists here to talk about their craft and everything that goes into building the world of Sanctuary. Hello and welcome to the first Diablo IV Quarterly Update of 2022. We hope you enjoyed last quarter's update on systems, itemization, and visual effects. That blog and our previous updates are available if you missed out. I'm struck by how much the game has evolved since our first blogs. It's difficult for these updates to showcase all the work our engineers, designers, artists, QA team, and producers have done--how do you show a bug that doesn't happen anymore, or explain how the planning in a burn-down chart resulted in a feature making it into the game instead of getting cut? While you can't see those things, you can see how systems like itemization and skill trees have Read more on wowhead.com