Inside Battle.net—How the Diablo II: Resurrected team Terrorized Sanctuary

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Every other month, we sit down with one studio to explore how the passionate people behind our games work to craft legendary entertainment experiences for millions of players on Battle.net.

Over 3000 kills, more than 200 hours, and only three bosses to grind. For over 22 years, this was the tedious routine of the average level 98 Diablo II player—all to gain a single level.

With the advent of its second season in September of 2022, Diablo II: Resurrected underwent a metamorphosis. For the first time in decades, new major features debuted: Terror Zones, intended to help players level up in more diverse ways, and Sundering Charms, which enabled characters of any class or build to break monster immunities.

The story behind the creation of these two features begins with an earnest desire: to make Resurrected more accessible, fun, and less of an unchanging grind for players. And two members of the Resurrected team—Senior Principal Game Designer Robert Gallerani and Software Engineer Michael Clavell—helped shepherd that wish from inception to realization.

The shelves behind Gallerani brim with cartridges for a slew of different consoles, a personal library that spans generations of gaming history. He turns for a moment, sifting through a portion of his collection, before plucking an item and showing it to us: a copy of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, sealed inside a Game Boy Advance box.

It’s the title at the core of both his and Clavell’s resumes. The first game he ever shipped, Gallerani says, was the GBA port of Pro Skater 2; the first game Clavell shipped, over 20 years later, was a remaster of the PlayStation’s original Pro Skater 2. Now Gallerani, tied to the legacy of a decades-old game that would later receive a remaster, helps