Following that golden rule facilitated other advancements over CRPGs of yore, namely a cleaner interface relative to classic RPGs, and a blazingly fast pace. After Dave, Max, and Erich had met Blizzard Entertainment cofounder Allen Adham at the Summer 1994 Consumer Electronics Show, Adham had taken an interest in Diablo and urged Blizzard’s parent company, Davidson & Associates, to acquire Condor, which it rechristened Blizzard North in 1996.ĭiablo became a best-seller thanks in large part to its click-centric gameplay. The concept for Diablo had come from Dave’s fixation with roguelikes during college. That was part of our goal: To make things easy, so easy your mom could play it.”ĭave had cofounded Blizzard North as Condor, Inc., with Max and Erich Schaefer. “Every once in a while, Dave Brevik would shut his door and evaluate the game, and one of the ways he’d do that is play the game one-handed,” agreed Rick Seis, a programmer on Diablo, “and we’d make changes based on that. “Why is it so hard for developers to understand that the base core gameplay mechanic isn’t the leveling up or the item collection? It’s the clicking,” said Michio Okamura, the lead character artist on Diablo. Although the game went through numerous changes-from turn-based to real time, from single-player to support for up to four adventurers over - its singular focus remained unchanged from the project’s origins in 1995. So simple a new player could sit down and learn how to play in minutes, if not seconds. Throughout the development of the original Diablo, Blizzard North’s team followed one rule. The first book was published in 2013 and is available in paperback and on Kindle. This an excerpt from Stay Awhile and Listen: Book II, now on Kickstarter, which chronicles the making of StarCraft and Diablo 2, and explores the culture of Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard North from 1997 through 2003.
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