'Diablo 3': Console version maintains essence of computer game

TORONTO -- A hit right out of the box, "Diablo" has long been the domain of computer gamers.

The original PC game was released by Blizzard Entertainment in 1996 with an expansion "Diablo: Hellfire" coming out the next year. "Diablo II" followed in 2000 and Diablo III, in May 2012.

Console gamers looking to hack n' slash through Diablo's dungeons have had to bide their time. The adventure is now available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 gamers, however.

There was actually a console version released for the original PlayStation in 1998. But it was made by a different company, which essentially tried to port the original to the console.

"We'd always wanted to go back to console," said Matthew Berger, a senior level designer on Blizzard's "Diablo III" team. "Blizzard had started in console and a lot of the people who work here love console games so we were kind of itching to do that again.

"But we wanted to do it ourselves at this point, which is why the console version of 'Diablo 3' was made in-house."

The game is all about roaming through dungeons and crypts, slaying enemies while upgrading your weapons, gear and skills. The stronger the better, because hell awaits.

Unlike the '98 console version, Blizzard wanted "Diablo III" to be a comfortable fit rather than just trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole.

"We really took it from a much larger point of view," said Berger. "Usually what you do is you crowbar the game onto the other platform for which it wasn't developed initially and you go 'Well we're going make sure that the controls work but that's as far as we're going."'

Instead the console design team revamped the user interface to customize it for the console controls. Unlike the PC version where you click on the screen and your barbarian goes there, you directly move the character in the console game.

"So that meant we had to make lots of changes to where your attention was going to be focused. You're no longer looking on the edges of the screen where your mouse pointer is, you're always staring at the centre of the screen so that has an impact on the user interface, it has an impact on how you can manage large groups of enemies at once. So we had to add a new move, we added an evade move."

Berger says everything was on the table.

"We were willing to make a lot of changes to the game, any changes really as long as it made sense for the console version of the game, while maintaining the core theme of Diablo -- while maintaining the essence which is being one of these superhuman heroes that are fighting the forces of evil, that are trying to save humanity, and that as they are doing so are getting stronger and more powerful, picking up more and more loot, better and better equipment so you can face even greater odds."

Almost everything from the PC game made it into the console version, other than an online auction house (the PC version is closing its auction house as of March 14,2014). That's because Sony and Xbox told them that a significant number of gamers did not connect their consoles to the Internet.

"So we had to make a decision that would put every player on an equal footing, we didn't want two different economies," Berger said.

The console version took about two years, starting with a small "strike team" that worked alongside the larger PC development crew. Construction of the PC game did end with its release either, with developers working on patches to improve the finished product.

"We were fortunate to inherit a lot of those changes," said Berger.

Still the console team had "to filter them through the environment that is console."

"We had to make sure that all of those additions made sense for our version of the game, that it made sense using our controller, that it made sense using our camera which is closer. And all of those changes we wanted to make sure that they were appropriate for us. So we brought them in but we always made small modifications."

Rather than adding to the pressure of the console build, having a successful game already out there was almost a "safety net," according to Berger.

"You have a gorgeous painting that's there and you're just kind of retouching a few of the colours and you're making sure that it shines in a new way. So in some ways that's actually almost like a security blanket, it helps a lot."

For Berger, the success of the Diablo franchise starts with a "great game made with an intense amount of passion and talent.

"And then what you end up being is with a game in a universe that's dark and gothic and sort of oppressive and you're the only shining light and you're not that bright a light, you're kind of a little candle in the middle of dark and as you adventure out, the flame grows stronger and stronger until you really become this kind of beacon that's illuminating the darkness," he said.

"And as you're doing so, you as a player are constantly killing stronger and larger and more numerous enemies. There's always that wonderful magic of finding something dropping on the ground and it's great upgrade for your character and so there's that excitement."

The Blizzard team in Irvine, Calif., is currently working on a PlayStation 4 version of the game. The "Reaper of Souls" expansion pack due in 2014 will also come to console eventually.