Thanks to HolyKnight for pointing us to a new tweet by John Yang, in which he announces that he’s changed teams within Blizzard.
I move from the @Diablo team to the @Warcraft team a few months ago. I've been focused on making Legendary Items for the Legion expansion.
— John Yang (@_JohnYang) April 12, 2016
John was formerly one of the most outgoing and outspoken of the Diablo 3 developers, and was the designer behind many of the best changes and improvements we’ve seen to the Legendary Items in recent patches. The community owes him thanks for his game-improving ideas, and best case scenario he’ll eventually return to the Diablo team to contribute legendary item ideas for Diablo 4.
Don Vu has also moved to WoW, and We learned of LeBo’s departure earlier this week, and so who is left working on Diablo and are there job openings to replace them? The Blizzard jobs page paints an interesting picture:
DIABLO
Yep, that’s 5 Diablo team jobs listed and 3 of them are senior artists for an “unannounced project.” Seems like D3 is in archive mode, while D4 is in the early development period, with the basic look and style still under iteration. If you’ve got the art chops, do try and sign up; those rainbows aren’t going to animate themselves!
At times like these I'd wish that there's any qualifications I could offer to justify applying for a job at Blizz. But even if Blizz would offer a complete job training in game developement, they'd probably reduced to being a gamer for 36 of my 39 years and media junky for as long as I remember. (Caring for the future of the Diablo series won't be enough, I guess …)
I think the biggest qualifications in the gaming industry is experience in making/working at game developers… Courses and training on game design and the like are still a relatively new field at universities, so the only real way to get in the industry is to get in the industry. Don't know much about this guy, but I do know My DH likes his recurved bow.
Well … The only real game I released is a textbased solo RPG in the RL MP-Environment I’ve started around Good Friday last year on my blog and is still running. If enough people come together, we’ll have a LARP-session on May 1st, but I guess that happening still won’t be enough credentials for me working at Blizz …
#Team Spider-Man
#Tag der Vorleistung
😉
The blogs last name is ‘tumblr’ ^^
I try not to be a gloom and doomer but losing John is going to be a big blow to diablo 3 especially with how much he played the game and how in tune he was with legandaries and sets. I wonder if D3 at blizzcon this year will be moved from near the Toilets to actually in the toilets.
hahaha good one
Well, they put it in a bar last year. This year maybe more of the same, since alcohol is both the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
And I thought that was Authoritarism. Well, let's just do both! … … oh! … Wait! …;p
Leonard Boyarsky ist responsible for the death of Deckard Cain and the rise of Maghda. Just sayin. ^^
Leonard Boyarsky isn't solely responsible for the death of Deckard Cain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qXOmyqQf8&t=5m29s
Why does this site and its authors keep touting that D4 is in the works with literally ZERO actual evidence to back it up, and ignoring that Blizzard’s development outline states specifically in black and white that there is a second D3 x-pack planned/budgeted? This site has even listed that exact pic/chart itself – and yet you guys totally ignore the evidence presented by your own site in favor of wild speculation.
The chart you were referring to is years old, and also said that Titan was a MMORPG that would have been released by now. So that answers that point.
The evidence is circumstantial – development resource is being moved off Diablo 3, the recent patches have clearly had content in them that would normally be reserved for an expansion, there was no announcement of an expansion last year which would have been required for a release this year or early next, and the Blizzard site shows there is an unannounced Diablo project in the works, for which they are heavily hiring artists for.
All of that is evidence.
"All of that is evidence." — of a Diablo based card game ? or a Diablo based PvP FPS ?
You can try to read jobs description and think about it. Physically Based Rendering http://blog.wolfire.com/2015/10/Physically-based-rendering doesn't suit card game. "Strong knowledge of medieval weapon and armor design" http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=160006W and "dark medieval worlds" http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=160006V doesn't suit FPS.
Evidence of what? Diablo 4? Please show me where Diablo 4 has one single shred of evidence that it’s being worked on.
https://www.diabloii.net/blog/comments/blizzard-hiring-for-diablo-4
I'd love to continue believing we'll see a d3x2, but it's impossible. For an expansion they'd need a bunch of programmers and content guys (who all are leaving the company or working on WoW, not new art directors. New art design means new game/look/project.
It might not be D4, but it's pretty clearly not D3X2… unless you think the main purpose of an expansion pack is the same content with a totally new art style?
A very bleak picture indeed. I hate being in such a state of flux (no pun intended). I wish we didn't need a D4 just support for a great D3 for years to come. Unfortunately we don't have that yet.
John Yang appeared to actually care about the public perception his work received and his superior knowledge of the game when he appeared alongside co-workers in panels was obvious. Hes probably the one person i didnt want to see move away from the franchise.
Prolly just as well i’ve actually been playing PoE for afew months now (the devs have improved the game immensely since i first gave it a go).. So i can cut ties with D3 and not be around to witness the slow death the game now is inevitably heading towards. *sigh*
Give Grim Dawn a try. It's a good mix between PoEs complex character development and D3s accessability.
yeah grim dawn is great !!
it get u a little bit of a D2 feel
but let that crap of an poe away pls , that game is as crappy and stupid as hell ans is nothing in comparison with grim dawn
in fact every game is better then that peace of poe shit
By the way, Diablo celebrates its 20th anniversary this year (release was December 31, 1996), and I'd be VERY surprised if there isn't the big Blizzcon news that Grimiku was talking about (and led to him being fired).
Let's hope so. It's much needed. At this point, news of a Diablo-VR in the making, that's given deep love, for a change, on secondary game systems, like complex player driven character development, full reciprocal exchange based trading and solo-, as well as group- and faction-PvP, would be appreciated most …
Not sure what it could be. But a back to the roots Diablo 4 would be most welcome.
"Senior Lighting Artist II" is the same job as "Lighting Artist – Unannounced Project" before. And now it's closed http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/careers/posting.html?id=160006X This position was posted only month ago https://www.diabloii.net/blog/comments/new-diablo-jobs-hint-at-new-diablo-game
Agree with Flux on this one. Major shift of resources to other teams while they build a new team for D4. I see this as a good thing… itemization in D3 is beyond fixing with incremental tweaks. They need to start over with D4. I also see Boyarsky's departure as evidence of a changing of the guard.
Hopefully D4's itemization is not so linear and one sided like the legendary system D3 tried to shove down our throats.Bring back useful white items, blue items, and things like Jewels, Charms,and Runes. Thats the type of itemization that creates the feeling of an actual world, something d3 fell well short of with its tiresome repetitiveness, and clear lack of gearing options.I would much rather have Brevik back than Yang.
Brevik is kinda available now, given that he left Gazillion. If they do Diablo 4, it will be highly interesting to see what direction they take, and why. If Mike Morhaime has a soul, he can't feel proud to have alienated so much of the old fanbase that helped his company. Therefore I hope they do a serious try to return to the roots, with a new team.