Blizzard's Martens: 'Endless Iteration' The Secret To All Blizzard Games

Author: by Staff

Blizzard lead content designer Kevin Martens has told Gamasutra that the key to Blizzard games like Diablo III is simple enough: "endless iteration". Talking in an in-depth new Gamasutra interview, conducted as the Diablo III team begin public showcases of the long-awaited PC title, over 9 years after Diablo II's debut. When asked whether "the development time has been extended to a surprising degree", Martens made it clear that he thought this was an advantage, not a disadvantage: "Here's the secret to Blizzard games, and this is a secret that won't help any of our competitors: endless iteration. We'll take something, we'll put it in the game. Maybe we'll like it when we put it in, maybe we won't. We'll leave it in there for a while, we'll let it percolate. We'll play it and play it and play it, and then we'll come back. We might throw it all out, or we'll throw half of that out and redo it." Martens believes in this constant iteration as a way to actually keep things fresh when making a game: "It can be a long time, but it is fun to work on as well. That's the thing that keeps you going. Multiplayer always works, and the builds are always playable. We've played them constantly, and it's fun. You actually look forward to the weekly play session even though the game is still in progress. That's what keeps us going, and that's also why it takes so long. We'll do it over and over again until it's just right." Martens was joined by lead technical artist Julian Love, a Blizzard North veteran who was straightforward and enthusiastic on the company's plans for Diablo III: "[As far as] the real question in terms of how much we're going to take forward, we want to bring back all of the stuff that was great, that was fun. We certainly want to tap into what was great in the first two games and make sure all of that stuff is coming back, and pile in all the cool stuff we can to bring it over the top and make it the definitive version of the series." The full interview with the Blizzard Diablo III duo is now available on Gamasutra, including plenty of specifics on the construction of the still release-undated game.