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GamerZines has posted a new interview with Blizzard Entertainment's Christian Lichter and Julian Love about Diablo III, the company's return to the popular action RPG franchise. The topics discussed included the game's artwork, the benefits of an isometric camera angle, and responding to fan feedback.

GZ: Working from an isometric camera angle it enables you to control exactly what the player sees. As an artist what sort of advantages does that give?
CL: We love the isometric camera angle as an art team, it lets us do things that we couldn't do otherwise. We can really cater to it, it's fixed to us and we know what to expect from it and we get to do things, that we wouldn't be able to do otherwise. A lot of the look and feel of Diablo from what has been released so far is really based on the fact we have an isometric camera. Also I think early in the development there was some experimentation with different cameras and it really never felt like Diablo so this was really the perfect choice. In a lot of ways it really is a perfect fit. Art wise we have a lot of things that we can do that we couldn't do otherwise. It's very integral to the look of the game. We're shooting for something that has a painted look to it, something that people will be able to play many, many years from now.

GZ: You've talked about how it's been a collaborative effort. The amount of content in a title like Diablo III is simply staggering. How is the art team broken down into different responsibilities? Do you treat it as a specific team for characters, backdrops, monsters or do you integrate the work and ensure the differences are intentional.
CL: That's an interesting question, I think as far as the art goes it's very important for us to support the gameplay first and foremost. That said the way the departments are split is somewhat more traditional that you would think - we have a character team, we have backgrounds teams, we have the effects team which is responsible for effects and technology. Even within the environments we have splits between the interiors and exteriors because there are different technical challenges we have with each one of those. That said the people we have on the team are incredibly talented and they really are talented at more than just one thing. That also contributes to us having a team that can really contribute and collaborate on everything.

GamerZines: Diablo III Interview Part 1

GamerZines: Diablo III Interview Part 2

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