#Diablo 2 resurrected launch time code
#Diablo 2 resurrected launch time series

Its development had been an open secret, having been leaked during Blizzard's acquisition of developer Vicarious Visions the month prior. The title was announced in the opening ceremony of the developer's February 2021 annual convention.

The two core principles for the remaster were preserving the authentic, original game's experience and making it accessible for modern play. Some new conveniences can be toggled to the user's playstyle preference. The remaster includes some small usability changes like the Shared Stash and automatic gold pickup.

While the developers did not make even minor changes to core gameplay, they upgraded the game's visuals, modeling its remastered graphics on art from the original game. The remaster's design philosophy required the game to be identical to what legacy players remembered. After assessing what was missing Blizzard decided they had enough to proceed with the remaster, with capabilities to recreate any missing assets and redraw the existing assets in higher definition with help of the original artists and animators. Their team scoured through other sources at Blizzard, such as through marketing material, to find additional resources to fill in the gaps.

However, according to Blizzard's current Diablo lead Rod Fergusson and principal designer Rob Gallerani, the missing data was not as bad as the Schaefers had indicated.

#Diablo 2 resurrected launch time code

They were able to recover most of the code and assets through copies that employees of Blizzard North had taken home with them or other means, but the Schaefers felt there were still too many pieces missing to fully remaster the game. ĭuring a 2019 media event, Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik stated they had been unsure if a remaster of Diablo II was possible due to a near-release loss of much of the game's source code and assets from corruption in their backup system.

#Diablo 2 resurrected launch time series

Brack said this move was due to Vicarious having detailed knowledge of the Diablo series by this point, so that they could continue to provide support for Resurrected, Diablo IV and other Blizzard properties. About a month before the February 2021 announcement of the game, Activision announced that Vicarious Visions had been transferred and moved into Blizzard's corporate structure. Allen Brack, Vicarious Visions was responsible for handling the front-end and 3D client while Blizzard handled the back-end server and integration aspects of the remaster. Main articles: Diablo II § Plot, and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction § Plotĭiablo II: Resurrected has the same plot as the original game.ĭiablo II: Resurrected 's development began around 2019, as a joint effort between Blizzard's Diablo team (Team 3) and Vicarious Visions, at the time a subsidiary under Blizzard's corporate sibling Activision. Unlike the original, neither open nor local multiplayer over TCP/IP ( LAN gaming) are supported. Unlike the original Diablo II, Resurrected allows the secret cow level, also known as the Moo Moo Farm, to be accessed repeatedly by players. The remaster allows players to import save files from the original Diablo II in local single-player and continue from that point. The game now reminds players to spend skill points and reminds that skill point allocation is permanent. Players can toggle automatic gold pickup, display ground items and other small upgrades. The addition of a Shared Stash lets players transfer items between their own characters, as compared with the original game, which involved a tertiary 'mule' character to facilitate the transfer. īlizzard added small convenience upgrades while leaving the core gameplay unchanged. Resurrected supports 4K graphics resolution and 7.1 Dolby Surround sound. Resurrected overlays upgraded 3D models atop the original Diablo II 's 2D sprites, and is designed to toggle between the legacy and upgraded visuals with a button press. The remaster mainly updated the original game's graphics and network functions and originally did not change any of its item systems or game balance.