Diablo II
GameSpot's monthly Diablo II Designer Diary is so big this month that we had to split it up into two parts. We talked to Max Schaefer, cofounder of Blizzard North and art director for the backgrounds in Diablo II, as he described the level design process, the artistry and architectural elements of the environment design, and the way the programmers and artists work together to complete the random level generation. This is the first of the two-part diary, and it deals with Max's involvement in the art process, the division of labor in the art department, and the way random level generation works.
GameSpot: What's your official title at Blizzard North, Max?
Max Schaefer: I'm vice president and co-art director of Diablo II.
GameSpot: Talk a little bit about how Blizzard North started and then how it became part of Blizzard.
Max: Sure, we started as just three guys with computers and very little money - and just a desire to make our own wonderful game. We got really lucky by getting a couple of Sega Genesis contracts early on. We did some Quarterback Club games for Acclaim. While doing the Sega Genesis game called the Justice League Task Force, we met up with the folks at Blizzard. They were doing the Super Nintendo version, and we were doing the Sega Genesis version, and so we were always comparing our games back and forth.
We got to know them and like them quite a bit. One thing led to another, and through Davidson and Associates, which owned Blizzard, [the people at Blizzard] decided they wanted to do a little bit of out-of-house PC publishing. At the same time, we expressed to them a desire to move into the PC market, because the Sega Genesis was dying. So they said, "Well maybe we can get something going." We had been kicking around the idea for Diablo for quite a while so we pitched it to them. And they signed us up to make it.
It was going real well about six or eight months into it, when they said, "You know, we would like to have you as part of the family." They made a compelling case to us and signed us up. The rest is history. It's been wonderful.
GameSpot: What was your role in Diablo?
Max: I was actually working on a different project at the time. I was obviously very much involved with Diablo, but we were a struggling company, and we had to have a couple of other things going on just to fund ourselves.
GameSpot: What were you working on?
Max: I was working on a 3DO title for the M2 machine that never came out. [laughter] It paid the bills, and it was a fun project, but it never went anywhere.
GameSpot: Was this before you were fully acquired by Blizzard?
Max: Yes, once we were acquired, I moved over and helped out on Diablo where I could, but it was already far enough along that I wasn't going to be art director.
Next: Art directing on Diablo II
Diablo II
