Diablo 3 is a fast-paced action game that pits up to four players against the forces of hell. Each player controls a hero with a unique playstyle and abilities as they explore a randomly generated world.
- Game: Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls expansion
- Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
- Team Size: 8 members
- Engine: Axe Engine
- Game Mode: 1-4 players co-op or PvP
- Concept & documentation
- Monster balance
- Scripting (portal spawning & move-to commands)
- Leading playtests
- Gold farming exploit prevention
Overview
I worked on the Treasure Realm, which is a bonus level where the Treasure Goblins store all the gold and jewels they have been stealing from the mortal realm. Ruling over this realm is Baroness Greed, a giant demon that attacks by raining heavy treasure chests from the sky and has other money flavored attacks. If a player manages to complete the Treasure Realm they will receive millions of gold, a unique legendary gem, and several achievements.
My Role
I was a member of the eight person strike team that designed, implemented, and tested the Treasure Realm from conception to launch. I represented QA but was an active member in the design meetings, helped flesh out the concepts, and scripted some features to help the level and encounter designers. During concepting, we knew we wanted the level to revolve around treasure, but we were having problems finding an appropriate theme. We finally decided to have the players break into the Treasure Goblin's vault. To make sure we stayed true to the level's theme, we implemented giant bank vault doors, piles of treasure, guards, an alarm system that had goblins open portals to summon reinforcements, and themed the boss attacks around crushing players under treasure chests.
In early design, I found that Greed's Boss experience wasn't meeting our design goals of "Nobility and caring only for treasure". As soon as players entered the room, she would charge them like a savage barbarian which felt out of place for nobility. I had the fight changed so Greed was lounging on her throne, but would fly into a rage when players started to steal her gold. This better sold the story of Greed caring only for treasure, and acting more like a Baroness. I also moved the Legendary Items given in the final reward from being the first thing dropped, to the last. These changes helped build anticipation with escalating treasure rarity, and prevented players from missing Greed's custom death animation when they opened their inventory after picking up the early items.
