
Original Diablo Pitch Document (1994) [pdf] - eswat
http://www.graybeardgames.com/download/diablo_pitch.pdf
======
haddr
The excellence of Diablo lies in the atmosphere of the game. I think it is one
of the best games in terms of the overall atmosphere and that general feel of
play. All the pieces work perfectly together to deliver this unique sensation
while playing the game.

Especially the music. Matt Ulemen has created a masterpiece soundtrack!

PS. It is very funny that reading this pitch document I haven't noticed any of
that ephemeral things that build this unique atmosphere. Funny how such
pitches are evaluated only on the sole raw description the gameplay and
nothing else...

~~~
digi_owl
Heh, i still recall me and friends checking out the demo with a lan setup and
running into the butcher boss room.

From the ouside you see a darkened room with some blobs that may be raw flesh
inside. Open the door and you hear "ah, fresh meat" as a voiceover.

Right after that a big, bulky demon with a bloodstained apron and a meat
cleaver walks into view.

~~~
brobinson
There was supposed to be a cutscene [1] which played when you opened the door
(similar to when you first encounter Lazarus), but it was apparently disabled.
The video file was still left on the game disc.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75KB3swIuqU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75KB3swIuqU)

~~~
digi_owl
And having the cutscene there would perhaps not have been as effective, as it
would have removed the player from the "world" if only for a split second.

------
Reedx
At GDC last week there was a Diablo postmortem, which was the impetus for
posting the design doc. The speaker (Blizzard North's co-founder) rhetorically
asked the audience if they wanted to see the original doc.

Gamasutra has a good writeup of that session:
[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/268507/20_years_later_Dav...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/268507/20_years_later_David_Brevik_shares_the_story_of_making_Diablo.php)

Lots of interesting tidbits about the game's development and the company.

Oh, and there was a nice moment during the Q&A - a fan who pirated Diablo back
in the day walked up to the stage and gave them some money.

~~~
dave2000
I'm still surprised bands, authors etc don't have some sort of "honesty box"
where people can make payments directly to them to thank them, compensate for
piracy etc. Would cost nothing but benefit them if only a little in most
cases. Perhaps their labels etc wouldn't like it if people routinely
downloaded their stuff and paid them directly though.

~~~
Reedx
I wonder if that could have unintended consequences. Would people feel better
about pirating if such a thing existed?

It reminds me of the study in Freakonomics about day care centers and the
problem of parents sometimes not picking up their kids on time. Which meant
that employees would have to stay after closing. So they started charging
parents a small fee for being late. The result was that parents were more late
than ever, since it meant they no longer felt guilty. The fine removed the
guilt associated with being late.

~~~
dave2000
"Would people feel better about pirating if such a thing existed?"

You like an artist, you're honest and not poor. You can buy a cd for x, where
some tiny percentage of x goes to the artists. Or you could download the cd
and pay x to the artist.

~~~
Raphmedia
Or you live somewhere where the distribution of that product is non existant
and have no other option if you want to get your hands on the product.

------
tunichtgut
I think from this draft, its quite hard to imagine how successfull diablo
would become. It looks solid, but no revolution. The real magic of diablo is
artwork, in music and design, the stories and chars. still amazing in 2016!

~~~
SCHiM
And the music, wow. Never has a game had more fitting music than diablo. I
still listen to it some days.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyEb-
jO9hU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyEb-jO9hU)

~~~
scrollaway
This is a fun story I like to tell about Diablo.

In Paris, 2008, there was the "Worldwide Invitational", a Blizzard convention
much like BlizzCon but much smaller scale (About ~7k people in total went).

Many rumors were going around about the announcement of a new game. Even more
rumors about "Diablo III", which had been said to be in the works for almost a
decade. After the opening ceremony, Mike Morhaime gave his usual speech and
started dropping hints, gave a long lead up to "Blizzard's newest game".

And without saying any name, a musician came on stage and started doing the
Tristram riff. Everybody immediately understands what's going on. The lights
go red. Everybody yelling and clapping - unbelievable excitement.

Cinematic starts. Chills. Still no name for that "new game". The cinematic
starts cutting faster and faster, hinting more and more at Diablo until we see
Diablo himself in a cut. And then... three fiery claws across the screen lead
into the name: "Diablo III".

There's no way I can do that story justice, but this was one of the most
incredible announcement Blizzard has done - and since WWI doesn't get as much
coverage as BlizzCon, not many people got to hear about it. Here's two videos:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQk_CT7fY9E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQk_CT7fY9E)
(from the audience)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ogXqCNkyHE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ogXqCNkyHE)

~~~
pluma
That sounds amazing.

Sadly I didn't find that D3 lived up to D2 and D1 atmosphere-wise. The ending
of the first chapter put me off the game entirely -- I guess they were trying
to shift the focus of the story to other characters for a new audience.

I can't put my finger on it, but somehow D3 felt less connected to D1 and D2
than D2 did to D1.

------
njharman
1st page sounds like it's describing every/any rogue like. end goal/boss,
random generated levels, lots of race / class combos, turn based gridded
movement, increasing danger with depth, improving characters, magic treasures
to improve player capabilities.

Maybe I only played DII+, but that doesn't sound like much like diablo that I
remember. esp turn based?

~~~
Fordrus
Original Diablo was originally going to be turn based, but that design was
scrapped later, replaced by the more action-oriented stuff. :)

~~~
iolothebard
Baldur's Gate got it right. Best game since the Ultima Series IMO (well along
with Bard's Tale, Wizardry, etc).

------
eswat
The book Stay a While and Listen does a good job of explaining the background
behind the pitch and subsequent changes that made Diablo what it is today:
[http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Awhile-Listen-Blizzards-Video-
Gam...](http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Awhile-Listen-Blizzards-Video-Game-
ebook/dp/B00G8UL474)

------
midhir
As a kid I loved the original Diablo game for how far they went into creating
a dark, satanic atmosphere. The music still gives me chills! So I was worried
this document would be over-corporate and spoil it.

But those illustrations look like they came straight from The Goetia!

------
jwagenet
It is interesting that the original marketing plan pitched micro-expansions
that look a lot like the DLC of today. The expansions seem to serve as a
marketing tool and collectors item rather than a cash grab, but I do wonder
why there was no followthrough.

~~~
codezero
Possibly because this posed the expansions as floppy disks costing $4.95 – by
the time Diablo was released it was on CD, and presumably the art required for
expansions was much larger than a CD, and CDs were not as cheap as a single
floppy disk.

~~~
codezero
correction: much larger than a floppy :)

------
thevibesman
It is cool to see this on the front page at #6 and a post about NetHack at #5
(EDIT:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11322591](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11322591)).

Even though I sometimes wished for a deeper dungeon or perma-death like when I
played Angband and ZAngband; but I do remember enjoying the atmosphere and
story of Diablo and Diablo II and having a lot of fun playing multiplayer with
friends. Even with more advanced games out, I remember getting together with
some high school friends when home on a college break to setup a LAN and play
Diablo II---five years old and still lots of fun!

------
hobs
Interesting to see what they pitched vs what they delivered, a turn based RPG
with a real life collector card game is not what Diablo turned out to be.

------
smcl
So they pitched it as ~1 year from inception to delivery, anyone got any idea
how close they were to that schedule?

~~~
Shizka
The document says 1994 and diablo was released 31st of December
1996([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_%28video_game%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_%28video_game%29)).
So it was very delayed. I guess that the game underwent some huge changes to
justify this delay.

Some of the changes are described in this chapter of the book "Stay Awhile and
Listen": [http://www.shacknews.com/article/76406/chapter-8-finale-
cond...](http://www.shacknews.com/article/76406/chapter-8-finale-condor-and-
blizzard-lock-horns-over-diablo). The part I found especially interesting was
how they changed it from turn-based to ARPG:

> Our company was saying, "We're going to take on this developer, Condor, and
> we're going to publish their game. It's called Diablo." And for a couple of
> months we were working on it not knowing that it was turn-based. When it
> came out that it was turn-based, we said, "No, that sucks."

> We actually took a vote. They said, "Raise your hand if you would buy this
> game if it were turn-based." I think two people raised their hands. Then
> they said, "Raise your hand if you would buy this game if it were real-
> time." Everybody raised their hands. Allen went in and called Dave Brevik
> and said, "Look, you've got to make this real-time."

~~~
Scuds
Don't forget the addition of Multiplayer, and integration with Battle.net.
Cheating was rampant in D1, in any case.

The pitch doc also talks about ever popular roguelike trope of perma-death,
it's a heavy pill to swallow for a commercial game in 1994.

~~~
brobinson
Gotta run that BobaFett trainer with the anti-PK mode!

------
dluan
Does anyone know more about the history of Condor and it's original team?

Wiki says Condor was bought by Blizzard nine months before Diablo launched.
Then, after Diablo II the team split into two separate companies?

Also, I'm guessing this pitch document was to investors for initial funding.
I'm curious to know how much they raised and who from. This doc looks like it
came from experienced game devs.

~~~
scrollaway
Condor became "Blizzard North" after Blizzard acquired them. They were put in
charge of the Diablo series, after Blizzard made a lot of adjustments to it
(including the move from turn-based, which we see in this draft, to ARPG).

They were shut down after they failed to produce any progress on Diablo III
for years (like I said in another post, Diablo III had been expected for
almost a decade before its announcement).

Wiki:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_North](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_North)

Longer documentary that goes into the history of Blizzard, and talks a bit
about Blizzard North: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHz2ky-
jng8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHz2ky-jng8)

~~~
iolothebard
Had to stop watching. The Adham guy was beyond annoying. We were the first in
everything.

------
caretStick
Look at that waterfall Gantt chart! Marvel of management!

~~~
stygiansonic
I wonder how well it was reflective of reality, i.e. did Music really take
from month 2 until the end, and did the DRLG take only two months?

------
EdgarVerona
Where they're talking about the small, randomized packs of items... it almost
sounds like they were intending a CCG in video game form originally?

------
mrits
I love the 12 month development plan. I wonder how long it actually took them.

~~~
alex504
I was very interested to see that the team they pitched included only 11
people, including designers and illustrators. Only three programmers ('One
chief programmer and two junior programmers').

Am I correct in thinking that a team this size would be considered closer to
an indy game in 2016? I am not a game developer but this seems like a very
stark comparison to the current landscape / size of software teams (not just
limited to games).

~~~
chongli
No, an indie game is 1-3 people. Often 1 programmer, 1 artist, 1 musician.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
It's more flexible than that. A lot of indies are just one guy, but you
certainly see small studios of 6-12 people doing e.g. Kickstarters.

~~~
yelnatz
I work in a game studio, I still can't wrap my head around one guy doing it
all.

~~~
mrits
My startup now has about 25 coders doing what 2-3 of us did for a few years.
I'm still not sure what everyone does. We are actually moving quite a bit
slower these days.

------
wenbert
I think the "randomness" is Diablo games is what makes it really addictive. I
remember playing Diablo 1 and I couldn't stop playing because I couldn't wait
for the next item to drop.

Also, a low-end machine could run it!

Diablo II, still the same thing - it was basically a better Diablo I.

Diablo III on the other hand came out with an Auction House - which basically
killed it. I played in the early parts of DIII, it was okay but not as fun as
DI and DII. However, things are very different now. There have been lots of
updates in Diablo III and Blizzard killed the Auction House - So can't say how
it feels now. But I'm pretty sure the "randomness" is still there - which
basically what drives the game.

~~~
taneq
Intermittent reinforcement is the basis for a lot of behavioural addiction.
Random loot games are basically just pretty pokies.

------
RussellDussel
"No two games will ever be the same."

Does anybody know how big the seed is for Diablo's RNG? I'm guessing it would
have to be 1 value for the environment (to ensure saving/reloading into the
same world) but would that 1 value determine all pseudo-randomness (AI aside)
in the game (e.g. item drops and their stats).

~~~
mewmew
The seed is a 32-bit signed integer [1]. Diablo 1 was using the Borland C/C++
pseudo-random number generator algorithm, with a multiplier of 0x15A4E35 and
an increment of 1 [2,3]. A Go implementation of the PRNG used in Diablo 1 is
located at [4].

So I guess there are 2^31-1 unique dungeons per level. Storing, rather than
dynamically generating, these dungeons would require a huge amount of disk
space. For each level, a 112x112 two-dimensional array of 32-bit integers is
used to store the piece IDs which make up each tile (a tile consists of four
pieces) [5], and a 40x40 two-dimensional array of 8-bit integers is used to
store the tile IDs [6]. Thus, a total of 51776 bytes (roughly 50 KB) is
required to store the contents of each generated dungeon.

In total, more than 100 TB would be required to store the contents of each
unique procedurally generated dungeon per level. The game contains 17 levels,
so to store each unique dungeon for each level, a storage capacity of about
1.7 PB would be required. This might be possible today, but was definitely a
challenge back in 1996.

[1]:
[https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/blob/master/bss/engine.md...](https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/blob/master/bss/engine.md#seed)
[2]:
[https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/blob/master/functions/eng...](https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/blob/master/functions/engine.md#engine_rand)
[3]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_congruential_generator#...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_congruential_generator#Parameters_in_common_use)
[4]:
[https://github.com/sanctuary/d1/blob/master/rand/rand.go](https://github.com/sanctuary/d1/blob/master/rand/rand.go)
[5]:
[https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/blob/master/bss/gendung.m...](https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/blob/master/bss/gendung.md#piece_id_map)
[6]:
[https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/blob/master/bss/gendung.m...](https://github.com/sanctuary/notes/blob/master/bss/gendung.md#tile_id_map)

------
stuart78
What is remarkable to me about Diablo is how little it has changed. Dungeons
and environments are more sophisticated, but at its heart it remains the game
described in that doc, just better.

------
iolothebard
Reminds me of Wizardry.

------
falcor84
"Diablo is a role playing game wherein a player creates a single character and
guides him..."

Reading this now, the use of the male pronoun here felt extremely surprising
to me. And indeed Diablo 1 was ultimately released with the female rogue
character class. I wonder if that was just a mistake, or whether something
significant changed throughout the game's development process.

Note that in Diablo 1 (1996) and Diablo 2 (2000), the gender of each class was
fixed (with more male than female options), but in Diablo 3 (2012) gender
choices became available for each class.

I think this should be considered a victory for feminism, and a real sign of
progress taken over these past ~20 years.

~~~
forgotpwtomain
> Reading this now, the use of the male pronoun here felt extremely surprising
> to me. And indeed Diablo 1 was ultimately released with the female rogue
> character class. I wonder if that was just a mistake, or whether something
> significant changed throughout the game's development process.

It's standard in English to use the male pronoun in cases where you would
refer to both or either gender.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Its common. But standard? No, just woefully sexist.

~~~
Sir_Substance
It is standard. It being standard does not preclude it being sexist, but it is
standard. Sorry if your world view doesn't fit the facts.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Even here on HN we see mixed gender pronouns all the time. In fact I see it
more than just seeing 'he did' etc. This world view fits the facts just fine
thanks.

