Just like Chen Mo's Wulin Legend and Zen Entertainment's Tale of the Sword, these single player games only sold around four hundred thousand copies in the first month, which was a drop in the bucket.
Many people felt that Chen Mo was being too conservative with this game, and wasn't aggressive enough. Even if he could maintain the game's sales at a decent level with his story and reputation, there was no way it would become popular.
Moreover, from the artwork that Chen Mo released, the game seemed to be going a little too far. How many players would like such a dense and strange style of an evil novel?
If they couldn't handle it, the game would drive away most of the mainstream players.
Some were looking forward to it.
Some were doubting it.
Some were mocking it.
…
Chen Mo wasn't affected at all. He didn't care about these doubts anyways. He would only know if the game was good after it was made.
Trying to predict it before then would likely be a slap in the face.
Diablo's development was also progressing at a steady pace.
The development speed was greatly increased after the expansion of the staff.
In Chen Mo's previous life, the development of Diablo III took a long time. If he were to calculate from Diablo II to Diablo III, it would take a total of twelve years.
Of course, there were a lot of twists and turns. Most of the time wasn't spent on developing the game, but on redoing it.
Due to the merger, Northern Blizzard's main creative team for Diablo 2 resigned, and the development of Diablo 3 was put on hold for a long time.
Moreover, the initial version that was released didn't get the attention of the executives, and was completely redone. As a result, Diablo III didn't perfectly continue the spirit of Diablo 2.
For Chen Mo, he could avoid the detours that he had already taken, and look at the game from a mature perspective, which greatly sped up the development process.
Zhou Hanyu would complete the drawings of the monsters and characters after Chen Mo's sketches, and they would be sent to the outsourcing company to make the models and animations.
A few assistants used the Illusion Game Editor to deal with the scenes, levels, and battle flow of the game.
Cinematics that were of a higher quality than Warcraft were also in the works.
There was also the balancing of the numbers, the design of the equipment, the adjustments to the details that affected the players, etc. The entire studio was operating at full capacity. Under Chen Mo's lead, these people were united, and the speed of development was greatly increased.
Diablo was more difficult to develop than Warcraft, but they were able to make it faster than Warcraft after hiring more people. They had basically completed the initial version in four months.
The cinematics were incomplete, and the balance of the system was not perfect. There were no Hidden Realms, Stairway to Heaven, or Expert Mode, but it was playable.
…
Chen Mo found an empty massage chair in the experience store and laid down.
For the past few days, he had been checking all kinds of art resources, skills, levels, and other settings. He was so busy that he had a headache. When he finally had some free time, he rested on the massage chair for a while.
Zou Zhuo was playing Warcraft on the computer next to him.
"Thanks for the hard work, manager. How's the new game coming along?" Zou Zhuo said as he handed Chen Mo a can of drink, "I've been itching to play it since I heard it's an RPG. Unfortunately, Goldfish and Qian Kun moved over there, so I can't see the progress of the game."
Chen Mo said, "It's ready to play. Give me a moment, I'll get a copy from the hard drive."
Zou Zhuo was pleasantly surprised, "Really? It's ready to play already? That's great, your efficiency is insane! "
Chen Mo returned to the studio next door and copied the incomplete version of Diablo onto Zou Zhuo's computer.
According to Chen Mo's estimates, it should be available in another half a month. Now that Zou Zhuo had a taste of the game, he could also gather feedback from the players.
It didn't take long for the game to be installed. Zou Zhuo couldn't contain his excitement as he was the first player to try out the game after all.
The other players gathered around as well.
"My goodness, Diablo is ready to play?"
"Manager, you're so productive! Hurry up, let's play!"
"Amazing, let's watch."
"Manager, I want to play too!"
Chen Mo laughed, "Don't rush, this is only a demo. There's still a lot of issues, so be patient. We'll release it to the computers in the experience store next week for everyone to play. We'll release it the week after that."
Zou Zhuo double-clicked on the icon on the desktop, "I don't care, I want to try it out first!"
The others gathered around to watch Zou Zhuo play.
As expected, there was a cinematic before entering the game.
The first thing that caught the eye was a red ink pad with Thunderbolt Gaming's logo printed on it.
The camera zoomed in. Below the ink pad was a fine sheepskin scroll filled with unintelligible words.
Accompanied by the somewhat depressing melody, an old voice whispered.
"When the apocalypse comes, mysterious flames will tear through the skies."
"Justice will fall upon the world of mortals, the flames of war between light and darkness will spread to the Eternal Kingdom …"
Following the whisper that sounded like a prophecy, scrolls of paintings appeared on the parchment scroll.
Crows appeared on the battlefield filled with spears. A bolt of lightning exploded in the sky, showering down like a waterfall of light. An army of angels descended from the sky, charging towards the army of demons on the ground.
Scenes of war, angels and demons engaged in a fierce battle on the battlefield. Finally, the earth split open, and a gigantic demon god appeared in the painting, opening its bloody mouth and rushing over!
Leah woke up with a start, her eyes still filled with extreme fear.
In the eerie cathedral, the old Deckard Cain was still reading through ancient records.
"According to these records, the demons of hell might be making their move. We need to warn the world as soon as possible!"
"You believe me, don't you, Leah? The apocalypse is upon us … "
At this moment, the cathedral began to shake violently. A bolt of lightning flashed, and a terrifying mysterious flame appeared in the clouds. It was a meteorite.
The meteorite tore through the sky and fell towards the cathedral. The impact caused Leah to fall to the ground. When she stood up to look for Deckard Cain, all she saw was a giant crater.
"Uncle!!"
As Leah screamed, the entire cinematic ended. Diablo's logo appeared in the middle of the screen, along with its English name.
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