What was the most challenging aspect in creating this game? Poll!

**HellFell** · 28-04-2012, 23:24

Greetings folks! My name is HellFell and I'm here to bring you an interesting poll!

What in your opinion was the most challenging aspect for developers while creating Diablo III? Here are the options:

1. Different classes (selection, resource systems, appearance, backstory)
2. skill system (talent trees vs skill runes)
3. Graphics (technology)
4. Graphics (art style)
5. Sounds and music
6. Lore and universe (locations, monsters, story)
7. Gameplay balance
8. UI
9. Multiplayer (battle.net + coop + online only)
10. Auction house
11. Crafting
12. PvP

Please choose the aspect you think Was the most difficult to implement and I would appreciate if you could elaborate on it a bit. Thank you. If you find something else worth mentioning, you're most welcome!

Personally I think the most difficult thing was the implementation of the rmah. I guess blizzard went through hundreds of internal discussions on it and finally managed to integrate the most innovative trading system between gamers up to date.

**MoUsE_WiZ** · 28-04-2012, 23:42

Skill system has had the most visible iteration, so I'm voting skill system. RMAH is probably #1 in terms of man hours though, largely due to legalities, partnerships, etc.

**JohnnyLeven** · 29-04-2012, 00:15

Choosing Gameplay balance since it encompasses 6 other things in the list.

**NewNeo** · 29-04-2012, 00:16

Interesting question. I have to go with the Skill system mostly due to how many changes and all of the balancing that has gone into it.

**byrneda** · 29-04-2012, 01:08

I went with Lore and Universe.
I remember Kingdoms of Amalur, and the fact that they got world-renowned author R.A. Salvatore to write up the 10,000 year history leading up to where you enter the game. Then they had to figure out the layout of the lands, and make it progressive enough for the monster you'd face so you wouldn't die when you walk outside the safety of the village.
Balancing of the monster comes in there too.
I'd also add Art assets - I read about one of the designers who designed the actual monsters, and the number of iterations they did from a rough black and white sketch to the end product for just one monster was amazing.

**Carisma** · 29-04-2012, 01:21

I would say "Balancing the Game" would be the hardest thing for them to produce. This is such a vague choice as it includes skills, multi-player, classes, enemies, and bosses. This is something that they will continue to tweak, and mess with even after the game is released. All the the other thing is something after they made it and were pleased with it, would be considered finished.

**ShadoutMapes** · 29-04-2012, 01:53

Skill system. I don't think there can be much doubt about that. Sticking with a specific skill and rune concept for like 3+ years, only to realizing you have to let it go shortly before intended release cant have been easy for the developers.

RMAh too of course, but that is likely more of a challenge for the legal team in Blizzard rather than the dev team. Would have loved to listen to the dev teams discussions when they decided on having RMAH however. Undoubtedly the most drastic feature in the game.

**Scorch Hellfire** · 29-04-2012, 02:22

Kind of hard to know without asking the devs themselves, but I suppose the RMAH was probably a pain in the a** to them with all the legal roadblocks and coordinating with paypal and such... Although if you want to go off of how much time they put into different things, then it seems like the skill system and pvp have given them a good amount of trouble as well...

**Xaulior** · 30-04-2012, 08:49

I put skill system because it varied so much over the course of development. The developers spent years going over various designs. It is one of the most radical changes since Diablo II. Manual attribute addition is out, as are putting points into skills up to level 20, which I dislike. They replaced this system with skillrunes, which had many iterations and must have taken a while. It is also a large part of the core gameplay.

**The Lord of Darkness** · 30-04-2012, 16:08

Balancing the game would be right up there. The RMAH is there at well. I didn't vote because my actual answer is that the most challenging aspect in creating this game is for the game to live up to expectations. Finding the balance between hardcore Diablo fans and newcomers to the series. Lets face it, you can't please everyone so we'll see if this game hits it's goal, not financially, we already know that will happen.