“Because we have first people who worked on [the cinematics], we can have a lot of discussions about Diablo 2 Resurrected Items objective,” Fergusson said. “We went in with,’What would their intention be when they had the tools that we have now?'” The code, more than the original art resources, was vital for Diablo 2: Resurrected, which thankfully was not lost.

“If you dig in the code, there is Diablo 1 hint in there. There is a great deal to discover and a great deal of intricacies,” said Fergusson. “That’s what makes it have its own character. The notion that the old code works how it will means you have the game that you have. If we had been trying to change engines and recreate it and we didn’t have those intricacies of the old code, then it wouldn’t feel exactly the same. We are really really grateful that we have what we have, as [gamers ] can have that experience that is authentic.”

While Diablo II: Resurrected isn’t hoping to precisely duplicate the original’s appearance, the newly-announced remaster is making an impressive attempt to coincide with some parts. Seeing a panel at BlizzCon now, I was delighted to hear how they dug up ancient Blizzard assets to recreate and even reuse from the remaster. My favourite titbit: the new Tyrael reuses the angelic wings from the actual 3D model used to make his 2D sprite from the first game.

During the board, Blizzardeers explained they made an attempt to assemble original concept art, 3D models, code, leaves, and these to understand the original intent behind artwork and better educate the art teams’ creative decisions as they remade parts. I am a sucker for great archive work. This resulted in a fine discoveries like locating the source files for mural textures in the Act II tombs, which they can then reuse for the remade tombs.

They also followed a number of the techniques Blizzard used from the first game. By way of example, since the original Succubus enemies reused the body mesh of the Assassin (a sensibly efficient game dev practice with a frustratingly controversial public image, because of Internet loudmouths)they too reused their fresh Assassin’s body mesh for Cheap Diablo 2 Items their new Succubus.