via Kotaku


Yes, Diablo III is going to be much more vivid and vibrant than its predecessors, a fact that has some fans signing a petition against the shinier, happier art direction - now with over fifteen thousand signatures. Tracey John over at MTV Multiplayer spoke with Diablo III lead producer Keith Lee about the during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris this past weekend, who defended the move towards a brighter, more colorful Diablo.

“One of the things that we considered when we were working on the visuals for ‘Diablo III’ is the fact that color is your friend. We feel that color actually helps to create a lot of highlights in the game so that there is contrast. A great analogy is like in ‘Lord of the Rings’ — not everything is dark. It allows you to see what a creepy dungeon can be like but if everything is dark it doesn’t allow you to have a lot of contrast.”

Lee also explains that they want players excited to enter and explore new areas, rather that simply provide the same dark environments over and over again.

Lee does admit that fan feedback is a major factor in how Blizzard develops titles. It'll be interesting to see what impact - if any - the petition has on the development of the game.