Diablo 2 Alpha Version January 1998

fvalheim1: Dark Gothic that makes D2 a global hit.
ZofiaJasinka: I still felt the dark gloomy world of Diablo 2 by just watching these images. D4 doesn't have it at all. So sad.
dominblabla: I read once that they started D2 development slowly in the middle of 1997, so its basically 6-7 months of real development. Looks great considering that there was no dedicated engines like today and they had to do everything from scratch, only using Diablo 1 development experience. True geniuses. This song is also cool, intensifies the mystery and anxiety. Too bad it didnt get into the final game.
jamm_payne: We need to tell Blizzard to comeback Blizzard North with the original members!!! All the Diablo fans!!!
pedjanedeljkovic7021: That phenomenal music.
EirikrTheRed: OG health and mana globe.
Angelikatosh: I love that you share these images/videos. One of my favourite channels that I discovered this year
Azarath26: Instant buyout. There was nothing like this back than.
novaCD4: Back with more. We love to see it!
keithkempenich6401: That music is sweet, I wish it had made the final cut! That mandolin with days of reverb is doing it for me! What I have always liked about Matt's music is that it is super ambient yet also has a sense of melodic direction and uses rhythm (albeit sparingly) to create tension. The balance of those elements I feel is lost on a lot of current game composers.
miltonjota8114: Great !
LyubomirIko: Big deal is the Gothic gloomy artstyle. It's just mature. Today 's artist are often too chatty with their style. Even when they try to make Gothic style it can ends looking over the top and off. Weirdly today's games can have so much more detail, but a detail that is off is even worse than pixelated obscured detail. My guess is that the artist of that time was gone trough more classical training or at least their art ideals are such, while today fewer art schools teach classical art and ideals have become way too pop-looking.
TheUnkow: Those HP mana indicators ... maan if they just used them and put some small animation on them from time to time.

Like the Demon to cheer when you lifesteal ... or when you get close to low health.
... or to be bored when you are at over 80% hp for more than 10 or so seconds in fights.
Then the Angel would cheer when you defeat a boss ... or bring light to the world like in Lut Gholein ...
Imagine clicking on the Demon to open the character stats screen, while the Angel would open the skill tree screen.
Then also imagine the demon rewarding you during a nasty battle with a small heal, while the Angel would give you some mana if your spell misses the target.
Then later down the line the story explains that both the demon and angel are part of your soul and as you get more levels, they get more involved ... but that also means that you are closer to losing your sanity because they slowly take over ... specially when you carry the soul stones or similar important items.

It's very often that the initial design by the devs gets ignored because the marketing teams fails to notice the actual depth of why it was done like that or what it could've been.
When I see these videos of the initial game development flow, I see nothing but love for the craft.

Please also note that even though some may say these were not good graphics, ask yourselves:
- Do you notice your character and his enemies, are they distinct?
- How do you feel about the ground, does it look poor or rich in details yet very clear, even though it's "simple"?
- Is the light radius a clear circle or does it slowly fade? Does it cover almost the whole viewing area?
- By lightning the walls, does it feel like the light radius is 3d in effect?
These are some of those "simple" questions that many modern games fail to address and compensate for with fancy graphics.

Thanks for another great video.
PROSTO4Tabal: Gameplay footage available?
redmasamune1: Meh game