Supporter newsletter 59

Issue
This is a copy of Eternal and Diamond Supporter Newsletter #59, published by Grinding Gear Games.

Hello Supporters,

This week’s newsletter is a little later than normal. Yesterday the 1.1.2 patch turned out to be more complicated to get deployed than intended. As a result, this will be a shorter newsletter, as we have some seriously awesome stuff to work on.

Awesome Stuff and Relentless Creativity

We have a schedule that requires a lot of interesting ideas to be constantly thought up. We have periodic patches, we have the mini-expansions every few months, and we have new leagues.

This requires relentless creativity from the team here at Grinding Gear Games. We have become very good at being creative on demand, and this has brought me to some interesting observations.

First off, you have to be very open to sitting and thinking of ideas. Having ideas is the first part, but accepting that there is a time just to have ideas (and that having ideas a thing worth spending time on) is initially a strange dynamic.

The next part that is important for the creativity is recognising when an idea is good. One sign of a good idea is that it tends to lead to more good ideas. Once we have a good start on a skill, an expansion theme, or a league mechanic, then it tends to build on itself. People have more ideas to throw in, and there are things that become obvious when combined with existing game elements.

We had that with Sacrifice of the Vaal—the initial ideas led to strong themes of sacrifice and corruption, which led to some elements, like item corruption, that seemed destined to be added.

Once the floodgate of ideas is opened, and the original idea develops a life of its own, the next important step is to get stuff made. This is very different task to having the ideas, so it’s very important to be able to knuckle down and get the work done.

I am looking forward to being able to show off the next few patches, and a few of the things we have yet to reveal as part of Sacrifice of the Vaal. I am also really looking forward to turning the ideas we have for the next period into reality. The next mini-expansion looks to be some of the most interesting stuff we have done, and it will have features that players of all skill levels and styles can take advantage of.

Insider Info

We have previously shown off some of the development of an upcoming monster:

http://i.imgur.com/NW1SplF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/TZFaYk1.jpg

This week we can show you the model with textures added, in an action shot from an animation:

http://i.imgur.com/6FX30NV.jpg