The interesting part is that this special feeling lingers even after discovering Whimsydale for the first time. The Vault is another secret level, accessed through a gold portal left behind by a treasure goblin. Players don’t have to “unlock” this special level it is given to them when they are not expecting it, and that makes it feel all the more exciting.
Making whimsy accessible and random made it a surprise, an accidental discovery that makes the player feel special rather than deserving for having had to work for it, and this was a smart design decision. Whimsyshire, therefore, did not give players the satisfaction of the later implemented Whimsydale. This is frustrating because of how similar it is to the premise of Diablo 3 – grind to find legendary materials that drop at a very low rate, and then look up a build online to accomplish your goals. The precursor to Whimsydale, Whimsyshire, required a recipe, legendary materials and a complicated crafting process, all of which is easier to look up online than to try and figure out on your own. The other great thing about Whimsydale is that it’s accessible. The sudden shift in aesthetics and pacing serve to invigorate the flat interest curve that results from the grind.
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This stark opposition is a great technique to depart from the sameness of endless Rifts and completing bounties, and the developers exaggerate the differences for a bigger impact, even increasing the loot drops in a later patch to make sure you feel rewarded. It provides a welcome break from the grind on all fronts because it’s a direct contrast to the world of Diablo 3. Lessons from Diablo 3‘s Whimsydale: Tips for Including Whimsy in Game Design 1. And, the music is distorted, as if you’ve found your way into a parallel universe where everything is familiar but not quite right. In Whimsydale, the mini map looks like a child’s drawing on lined notebook paper. When they are killed, their bodies explode into a mess of cartoonish blood, which is hilarious and satisfying at the same time. It’s this brightly coloured, happy land where the enemies are flowers, unicorns and teddy bears, some of which retain the randomly generated names of enemies in the game’s other environments, things like “Despair of the Darkness”. The thing is, Whimsydale looks nothing like the rest of Diablo 3. The drop rate is much higher than that of the game, giving the player lots of gold, gems and legendary items. Whimsydale is discovered when a rainbow goblin is killed and leaves behind a rainbow portal to a land of bouncing happy clouds, rainbows, teddy bears and unicorns. The contrast between the rainbow portal and the environment makes it stand out all the more. Going further, these treasure goblins sometimes leave behind a portal when they are killed. An example of this is the inclusion of treasure goblins, which sometimes spawn randomly and drop more loot than regular enemies. Diablo 3, therefore, needed to continue giving the player moments of discovery and excitement to provide peaks in the interest curve, filling the purpose that boss battles did in the story. It’s not for everyone, but as a completionist player who gets addicted to grinding very quickly, this game was made for me.Ī grind is a grind, however, and that gets boring. The story ends, and that’s where the game really begins – trying to max out gear, rerolling loot for the best stats, and creating increasingly more powerful builds as you ascend through the difficulties (the highest being the aptly named Torment 13) against an uncapped difficulty of monsters. A typical interior level is dark and illuminated by candlelight, filled with grotesque enemies like these (which might actually be called Grotesques).īut at its heart, Diablo 3 is a game about grinding. Its world is dark and creepy, featuring gothic elements like cathedrals, enemies that explode and splatter blood everywhere, and a fair share of bosses that run the gamut from skeleton king to corrupt angel. It turned Diablo 3 from a good game into a great game in my book, and made me think about the importance of whimsy in game design.ĭiablo 3‘s story features the player hero fighting off the demons that have invaded Sanctuary. I’d enjoyed Diablo 3 up until then, but finding Whimsydale was the moment that entrenched Diablo 3 into my gaming repertoire for good. It was my birthday, and I was playing as a necromancer. I will always remember the day I discovered Whimsydale in Diablo 3.
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