OG Diablo 2 devs are 'proud' their classic is still getting love, even as they compete for attention with a new ARPG: 'We feel the pressure, but I don't hate them for it'

Blizzard surprised us the other day when it added a new Warlock class to Diablo 2 and brought the 2021 remaster of the classic ARPG to Steam. For some of Diablo 2's original developers, the revitalization of their decades-old game is a happy testament to its lasting appeal, but it also means that, to some degree, they're competing with their own work as they develop a brand new ARPG called Darkhaven.

"Just the fact that people are playing this 30-year-old game, that it's worth it for them to introduce new content, is amazing to me," said original Diablo 2 lead character artist Phil Shenk on a call with PC Gamer last week. "It's super cool. I'm very proud, I guess is the word, just at the fact that it has so much legs."

Shenk hasn't yet had time to check out Diablo 2's new class himself: Along with the rest of Moon Beast Productions, which among others also includes Diablo 2 programmer Peter Hu (also on the call) and designer Erich Schaefer, he's been busy preparing a demo for Darkhaven and launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund its continued development. At the time of writing, Moon Beast has raised $200,000 toward a $500,000 goal with 25 more days to go.

I asked Shenk and Hu how it feels to find themselves in competition not only with the Diablo games that came after their time at Blizzard, but also Diablo 2 itself, now that it's been remastered, released on Steam, and bestowed with new DLC.

"There's tons of conflicted feelings there," said Hu. "Yeah, not gonna lie about that … We're an indie company in a way, going up against a giant, and that's a tough hill to climb."

"Yeah, we feel the pressure, but I don't hate them for it," said Shenk.

Shenk also pointed out that the vision for Darkhaven is not just to make another Diablo 2 (or Diablo 4, or Path of Exile), so it's yet to be seen where their players come from. Moon Beast is aiming for something that sounds like a mix of Diablo and modern survival games like Valheim and Enshrouded, with "open-ended, procedurally generated, dynamically responsive sandbox worlds."

The bullet points include deformable terrain, digging and mining, building, mod support, and the option to play solo, with a group of friends, or in massively multiplayer servers.

It's an ambitious project, which is why Moon Beast wanted to have a playable demo in the public's hands before launching its Kickstarter campaign—something to prove that they have a working piece of software and not just a bunch of cool ideas. They've spent over four years on the game so far, funded by venture capitalists and their own money.

I gave it a spin and was impressed by the presence of a world editor, a good sign that the commitment to mod support is legit. It's also not every day you launch an ARPG and discover that you can double jump and swim.

You can try out the Darkhaven demo for yourself on Steam, and read more about what the developers are aiming for on Kickstarter.

Regarding Diablo 2's new Reign of the Warlock DLC, Shenk also said that he understands why Blizzard only added a new class, rather than a whole new act, which is something Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson said he would've liked to see.

"Having worked on Diablo 2, and knowing how much work goes into making a new act, yeah, that would have been amazing and awesome," said Shenk, "but I can't even imagine how they would do that, because you're retconning the story and the lore, and how does that affect everything that happened after Diablo 2?"