Diablo co-creator Erich Schaefer is working on an RPG with several Blizzard North alumni. An independent project that should be talked about a lot this year.
With Diablo IV coming in a few months, 2023 should be a very good year for an RPG. But there are other titles to look forward to this year. Indeed, just recently, Moon Beast Productions, the independent studio founded by Phil Schenck and Peter Hu, two former Blizzard North developers, announced that they had hired Diablo series co-creator Erich Schaefer. In an interview with GamesBeat, the studio explains that Erich Schaefer will be the creative director of the new RPG. Project details are still very sparse, but what Moon Beast shared with Erich Schäfer should be enough to convince him to come out of retirement.
Diablo co-creator Erich Schaefer is working on an RPG with Blizzard North alumni.
“We have ideas to change the genre with a different approach to development and try to solve some of the problems that we find in PvE games, and in particular in games like the Diablo franchise,” Phil Schenk of GamesBeat explained. The three men had previously worked on Diablo II. In particular, Phil Schenk is credited as the main character artist, responsible for the appearance of certain character classes, including the Necromancer and the Assassin. Lord of Destruction, the excellent 2001 expansion to Diablo II, also featured a tribute to Phil Schenck, the monster that must be defeated in order to complete one of the Act 5 quests.
An independent project worth talking about a lot this year
Erich Schaefer told GamesBeat that Moon Beast currently employs about 12 people. In other words, it’s a much smaller studio than many studios working on the ARPG genre. The good news is that Erich Schäfer has a lot of experience leading small teams. At Runic Games, he made Torchlight, which employed about 25 people. “I want to work on interesting projects and always try to do something new,” he explained. “It’s impressive what the Moon Beast team has accomplished in such a short amount of time. I let my imagination run wild and that’s a big part of why I wanted to join this adventure.”