From Concept to Reality: How Blizzard Uses 3D Software in Game Development

It is common thing for companies in the game industry to become intimately linked with certain genres and features. And Blizzard is not an exception here. This titan of the gaming industry is associated with the real-time strategy genre.

The company created real masterpieces that revolutionized the industry. Thus, Starcraft laid the foundation for the eSports discipline, winning dozens of awards and an army of dedicated fans from around the globe.

World of Warcraft introduced an intuitive interface, detailed guides, and a more user-friendly leveling system. All that opened up the MMORPG genre to a much wider audience of players.

Additionally, World of Warcraft popularized the creation of specialized boosting WoW services, offering a wide range of services – from leveling and gearing to completing challenging raids, PvP, and other endgame content.

And of course, the incredibly cool cinematics were introduced as a part of the WoW universe. But what has made it possible for the company to create its one-of-a-kind games? Let’s dig a bit deeper into this topic together further in this post.

#1 — Character Design

Character design is a fundamental aspect of game development that requires the expertise of skilled artists and a powerful toolset.

In addition to their proprietary tools, Blizzard often utilizes 3DS Max, Maya, and Zbrush for modeling and sculpting, with Substance Painter and Mari serving as their primary texturing solutions.

All these instruments have allowed them to create outstanding characters who bring games to a whole new level.

#2 — Concept Art and Design

Every video game production starts with conceptual art driven by artists who come up with ideas and stories to be depicted in a game. They take the team’s concepts and translate them into sketches, 2D digital art, or even 3D renderings.

This is where Blizzard stands out. In addition to Painter, the company is armed with a bunch of other great tools.

Thus, they used Adobe Photoshop extensively when creating Overwatch and World of Warcraft as it is the industry standard for 2D art in video game development pipelines.

#3 — The Art of the Gaming Environment

Blizzard is very conservative with its game engines and tools. They make almost all of their video games with their own tools and game systems built to work with modular-level design.

An illustration of this is World of Warcraft, which employed a dedicated editor, custom-built for the game’s intricate design. The only exception is the game Hearthstone – developers have officially stated that they use Unity as a game engine.

#4 — Cinematics

Blizzard Entertainment uses a combination of software solutions for making their cinematics. For 3D modeling and animation, they employ Autodesk Maya for poly modeling and animation, particularly for characters and environments.

Autodesk 3Ds Max is used for modeling and animation, especially during the development of Warcraft 3: Reforged. Zbrush comes to the rescue for sculpting and texturing 3D models, particularly for characters.

Conclusion

Blizzard is continuously exploring and integrating the latest rendering and cinematic technologies.

The company has consistently pushed the boundaries in the world of video game development, delivering visually stunning and immersive experiences that captivate players across the globe.

Thanks to the talents of all dedicated developers, they have created many truly iconic games. The more to come.