(Helping GGG in) Creating a unique item: a breakdown of the breakdown

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Charan wrote:

I hope to see more input from Diaternals, but I imagine this is a case of 'happy customers say nothing'. And in this situation, 'happy' can also mean 'apathetic'. We almost certainly won't be hearing from the supporter who funded Soul Taker, for example.

I wanted to make something AoE-focused, that would work well with Detonate Dead(which was not super popular yet at the time). Corpse Explosion is my favorite skill in Diablo 2.

I made a spreadsheet on google docs with my preferred base item and most of the mods that I wanted on it. At first I considered having specific bonuses to detonate dead, but decided to go with general AoE mechanics that I thought would be simpler to implement since they were already in the passive tree, and could make the item useful to a bigger variety of builds. Balance-wise not much had to be changed from my initial draft. They tested it with way too much +maximum life at first, but ended up reducing that and buffing the Increased Evasion and Energy Shield, which I had suggested pretty low values for.

Regarding the art, I just said that I wanted it to be grotesque/gory and suggested that it could be crafted out of human skin, possibly by a necromancer. The artist(s) did a wonderful job on it for me. I suck at words, so I didn't write the flavor text myself either.

I'm not perfectly happy with how the Extra Gore effect turned out, since it seems to have little or no effect on Detonate Dead (Correct me if I'm wrong and just not noticing it). Extra Gore was not yet available as a microtransaction and I don't think it was properly implemented yet for stuff like Carnage Heart either when I was designing my item, so I didn't really know what to expect from it.

Throughout the process I was emailing with and leaving notes in my spreadsheet for Qarl. He seemed very busy, which was understandable, so I made sure not to be too demanding or impatient. Due to the relative simplicity of my unique it was completed fairly quickly and painlessly compared to some of the stories I've read in this thread.

I am pretty happy with the process of designing Carcass Jack. I might have been exceptionally lucky with that part, though. In the end I really feel like this is MY item, even if they end up nerfing it or changing it somehow, I am fairly confident that they won't ruin it for me.

In the currently ongoing One Month HC league it finally dropped for the first time for me. It was a wonderful feeling.

Your item is fucking amazing, dude. Nothing more need be said. I want it so bad for so many of my builds. :)

I had the privilege of watching George work on the alt art version when I visited, actually. I was a bit jealous. :)

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Charan wrote:

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Hilbert wrote:

And we all know that one other Ruler designed Minecraf.... I mean infactem.

Wrong. :)

Not talking about Deoxys there is a 3rd one who created a new account became RoW made 1 post and never posted again and people suspect it was notch.

Nope. I know the story there. Wasn't Notch.

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carkasjak wrote:

[...]

I am pretty happy with the process of designing Carcass Jack.

[...]

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Designed by user carkasjak.

Carcass Jack has always been one of my top favourite uniques! I loved that it covered all the necessary bases for a chest piece (defense, life, resists) and added a very distinct area flavour all without being too OP :D And the theme / 3D art is top class

Big dragon Z, I love how you focused on mechanics more than the item itself (just like Hrishi!) and in so doing left a greater impact on the game than most other supporters.

Given how my second unique has stalled, I'm tempted to take the same approach, but probably am not good enough a designer to do that :)

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dlrr wrote:

Big dragon Z, I love how you focused on mechanics more than the item itself (just like Hrishi!) and in so doing left a greater impact on the game than most other supporters.

Given how my second unique has stalled, I'm tempted to take the same approach, but probably am not good enough a designer to do that :)

Pff, you totally can do it!

All hail the almighty lifesprig!

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cryptc wrote:

I wasn't allowed to get a bigger more high resolution version of my forum avatar for my own use

You mean they wouldnt send you a simple bmp/png of the original art (im assuming they create the asset at a fairly high resolution then scale it down to avatar size here)? If so, that seems rather odd.

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LimitedRooster wrote:

I'd imagine the Goddess herself will appear as your pet and render the entire screen illegible from the polygon clipping issues that will ensue due to her massive size.

At least one high end supporter commissioned a pet that comes pretty close to fitting the above description, humorously enough.

This thread is amazing and the first time I've read every word on every page of a thread.
Thanks everyone for posting. :3



As for myself, I have been kinda sad about PoE balance lately, mostly regarding the top of the tree and Atziri stuff. And every time I see the word "economy" my mouse creaks under my grip.