Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, March 5 (Xinhua)-- Moon Beast Productions, an independent studio founded by Phil Shenk and Peter Hu, two former northern Blizzard developers, announced on Thursday that it has hired Erich Schaefer, the developer of the Diablo series, to join the new project.

In an interview with foreign media GamesBeat, the studio said Schaefer will be the chief creative director of the new action role-playing games. Few details can be revealed about the project, but Moon Beast reportedly shared enough with Schaefer to persuade him to return to retirement.

Shenk told foreign media: "We have some ideas that we can change the type of games in different ways and try to solve some of the problems in PvE games, especially those that have been dealt with in the Diablo series."

Northern Blizzard (Blizzard North) is the studio of the former Blizzard Entertainment, known for its Diablo series. The studio was originally an independent company, founded in 1993. In 1996, the company was acquired and renamed by Blizzard nine months before the release of Diablo.

Several members of the studio had already left after the studio was announced to be closed in 2005, according to industry revelations that the development of Northern Blizzard clashed with Vivendi, the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment, and that a new work promoted by Northern Blizzard had been cut.

According to CTOnews.com, all three have developed the classic Diablo II, and it is worth noting that Shenk is known as the game's chief character artist and is responsible for designing the appearance of some of the character categories in the game.

Schaefer says Moon Beast Studios currently employs about 12 people, which is smaller than many other ARPG-type studios. The good news is that Schaefer has a lot of experience leading small teams. At Runic Games, he and a team of about 25 people produced Torch Light.

"I want to work on interesting projects and really try to do something different," Schaefer said. "what the Moon Beast team built in such a short time is impressive. It inspires my imagination and possibilities, which is an important reason why I want to join."

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