The Diablo 3 development team is offering a behind-the-scenes look at the design of the game's Legendary class items, tapping the knowledge of the Diablo community for help in crafting and perfecting the item it plans to implement into the game.
The "Design a Legendary" project, Blizzard says, will walk players through "all the different design stages behind bringing a single Legendary item to life, from concept to creation to iteration, all the way through animation and implementation."
Blizzard says it will take design feedback from players to help guide the development of the weapon, shield or armor.
"We'll be holding global community votes, hosting podcasts, soliciting ideas, and even running a contest or two to ensure that this is truly a worldwide, player-driven initiative," wrote Blizzard community manager Stephanie "Lylirra" Johnson on the Diablo blog.
Johnson said in the comments that adding more player co-designed Legendary items is a possibility, pending the success of the original project.
The design of Diablo 3's Legendary items has been an evolving process. Earlier this year, design Travis Day explained Blizzard's changing thoughts about the rare loot. "Legendary items are going to drop far less often than Rare items, and we want that rarity to be reflected in their power," Day wrote. "When a Legendary drops, the question that goes through a player's mind should never be 'is this a good item?' It should be 'how awesome is it?'"
Legendary items will change even more in upcoming Diablo 3 expansion Reaper of Souls. In Blizzard's "loot 2.0" system, legendaries can roll as a "smart drop," with item attributes tailored to specific classes.
Blizzard plans to bring Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls to BlizzCon next month, where it will be playable on PC and PlayStation 4.