Blizzard was developing Diablo for Gameboy Color

Blizzard biographer uncovers canned portable Diablo project

Chris KempOctober 13, 2012

A Blizzard biographer, David Craddock, has revealed that there was originally a Diablo game planned for the Game Boy Color, called Diablo Junior.

“Diablo Junior was intended as a single-player-only prequel to the original game,” Craddock said.

“Taking a page from Pokémon’s book, the team wanted to release three cartridges, each packing a different hero in the warrior-rogue-sorcerer vein as well as items that players would have to trade for in order to collect.”

Development was being handled by a small team, who started the project after the release of Diablo 2. The game was set to appear on the Game Boy Color, Advance, or even both.

“Heroes started in a unique town before heading into dungeons and wilderness zones,” Craddock continued. “Diablo Junior was ultimately put out to pasture (absent of cow levels, I’m sure) because of the steep production costs associated with developing handheld games.”

Craddock is currently working on his unauthorised history of Blizzard, titled “Stay Awhile and Listen”, which is reportedly based on testimony of over 80 ex-employees of the developer.

There’s other bits of interesting information as well, such as a planned second expansion to Diablo 2 (including two new character classes) that never made it through development.