February 8th is a big day for Blizzard as its anniversary, but this year it holds even more weight. Celebrating 30 years of making amazing video games and delivering them to the public, the company is sharing fun images and concept art from its "vault." Among the plethora of really cool art are the forerunners of many things that fans know and love, including an interesting piece of concept art for the 1993 game titled The Lost Vikings.
The premise of Blizzard's The Lost Vikings is as simple as it sounds, three Vikings are trying to find their way home. In order to do this, they need to work together and use their unique skills to get through a series of increasingly difficult platforming challenges. This concept art shows how game designers at the time started their ideas that eventually became full blown levels.
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Looking at the art below, it might be hard to imagine that this was the basis of level design in The Lost Vikings. For those having a hard time reading an understanding it, there's a key in the second image that explains what some of the markings mean. What makes this particularly interesting is a comment from Bob Fitch, an Engineering Director at Blizzard. He says that this was actually a map he drew up while having lunch in a Denny's and gave it to Ron Millar (the credited artist) as an idea for a level.
Response to the map is mostly positive, with Blizzard fans simply ecstatic that the company has continued to grow and thrive over the last 30 years. Anyone wanting to see more of the same should be sure to check out any of Blizzard's Twitter accounts, as they are sharing images #FromTheVault throughout the rest of the day.
Blizzard celebrates its 3oth anniversary February 8, 2021.