Have you ever wondered what kind of sweat, tears, and ritual sacrifice goes into designing a Legendary item in Diablo III? Or perhaps even entertained the idea of creating a Legendary of your own?

Well, hang on to your hauberks, Sanctuary, and ready your anvils. It’s time to get crafty.

The "Design a Legendary" Project

Inspired by the many passionate discussions we've seen about itemization (particularly Legendary itemization) in Diablo III, we wanted to take some time to expand on our evolving design philosophies and practices, as well as reiterate our goals for Legendaries in Reaper of Souls.

As we started to put our pens to the proverbial paper, though, we had an epiphany: "Hey, instead of just telling players about item design, why not actually show them?"

And so the Design a Legendary project was born.

So, how's it work?

Over the next few months, we'll take you through the 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. We'll chat with each developer involved and share progress updates along the way, giving you a unique behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making a Legendary item that looks epic, feels epic, and fits within the larger network of hero skills, monster tuning, and overall game balance.

Pretty sweet, huh?

But wait — that’s only one part of this project! (Oh snap.)

Tell us more, Lylirra!

We'll also be involving you, our awesome community, in the design process. Leading up to release of Reaper of Souls, you'll have the opportunity to not only weigh in, but actually help guide development on a Legendary item that will be implemented and playable in the expansion. 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.

The result? We hope this activity will help give players a better understanding of everything that goes into item design, as well as wind up being something that's both fun and uniquely interactive. Also, once everything is said and done, there will be a Legendary item in the game that you had a hand in making. How cool is that?!

We'll be kicking off the first stage of this project next week, so stay tuned to diablo3.com and get ready to Design a Legendary!