For Azmodan, the Lord of Sin you see in Diablo III’s Black Soulstone cinematic, Blizzard wanted to convey a sense vanity, which would eventually take the form of jewelry and ornate armor.
The early concepts showed off the shell-like armor that would eventually influence the final design, but Blizzard wasn’t satisfied just yet. “It just really wasn’t as impressive or as imposing as we were hoping for,” said Blizzard’s Christian Lichtner.
So the design evolved, to the point where Azmodan was designed so he would attack by bending over backwards and slice at players with a crab claw. “This was really cool, but it was a little too abstract. It was pushing things a little too far,” said Lichtner. But what the team did like was the idea of Azmodan’s crab-like lower half and the crown-like protrusions around his head.
Because Blizzard knew they would have a close-up of Azmodan in the Black Soulstone cinematic, the team worked to create a unique facial structure for the demon. “We needed to have an interesting facial silhouette. I’m not talking about the outside of the face, necessarily, but the interior,” said Lichtner. “The placement of the eyes and mouth. We wanted to push it outside the norm a little bit more.” The main issue with this version of Azmodan was that his skirt, which though detailed, obscured the demon’s legs.