Kevin Martens, co-creator of Diablo III, spoke on game design Wednesday. (AP)

Co-creator of Diablo III Kevin Martens had video-gamers all ears in the M-Lounge at Hughes-Trigg Wednesday night. SMU Guildhall program, the graduate video game education program in Plano, brought Martens to campus to share his knowledge and experience on action storytelling.

Due to traffic Martens started the presentation late, but the audience filled with SMU graduates and undergraduates became more and more anxious for his arrival.

“I hope to learn something about what goes on behind the scenes and why he designs games this way,” first-year graduate student Xiangwen Shang said.

First-year Adrian Hernandez shared Shang’s enthusiasm. The computer science major plans to attend SMU Guildhall after graduation.

“After I graduate, I want to be a video game designer so I thought this would be good for that,” Hernandez said.

Martens easily talked and joked with the audience when the presentation started. The theme throughout his detailed and visual three-part PowerPoint was simple.

“We’re making games, not movies,” he said.

Martens knew he always wanted to be a writer. He wrote his first fantasy novel in eigth and ninth grade.

He got his first big break working for BioWare Corp, where he stayed for 11 years specializing in interactive storytelling. Since 2009, Martens has worked for Blizzard as a lead designer.

“My goal is to entertain,” Martens said. “[It’s] pulp fiction.”

Diablo III, inspired by adventure films of the ’30s including elements of fantasy, romance, westerns and science fiction, is essentially about killing monsters.

The game incorporates an epic battle between angels and demons with humans stuck in the middle.

“The series is my favorite because of the plot of the game, it is very interactive unlike other online games,” Shang said.

Martens also explained the three different audiences his game attracts.

“The role players love the story. The story opportunists are some where in the middle and the ‘gameplayer-ers,’ strictly just want to play,” Martens said.

Marten believes, more recently, people don’t care as much about the storyline of the game. But storytelling is important to add context to game play and gives people reason to believe the fantasy, Martens explained, especially in Diablo III.

“I love Diablo III, it’s fantastic. I love all of Blizzard’s games. They have better quality and are more interactive so you can get more into it,” Hernandez said.

Diablo III took seven years to be completed and achieve this interactivity. Martens talked about the challenges he faced in designing the game as well as the pros and cons of game making. For Martens, it’s not about the challenge. It’s about the battle.

“Despite all of these challenges I look forward to battling them again,” Martens said.

Martens says he will continue to make video games as long as it’s still fun.