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Blizzard has been fairly tight fisted for a while with Diablo III content. The launch of the website was quickly followed by a dearth of screenshots, character videos and concept art. Soon this flood of content dried to a mere trickle, but it seems that with the spring thaw more is coming our way.

In the newest BlizzCast, Diablo III community manager Bashiok had a chat with the game’s lead technical artist, Julian Love and Mike Nicholson, senior artist on UI design. They’ve put out a few screenshots, mostly having to do with what is discussed during the interview and a few of the questions posed during the Q&A section pertain to Diablo III.

There aren’t any particularly juicy details, but there are some morsels that will keep the news-starved going for a little while. Since the overall thrust of the game seems towards keeping the best aspects of randomly generated dungeons while paring away the dross, it’s interesting to note that shrines as they previously existed are being done away with. Game Director Jay Wilson said that they’re keeping the overall idea of the shrine powerups (increased stamina, temporary boost in experience gains, etc.) but integrating them into quest specific situations.

A lot of effort is being invested into monsters, specifically their deaths. Julian Love said that they realized monsters ‘really live to die in Diablo’, so the best way to invest them all with some individuality and make them all seem a little more unique than the average swarm of enemies was to make their deaths interesting. We’re not just talking a different death for each monster either, there are up to thirty five ways for each monster to “bite it” according to Love. It’s really going to be tailored to your character too from the sound of things. Blasting away with lightning magics will fry critters, while slashing at them with fiery swords will scorch and cut them.