Topic: Diablo, Mythos Vets Announce Action-MMO 'Torchlight'

[idolminds]

Woo!

Runic Games was formed by ex-Flagship devs. All 14 people that were working on Mythos are now working there, and they are making Torchlight. Which looks unsurprisingly a lot like Mythos. Which is AWESOME.

[Quemaqua]

Woot!

[Ghandi]

Sweet. Mythos was a lot of fun. Which I guess wasn't surprising given that it was a prettier version of Diablo, but still.

[idolminds]

This popped up on Quarter To Three:

Yeah, I'm one of the cofounders. Heck I'm the president *insert eye roll here* Which basically means that this time out, if things go ass-over-teakettle, it's all my fault.
Hopefully that won't be the case though.

Perfect World is our MMO publisher. The single-player game ( and the press release makes things a bit confusing on that point ) is going to be released this year, and we haven't announced any publishers for that yet, although we're aiming to do online distribution, hopefully box, and OEM if we can swing it. So, casual game distribution channels.
The single-player will be a 20-30 dollar game or so, and we're going to release the tools we used to build it. It's extremely mod-friendly - people should be able to relatively easily add items, monsters, level, art, quests, skills, and the like. We have some pretty nifty tools.

The single-player is our baby, and PW has given us their blessing to do it, with the understanding that the work we do there will be very beneficial for the MMO ( assets, lore, tech, tools, etc. ) - especially since we had to start all over again from scratch after Mythos sank into the mud. It's effectively a merging of what we learned with Fate and Mythos. Development began in earnest about November 1st or so of 2008, a little bit after we incorporated, evaluated tech solutions, got an office, and did all the boring stuff to make sure it was possible to pay ourselves and keep the power on.

At any rate, we're having a blast making it - it's a nice change of pace to make a single-player game again on a short schedule, and it's been coming together very fast. There are a couple of screens we released to some fansites so you can get a bit of an idea of how it looks early on - sort of The Incredibles by way of Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair. Or something like that. These are representative of approximately 5 or so months of development - maybe 6. Lots will probably change.

[MysterD]

Since Idol didn't provide the link....
Here ya go, from Travis Baldree of Runic posted on The QuarterToThree Forums!

The single-player will be a 20-30 dollar game or so, and we're going to release the tools we used to build it. It's extremely mod-friendly - people should be able to relatively easily add items, monsters, level, art, quests, skills, and the like. We have some pretty nifty tools.

AWESOME!

The single-player is our baby, and PW has given us their blessing to do it, with the understanding that the work we do there will be very beneficial for the MMO ( assets, lore, tech, tools, etc. ) - especially since we had to start all over again from scratch after Mythos sank into the mud. It's effectively a merging of what we learned with Fate and Mythos. Development began in earnest about November 1st or so of 2008, a little bit after we incorporated, evaluated tech solutions, got an office, and did all the boring stuff to make sure it was possible to pay ourselves and keep the power on.

At any rate, we're having a blast making it - it's a nice change of pace to make a single-player game again on a short schedule, and it's been coming together very fast. There are a couple of screens we released to some fansites so you can get a bit of an idea of how it looks early on - sort of The Incredibles by way of Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair. Or something like that. These are representative of approximately 5 or so months of development - maybe 6. Lots will probably change.

So, let me get this correct....
Torchlight is a SP game, right?

So...wait...is there some other different MMO game they are working on?

Or are they ALSO making a Torchlight MMO?
If so, is that shipping with the game?
Or will you have to buy that separate?
Or what?

[Pugnate]

D seriously man.

I can't wait to hit 10,000 posts.

[MysterD]

D seriously man.

I can't wait to hit 10,000 posts.

Keep trying to catch up with me.
You'll need all the luck in the world!

[Pugnate]

No so I unlock the D punch bonus.

[MysterD]

No so I unlock the D punch bonus.

Get 20,000, maybe there's a kick, too...

[Quemaqua]

I'd just like to make it clear that if anyone starts to try upping their post count by spamming useless posts, I will ban them.  Twice.

[Pugnate]

+1

[Ghandi]

+1

[PyroMenace]

Tacos.

[MysterD]

Was any release date set forth with this game yet?
Or is it TBD?

[idolminds]

No dates, but the dude said the SP game would be released this year. Heres hoping.

[MysterD]

No dates, but the dude said the SP game would be released this year. Heres hoping.

Nice!
Let's hope all goes well.

[MysterD]

Leigh Schaefer of Runic has an interview on Torchlight with Gamesetwatch.com

[MysterD]

TenTonHammer.com has a 11 minute video here from E3 2009 on Torchlight with (President) Travis Baldree of Runic.

Vid shows off two classes (of the three) that'll be in the game.

EDIT 1:
Worth noting - this vid shows off some of the Easy-To-Use SDK that will ship with the game.
You can add and modify the enemies, skills, classes, weapons, armor, items, level cap, and so forth. Looks really easy to use -- a la NWN Engine or any of those old-school 2D RPG Engines (think like Duke Nukem 3D's Build Engine).

EDIT 2:
Runic is expecting to sell this game digitally and retail-box for around $20-30.

Torchlight MMO will be a separate product/entity entirely.
It'll be free-to-play and will be coming...TBD.

[Quemaqua]

Damn, that actually looks fantastic.  I've been looking forward to it and all, but that's actually looking quite cool.  Can't wait to see the final product.

[MysterD]

Damn, that actually looks fantastic.  I've been looking forward to it and all, but that's actually looking quite cool.  Can't wait to see the final product.

I can't wait to get my hands on the game -- and especially the SDK that ships with the game.

Also, I'd like to see what other gamers come up with for mods and stuff with that SDK and all.

[MysterD]

Gamebunny interviews some of the dev's at Runic

Game Length

gamebunny:
About how many hours are you expecting a single play-through to take?

Runic (Erich Schaefer):
We are estimating about 10-20 hours to play through the storyline. On the longer side if it’s your first time, and quicker if you’re experienced and just plow through. After the storyline quests are complete, however, you still delve deeper and deeper, fighting tougher monsters and finding more loot.

Amount of Enemy Variations

gamebunny:
In the E3 demo I came across skeletons, spiders, ogres and others. How many enemy types can players expect to battle?

Runic (Erich Schaefer):
We plan to have around 30 base monsters, with many variations of each. In addition to those, we’ll have four or five specific, mega-bosses.

[MysterD]

PCGames.de has an interview w/ Runic Games

Page 5-8 = The Entire Interview in English.

Pages 1-4 = same interview, but in German.

[idolminds]

Release date and price

October 27, $19.99

Also, heres an interesting article discussing the evolution of their art.

[Quemaqua]

I will be buying it, most likely.  I've loved a lot of what I've seen.

[idolminds]

This game has serious modding potential.

We've exposed just about everything to modding - you can create new levels, new artwork (our formats are open, so models, textures, sounds, music, etc), new quests, skills, classes, monsters, items, itemsets and recipes. All the stats are exposed for tuning modification, and we use a powerful effects system for skills and items that allows you to do some interesting things with them. Everything is basically editable from inside our tool, which also allows you to play the game inside itself (you can snap together a level and run around it, or make a new skill, or what have you, without starting the game proper). We've also got a visual scripting system that is drag and drop with connectable inputs and outputs, timelines, logic objects and so on. Particle editing is integrated into the editor, as well as game-world structure (dungeons, towns, regions, portals, etc). The UI is also moddable, and all our base filetypes (excepting textures and meshes, although there is an intermediate XML format for meshes) are all plain text until they are compressed. As long as you want to make an Action-RPG, you can pretty much make a new game.

[Quemaqua]

That's awesome.  I hope people grab onto this.

[MysterD]

Man -- that toolkit sounds absolutely killer. I wish more games had a toolkit as extensive as this one looks like it will have. I'm sure the Mod Community is going to mod this game out big time -- I mean, it's part Diablo, part Mythos, and it's moddable as sin! What's NOT to like about this thing already?

Also, I really hope down the line, Runic drops some expansion packs for the Torchlight SP, too. I'd really like them to keep the SP side going, as well.

I'm sure when they drop the MMO, that'll do fine.

Is the retail box and digital version of this Torchlight SP dropping at the same time?

[MysterD]

Eurogamer went hands-on with Torchlight at PAX 09.

[MysterD]

Torchlight - The Valiant Vanquisher Trailer.

[MysterD]

Alchemist Class - Trailer.

[MysterD]

Developer's Video Diary here from Runic Games on Torchlight.
Almost 5 minutes in length.

[MysterD]

Runic is dreaming of one day getting Torchlight on XBLA, even though it probably won't happen any time soon -- since they're going to do Torchlight MMO next.

Runic Games 'Fantasizing' About XBLA Release For Torchlight
Small studio committed to MMO spinoff of their new dungeon crawler, but would like to see downloadable console release as well.
By Kat Bailey, 10/08/2009

A little over a year after the collapse of Flagship Studios, direct descendant Runic Games is preparing to release dungeon crawler Torchlight. But while the Diablo-like RPG is currently exclusive to the PC, CEO Max Schaefer admitted that the team wouldn't mind seeing their game on consoles.

"We talk about it a lot. We fantasize about getting the [Xbox Live Arcade] version, and that would probably be the one we did... the XBLA one," Schaefer told 1UP.

Runic Games has other commitments however, with Schaefer saying that "we're really committed to making the MMO version next, and we're a pretty small studio. We just have one little team."

If Torchlight ever made it to XBLA though, the team at Runic feels that it would be successful. "We look at it and we say, 'This would really do great," Schaefer said.

Torchlight is currently slated for release at the end of October, and will focused exclusively on single-player. It's being positioned as a budget download on the PC, and will include a full suite of development tools upon release. While any console version would necessarily lose the modding aspect, Torchlight's lightweight accessibility would seemingly make it an ideal fit for services like XBLA and PlayStation Network.

For now though, Runic is committed to developing the massively multiplayer spinoff of Torchlight after it's released to the public. Look for it on PC on October 27, with the Mac release date to be announced later.

[MysterD]

G4TV Interview w/ Runic's Max Schaefer
Linky!

G4: The game is coming out and you're starting with digital distribution. That was the idea with Mythos, right?

Schaefer: Yeah, it was going to be a free-to-play free download item sales MMO, which is a model we really like for a lot of reasons. So it just seemed like a natural with Torchlight.

By the way, we are doing boxes for Torchlight. They come out in January-ish at a Wal-Mart near you. But it seemed liked the digital download is a little bit more modern, little bit more convenient way to go about it.

And the way we've designed Torchlight is that it's really low tech. We don't use any shaders, so there's no normal maps or environment amps and all the crazy stuff that makes your file size bloated. So it's a really tight [game]. 300MB. And so it's a pretty quick and easy download and the economics are much better for a download than they are for a $20 box because Wal-Mart buys that box for $10 and you take out the cost of making it and split it with the publisher and it's a tiny fraction of what you get for a download.

And [with] download you can get it everywhere very easily day one, we're going to get up on Steam and Direct2Drive and on our own site and Perfect World's site and just make it really easy for people to get it.

[MysterD]

Torchlight Dev Diary - The SDK / Toolkit.

[idolminds]

I hope its on Impulse. With a filesize that small I'll probably just get the download version.

[MysterD]

CrispyGamer Interview w/ Runic Games
Part 1
Part 2

EDIT - 10/22/2009 :
Shacknews Interview w/ Peter Hu of Runic Games
Click here!

[idolminds]

Gamasutra interview

These guys are really getting out there in the press. And everything I read makes me more and more excited.

Your mod tool looks like a full-fledged level editor.

MS: It's even more than a level editor.

TB: It's an everything editor.

MS: You can adjust the stats globally and the balance of the game globally or item. You can do particle systems. You can do scripting for quests for events. You can do level layout.

TB: You can build your own skills. You can rebalance all the existing skills. You can change their names, their icons, their particles, and their animations. If you wanted to raise their level cap, it's about five seconds. Pretty much everything we used to build the game is available. You can add new sets of items. You can add new uniques. You can rebalance all the existing ones. It's pretty full featured. It's actually pretty fun to play with.

MS: This is the actual tool that we're using to make the game. We're not dumbing it down for the consumer or anything. This is the real deal what we use every day to make the game. We fully expect our modding community to do even cooler things than we've done with it because there are thousands of [potential modders].

TB: And none of our file formats are protected file formats. They're all open. They're all easy to change and modify. All of our art assets are using publicly available file formats with publicly available exporters. So, it should be hopefully really easy to add new stuff.

MS: This is a unique thing that you can do with the single-player game. Obviously, if you have an online game, it's going to be trouble to have one guy with the hacking tool basically.

[MysterD]

For those looking to buy Torchlight directly from Runic Games, here's what Travis Baldree of Runic said about the DRM on the version you can get directly from them.

We're probably just going to throw a bunch of unlocks on there - 10 or more. We don't really want it to be a hassle, and we'll probably use the absolute minimum protection possible for our own distributed versions.

The reason for this is really that we want to do an unlock demo because, to be frank, they just sell better. If someone doesn't have to download the game, and then download it AGAIN if they want to buy that, it's just a better experience.

So my preference is to make it very very light DRM with a large-but-limited number of unlocks. If you buy the game, I don't care if you install it on every PC in your house.

[Xessive]

If you buy the game, I don't care if you install it on every PC in your house.

I wish more publishers/devs had that attitude.

[MysterD]

If I have more PC's (say 11) than activations allowed (it might be 10, not sure yet) - then his theory's no good. He STILL DOES care then.

Though, I doubt most people have even 5 PC's in their house at once going...
I got 2.