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Torchlight 2's Berserker goes ... well, you know
If you've got some anger issues over Torchlight 2's expected time of arrival, you might find some common ground with the guy showcased in this new trailer.
Torchlight 2 will 'ideally' launch shortly after Diablo 3
Here's the one big question everyone is directing at Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer about Torchlight 2: When is it launching?"Well, I'm sure you've noticed Diablo has announced a date. So, we don't want to fall right on that," Schaefer said when we met at PAX East today. "The real answer is when [Torchlight 2] is finished, is Diablo 3 right now [owning the conversation]? Then we'll wait."Schaefer said the launch date will "ideally" be shortly after the one occupied by Diablo -- and optimistically it'll be a month later. He noted that Runic isn't going to rush to beat Blizzard, however. With the two products selling alongside one another, he feels it's best to polish the game as much as possible. He doesn't want to be the "cheap" alternative, simply the less expensive one at a $20 price. He also noted the game would have an offline mode, modding, LAN support, and that its pacing would separate it from the competition.Does he have something to communicate directly to fans waiting for Torchlight 2?"Be patient. Our total development time on this game is going to be about two years, which is not unreasonably long for this type of game. We're going as fast as we can. It'll be worth the wait, it'll totally be worth the wait. In the long run, people will be happy we took this extra time."
Torchlight 2 distracts with pets trailer, screens
Torchlight 2 developer Runic Games is diverting attention from the game's lack of launch date with some assets featuring the upcoming dungeon crawler's pets. Although we're partial to the bulldog, there's something about the panther rolling over for belly rubs that's too cute to deny.With Diablo 3's May launch just around the corner, we don't hold out too much hope that Torchlight 2 will launch with significant breathing room between it and Blizzard's behemoth. Guess that gives the team at Runic, which has put on a strong face in light of recent events, time to develop a few more pets.%Gallery-152149%
Torchlight team remains strong in face of Diablo 3
Torchlight 2 developer Runic Games is putting on a brave front as the reckoning of Diablo 3 comes this May. Runic once respectfully joked that it would have Torchlight 3 out before Diablo 3 launched, but after significant delays, Torchlight 2 will likely launch after Blizzard's behemoth."We know a lot of you are worried about us. We've heard what you're saying, and sure we've had similar discussions," a Runic statement notes on the Torchlight 2 site. "But we began making the first Torchlight in 2008 when development on Diablo 3 was already underway. We didn't let that be a reason that we couldn't make an RPG." "There will be unforeseen challenges along the way, no matter what business you're in. We've chosen to stay small with a total team of 32. We're pretty sure that we want this game out more than anyone (not just so that we can resume a normal sleep schedule!) -- but we are going to do it right. That's our commitment to you, and to ourselves." Torchlight 2 currently has no launch window. Runic Games is scheduled to launch its Torchlight MMO in late 2012 or early 2013.
Max Schaefer talks Torchlight II development, potential MMO plans
There are a lot of people eagerly anticipating Diablo III, but there are also several people looking forward to Torchlight II, the followup to the hugely successful spiritual sequel to Diablo. A recent interview with Max Schaefer, co-founder and CEO of Runic Games, discusses the development of the sequel including some of the contrasting points between it and Diablo III -- including the lack of any sort of virtual item shop. As Schaefer puts it, the team wants to put together a good game that stands on its own, and if it's successful the developers will look in the direction of an expansion rather than a straightforward shop. Schaefer also discusses a potential MMO coming out of the studio, something that's long been among the studio's plans -- one of the big reasons that Runic partnered with Perfect World Entertainment was due to its expertise with running an MMO. He claims that it's definitely still on the table, but it would be a big change for the studio, since the company has focused on staying small and launching an MMO is a very long-term commitment. Somewhat sad news for those hoping that Torchlight II's launch would spearhead MMO development directly, but the possibility certainly remains.
Runic Games stands against SOPA
Runic Games, developer of the Torchlight series, has come out against the "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) and "PROTECT IP Act" (PIPA). "It is clear that the scope of the proposed legislation would give unnecessarily broaden power to large corporations while reducing the rights of individual citizens -- and it won't even stop software piracy," the company stated on its forums. "We at Runic Games oppose the SOPA/PIPA legislation and we encourage you to do the same." Runic then listed several resources for use in opposing the legislation, noting: "We can still make a difference." Yesterday, League of Legends studio Riot Games came out against the legislation. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the political arm of the video game industry, which represents most major publishers, is in support of SOPA. [Thanks, Jashua B]
Diablo III and Torchlight II compared via infographic
Diablo III? Or Torchlight II? If you can't decide which 2012 action RPG will reign supreme on your desktop, perhaps it's because you haven't compared each game's features side by side. GameArena has made that task quite a bit easier thanks to a comprehensive new infographic that appeared earlier this week. Whether you need a quick glance at the games' classes, a breakdown of the various single- and multiplayer options, or a look at intangibles like the modability and offline play of Torchlight II, the infographic has you covered. There's even a section on pets and a mini-bestiary!
Torchlight 2 officially delayed, Runic prez suggests other games to play
Torchlight 2 has been officially delayed from this year until some point in the near future. Runic Games president Travis Baldree made the announcement today on the game's site, noting that the amount of development time the studio needs is "relatively small," but that it still wants to perform a small beta test before launch to ensure everything runs smoothly. "We feel pretty safe in saying that if you enjoyed Torchlight at all, this sequel is superior in every respect," Baldree wrote. "Right now our job is to ensure that the quality level is consistent all the way to the end." And then, as a brilliant distraction to stop us from crying, Baldree reminded us of the glut of goodness out there at the moment. "Besides, you're all playing Skyrim right now anyway, aren't you? Or Battlefield 3? Or Uncharted 3? Or Saints Row 3? Or Arkham City? Or Skyward Sword? Or Minecraft? Or Modern Warfare 3? Or Dark Souls? Or Assassin's Creed Revelations?" You're right, Travis! No rush. It'll take us until this time next year to make our way through everything you just mentioned anyway.
Torchlight 2 still scheduled for late 2011 (barring death or illness)
Anticipated dungeon crawler Torchlight 2 has a minor update to its launch window, with Runic telling RunicGamesFanSite.com that the title is expected to launch during November or December ... unless "someone on the team dies." That's a far more calamitous caveat compared to what Runic told us when we checked in with the studio a couple weeks ago. "We're still definitely on track for 2011, but have to hit all our internal milestones before we can lock in a date," Runic community maven Wonder Russell told Joystiq. "With a team this small, if one of our three programmers gets the flu, we could be screwed." Torchlight fans should be sewing pillow suits of armor and force-feeding the devs their Flintstone vitamins, just to make sure that the $20 co-op dungeon crawler makes it out this year.
Torchlight, Neverwinter MMOs scheduled to launch late 2012-early 2013
Runic Games is scheduled to launch its Torchlight MMO in late 2012 or early 2013, according to an earnings call with Perfect World's Kelvin Lau. Perfect World, a Chinese MMO developer, owns a majority share of Runic and recently acquired the majority interest of Cryptic Studios, which plans to release Neverwinter in the same timeframe as Torchlight, Lau said. Runic still hopes to launch Torchlight 2 this year. Depending on its sales, the release schedule of its MMO cousin may move, either pushed back so Runic has more time to pamper its success or shoved forward so Runic can hide its screw-up, CEO Max Schaefer said.
Torchlight 2 priced at $20, final class revealed
Torchlight 2, the cooperation-friendly sequel to the million-selling dungeon crawler, has been officially priced at $20 by Runic Games. That's the same price as the original Torchlight. which had a far lower profile. "Everyone who wants to play Torchlight 2 will be able to comfortably afford to do so, and they'll be able to play with their friend online or via a LAN, or play single player offline, all with no further purchase," said Max Schaefer, CEO of Runic Games. Runic also revealed the fourth and final class in the game, the Embermage, who will join the Berserker, Outlander and Engineer on an obsessive quest for better loot. We're sure they'll save the world along the way or whatever, but it's the loot that's important. Torchlight 2 is still targeting a 2011 launch. %Gallery-131770%
Torchlight purchased a million times, sequel still 'targeting' 2011 launch
Runic Games announced today that its little dungeon crawler that could, Torchlight, surpassed a million units sold across PC, Mac and Xbox 360. The company didn't provide a breakdown across platforms, but the title launched in October 2009, May 2010 and March 2011 for PC, Mac and Xbox 360, respectively. Torchlight has been discounted several times over that time to help it along the way to the million mark. Runic is currently working on Torchlight 2. Checking in on the game's ever-shifting release window, a company representative informed us today that the developer is "still targeting 2011," but no launch date will be announced until Runic is "closer to being done."
Torchlight 2 preview: Embers only
Runic Games is showing Torchlight 2 on the floor of E3 this week, and we're just as busy as you are looking at all of this E3 news, so we'll get right to it: It's great. All of the things you loved about the first Torchlight are back, polished and updated, along with one of the most long awaited features of the game, co-op multiplayer. Not a lot has changed, but not a lot needed to -- this is Torchlight with a lot of smoothing, a great graphical upgrade, and a whole lot of fan lovin'. There are two big announcements for the game at E3 this week. First, the Berserker has been revealed as one of the game's new classes, joining the Railman, the Outlander, and one other as of yet unannounced class. Second, the game's multiplayer will support something we haven't seen developers talk about in a while: Local Area Network, or LAN, play. Wait a minute. LAN support? As in offline, play-with-your-friends, Fritos and Mountain Dew-fueled late night LAN party support? Runic Games CEO Max Schafer knows you don't actually have to do that for games any more, right? Like dedicated servers, LAN support is something of a lost art in this modern age of console gaming. "But people asked for it," Schafer told us, so yes, Torchlight 2 will be playable on a LAN. %Gallery-125878%
Torchlight 2 level design illuminated
As the latest in a series of Torchlight 2 teases leading up to E3, Runic has posted a detailed look at the game's level design. Levels in Torchlight 2 will be much larger than in the original game, and, for the first time, there will be large outdoor environments to explore. To give an idea of the new scale, level designer Patrick Blank noted that the largest levels in Torchlight were comprised of six to seven "chunks." The overworld areas in Torchlight 2, on the other hand, can contain over twenty chunks. The overworld will be dotted with multiple dungeons, some of them quest-specific and others that are random. Regardless, Blank notes that players should "always feel rewarded" plumbing the depths of any dungeon. Also, players won't have to worry about backtracking out of dungeons, as each will have a portal back to the surface at its endpoint. Runic has also posted a lengthy level design Q&A with plenty of technical details, including information on level-editing tools. The Q&A also confirms that outdoor levels will feature a day and night cycle and random weather. Check out some fresh Torchlight 2 screens in the gallery below. %Gallery-124120%
Runic unleashes Torchlight 2 monsters
Runic has finally dropped a new morsel of Torchlight 2 information, specifically a small sampling of the game's new monsters. There are a few RPG standards in there, namely the manticore, dwarven automata, gargoyles and witches. The not so standard fare includes the spectral dragon and, our favorite, the Yakotaur (pictured), which is described as "part mountain yak, part yeti" and is obviously not something to be trifled with. Check them all out in the gallery below, and head over to the official Torchlight 2 page for more detailed descriptions of each.%Gallery-120717%
Torchlight 2 'probably' delayed to July, Runic says
Speaking to Digital Spy, Runic CEO Max Schaefer revealed that Torchlight 2 will likely miss its original May–June release window. According to Schaefer, the game will now "probably" be released this July. Apparently the time Runic had to spend on the extra interface design for the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade version of Torchlight is to blame for the sequel's delay, though Schaefer noted that development is "going great" otherwise. Schaefer added that Torchlight 2 should receive some "optimizations and technical improvements," originally created for the XBLA Torchlight. Notably, the sequel should now benefit from reduced load times and improved animation. The XBLA version of Torchlight will be released on March 9.
Runic talks Torchlight's future, not afraid of Diablo 3
Speaking to Gamasutra, Runic's Max Schaefer shared some insight on the Xbox Live Arcade version of Torchlight, as well as the PC version's impending sequel and the eventual Torchlight MMO. He noted that the most difficult part of adapting Torchlight for XBLA was redesigning the interface."You don't realize how much interface is in your game until you have to go and reinvent it," said Schaefer, noting that the team was taken "a little bit by surprise" at how much work was required. The team is "nervous" to see how players react to the game's transformation, though Schaefer said that the game "feels right," adding that many Runic staffers now prefer the Xbox version. He also discussed Torchlight's comparisons to Diablo -- something he must be getting used to by now. Schaefer isn't worried about the upcoming arrival of Diablo 3. In fact, he embraces it, saying, "I only see it as a good thing." In fact, it sounds like Diablo 3 will give Runic some extra time to work, with Schaefer stating "it'll delay whatever we're working on for at least a month." Regarding the Torchlight MMO, Runic is currently focusing on Torchlight 2, though the MMO is definitely still in the pipeline. According to Schaefer, the success of Torchlight has afforded Runic the ability to make "the right strategic move and not make any moves out of desperation."
Runic hopeful Torchlight 2 will come to consoles
Runic Games' long-sought goal to port Torchlight to consoles will come to fruition when the game is released on Xbox Live Arcade as part of Microsoft's "House Party" promotion, beginning in mid-February. Depending on its success on the platform, Runic could look to quickly port the sequel to consoles, too, following its launch on PC this spring. "That will hopefully get to the consoles, as well," Runic CEO Max Schaefer told MTV Multiplayer. "Depending on how [Torchlight on XBLA] does ... we're excited to get Torchlight 2 onto consoles. Hopefully sooner than how long [Torchlight on XBLA] took. We've gone through the exercise, we know what it takes." Additionally, Schaefer priced Torchlight on XBLA at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), though a representative for the studio later said that that price was not official. "It will be set by Microsoft, not Runic Games," said the representative, "and we cannot confirm it."
Torchlight 2 will offer free mod tools, full mod support in multiplayer
A lot of people have been making a big deal out of multiplayer in Torchlight 2 -- and rightfully so -- but not so much talk has been about modding. The first game had a substantial mod community, thanks in part to Runic Games offering mod tools for free to all players. And during my demo of the game at PAX, a Runic rep confirmed that the company will once again freely distribute mod tools to the public. But because of the addition of multiplayer, I was concerned about how mods will be shared now. The rep confirmed to me that players will be able to use the new multiplayer framework to find games incorporating mods but, better yet, all XP earned in these games will stay with your character. I was promised persistence across all games, be they mods or standard games. One final interesting tidbit: all loot dropped in multiplayer games will be client specific. This means that the items you see in your game are only in your game. No need for mad dashes to grab all the high-level loot drops! %Gallery-99869%
Torchlight 3 out before Diablo 3, Runic CEO hypothesizes
Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer respectfully believes that a third Torchlight game could be out before Blizzard's Diablo 3 -- a joke we'd made when the second Torchlight was recently announced. The executive tells us that the efficient size of the Runic team, which has a corporate goal to never grow above 40, would have the ability to get out another significantly upgraded sequel before Blizzard's behemoth arrived. Torchlight and its sequel have both had brisk development cycles lasting less than a year. Schaefer told us, "[Blizzard has] an impossible task. Blizzard can not get away with doing a Torchlight 1. If they put out a single player game, an RPG that's kinda stripped down for $20, people would say, 'What the hell happened to Blizzard?' They don't have that luxury. Everything has to be super epic. More epic than anything that's come before, more epic than World of Warcraft. They have to do that. It puts them in a really tough spot, I don't envy them. It has to be perfect." Given his deadpan delivery on the subject, we wanted to make sure he was serious about Torchlight's third installment beating the Blizzard behemoth to market, "I really think we will, I'm not joking about it. I'll be the first to buy Diablo 3, I'm a huge fan. I just know what it's like over there."
