In the non-MMOG space, we had one goal; get a release date out of Runic Games for Torchlight II. Once upon a time, Max Schaefer, Runic’s CEO, jokingly said Torchlight III – that’d be a game that technically isn’t announced yet – would be released before Diablo III. Since the statement, Runic has turtled its own development for final polish. Lots of it.
A release date of “Soon TM” has been applied to the title since. However, that doesn’t stop our correspondent and community from wanting answer to difficult questions, including the presence of DirextX 11 support, system requirements and coverage, co-op play, including quest sharing, and access to the source code.
In the wake of E3 2011, we were aching to learn more about the upcoming Torchlight II. And luckily for us, Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer was willing to take some time out of his day to answer a few of our questions. Read on for some great insight into a game that we’re looking forward to seeing later this year.
LoreHound.com: Hello. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule for the interview. Let’s start with the basics. How many character classes will be offered? What are their specialties?
Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer: Torchlight II will feature 4 new character classes. So far we’ve announced the Outlander, a ranged hybrid character, the Railman, a heavy tank-like class, and the Berserker, a fast toe-to-toe melee character. Our 4th character will be revealed soon!
LH: Torchlight offered players three distinct classes, yet none of them are returning (as playable characters). What was the thinking behind that decision?
MS: Correct, the original 3 from Torchlight I will only be returning as NPC’s to move the story forward. In Torchlight II you get to pick gender and other features like hair style, so we had to remake the characters from scratch regardless. Since we’re making a whole new game, we thought players would also like to play new characters, ones designed with multiplayer in mind.
LH: The original game grew through world of mouth. Despite its success, many PC gamers missed the boat. How difficult will it be for them to step into the sequel. Will the plots from the
two games commingle or does Torchlight II offer a standalone story? Continue Reading
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Torchlight, the freshman entry from Runic Games, excited many PC gamers. Developed by the minds behind Diablo, Diablo II, Fate and Mythos, the game caters to the dungeon crawler, loot collector in all of us. Featuring the best aspects of the past gems, and numerous tweaks and refinements, a pet that sells your loot for you, the budget title has sold like hotcakes.
From day one, Runic Games stated its intention to expand Torchlight from a then upcoming single-player title to an MMOG. Perfect World Entertainment, a free-to-play publisher we’ve discussed previously, believed in the company’s idea and agreed to publish the MMOG. After the rapid success, numerous awards and over 500,000 sales of Torchlight, Perfect World Entertainment has upped the ante. The publisher is now a majority stakeholder in Runic Games after sinking $8.4 million into the company.
Interested in seeing what the company may produce? You can grab Torchlight for the budget price of $19.99 from Amazon (tag team with Fate for free shipping), or hope it goes on sale on Steam again.
