OMG. Torchlight (game by Diablo1&2 Lead Designer) heading out to consoles -PSN, XBLA-

[Cyan]

Torchlight is a game created by the designer of one of the most influential games of all time that I played countless hours years ago. I mean, Diablo and Diablo 2 -especially this one-. So, who is not a fan of those terribly addictive games? I've been playing them since a good decade ago. Yes, I played it plenty of time, but hell, do the years fly! Back in those days I used to play it into all hours of the night.

This coming January is going to mark my decade long love affair with Diablo series --I began pretty late taking into account when it came out, I was mostly an Age of Empires gamer-. I could waste countless hours playing with those little characters, although I left the game back in 2004 or so when I bought my shiny new console. I couldn't play many games then on account of my graphics card started to die on me, albeit Diablo 2 ran just fine. :smile:

Anyway, Max Schaefer has created another way too much fun game. Devising an entire new world full of awesomeness and bastard enemies and demons.., battling the antiheroes, back again with the random deaths, the special bosses and the same difficulties and insanities typical in a Diablo 2 game when your character faces demanding challenges.

Torchlight has received very positive reviews and great scores, and it also sold more than 750.000 copies on the PC, which is an achievement for an almost indie game. Apart from that, it won some important awards -like the Best Debut GDC award back in 2009-. It was also included in the 20 top games list of 2009 -15th place-, made by Neogaf.

While Torchlight is not the best game ever, technically wise, the game has this hooking-effect typical of Diablo series that keeps you interested in it for hours and hours.

I hope it comes out as soon as possible in consoles too. It's not usual to play this sort of games on consoles.

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/08/interview_runic_ceo_on_torchli.php

{CEO Max Schaefer talks to our own Kris Graft about Runic Games' just-announced Torchlight II, the sequel to 2009's fan favorite PC action RPG -- including digital strengths and how consoles are "definitely something we're talking about."]

With the buzz around new and upcoming games like DeathSpank, Diablo III and DarkSpore, you might come to the conclusion that the classic PC style of action RPG is making a comeback. (Or you might come to the conclusion that Diablo set off some kind of trend with the letter "D". )

For Max Schaefer, CEO of Seattle-based Torchlight developer Runic Games, action RPGs never really went away. A veteran of Blizzard North and a contributor on Diablo I and Diablo II, he has had an affinity for the genre for years. And his team at Runic, made up of a staff that also worked on games like Mythos, Fate and Hellgate: London, also have deep interest in the genre.

This week, the studio announced Torchlight II, the sequel to 2009's original that incorporates much-requested co-op play, character customization and a larger scope.

In this interview, Schaefer explains why the team is working on an action RPG sequel alongside the previously-announced Torchlight MMO, what business and design lessons the studio learned from its freshman effort Torchlight and interest in bringing its games to console.

The Torchlight MMO -- you said you're still working on it alongside Torchlight II but why not just focus on the MMO first?

There are a couple reasons. I think that we were overwhelmed by the response after Torchlight came out. Everyone said they loved it, and there were generally good reviews, and I think that literally every comment in every review said it would've been better with co-op. The more we thought about it, we could give people what they're asking for, and give them a nice, co-op Torchlight experience a lot faster than we could do an MMO.

So it felt like there was a vacuum there. We decided to do it, because it'd make the MMO better in the long run because we'll have a little more experience with making a multiplayer Torchlight, and it'll give people what they want in the meantime. We kind of ran out of reasons not to do it.

It also seems like a lower-cost way to expand the franchise, and it'd help fund the MMO, correct?

Sure yeah, to the extent we make a profit on it, it'll be going into helping out the MMO, so that's a big part of it. But mainly, the motivation is just giving the players what they want.

You announced back in May that Torchlight had sold 500,000 units. How have the sales progressed since then?

I don't think we have an exact number right now, but we're up well over 600,000 now. It still sells well. But we haven't done an inventory of all our distributors for a little while.

Are you noticing pretty good legs on the game?

Yeah, it certainly slowly trails off. I think we lose something like 10 percent every week or so, but that's punctuated by sales, which always kick up the numbers pretty well. It still sells like crazy every time it goes on sale.

Can you estimate the ratio of digital downloads vs. box unit sales?

I would say it's almost four-to-one. I think that will even up as time goes on, just because there are different markets – I think boxes last a little longer in terms of their sales curves – but right now it's four-to-one, and that's conservative.

And the new one is coming to both digital download and boxed retail.

Yes.

Aside from the idea that you need co-op in the sequel, what did you learn from the first game, either distribution and business-wise or design-wise?

First, distribution and business-wise, we expected that things had moved to digital downloads from boxes since the last time we published and put [out a game]. But we were kind of struck by just how far that's gone now. The vast majority of our sales are through digital download, either through our site, Steam, GamersGate, or through any of the sellers out there. We didn't expect it to be so biased towards that. I mean, it's good for us, we do better on a download than we do on a boxed sale. But that's something we have to realize, that that's where the market is for this type of game, and we should really be playing towards that.

With respect towards design, a lot of what drove Torchlight I's design was necessity, and the need, want and desire to get something out quickly. People felt a little claustrophobic with the structure – Torchlight is just one town and a series of dungeons underneath. So the obvious remedy for that is to make big overworlds and different cities, so we're doing that.

The other thing that people wanted was more character customization, so in Torchlight II people will have the ability to select hair styles, basically customize your character a lot more than you could in Torchlight I.

Have you guys thought about console games?

Yeah, we talk about it a lot. The limiting factor on that is that we're a small studio, and we want to stay small. So it limits the vigor for which we should pursue some of these things. But it's definitely something we're talking about and working on. We think Torchlight would make a great console game. It's just about make all the puzzle pieces fit.

Action RPGs– and you guys I think are a part of this movement – are making a comeback on PC it seems like. Maxis just announced Darkspore. What are your thoughts on this reemergence?

I think there's always been a market for the action RPGs, and it was just kind of an underserved market. It's harder than you think to make a good action RPG, just to get the feel perfect. But I think the players are out there for them. It's just fun, and that never goes out of style.

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/torchlight-heading-to-consoles-soonish-probably/2472/

This article features a very cool video interview.

Torchlight Heading To Consoles Soonish, Probably

Added by Matt Kessler on Aug. 23, 2010

Back in 2009, Runic Games founder and Diablo/Diablo II Lead Designer Max Schaefer stopped by the Giant Bomb offices to talk about his recently released action-RPG, Torchlight. During that interview, Schaefer reiterated that Torchlight was designed and released primarily to help bring in revenue that could be put towards the development of a free-to-play MMO based on the world and gameplay mechanics of Torchlight.

Little did Schaefer guess that the tiny, budget-priced RPG, would turn out to be a modest hit: to date, Torchlight has sold 750,000 copies, and Runic has responded to its success with gusto: the team has pushed aside work on the Torchlight MMO and has instead moved to the recently revealed, online-enabled Torchlight II. Furthermore, beyond the Torchlight sequel, it sounds like Runic has plans to bring the original Torchlight to some new platforms: namely, the consoles.

Over at Gamescom last week, Schaefer told Joystiq that Runic Games has been working on a console port of Torchlight to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for some time, and the company is now in talks with both Microsoft and Sony to release the game on XBLA and PSN. While nothing official has been announced, Schaefer is "hoping" to have the console versions of Torchlight out by the holidays.

Between the game's critical and commercial reception on the PC, and the mention of the holiday release date, I imagine that Runic is hoping to get the console versions of Torchlight out before the Spring 2011 release of Torchlight II. I certainly would love to see a version of Torchlight on my television screen. I mean, I already liked other console loot-focused action-RPGs, like Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. But wouldn't all of those games be better if they let you go on adventures with a dog?

And for the record; In Torchlight, you get a dog.

If that's not worth $15, I don't know what is.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/21/torchlight-hopefully-out-on-xbla-and-psn-by-holidays-has-sold/

Runic Games had dreams of putting Torchlight on Xbox Live Arcade, then it put "serious effort" into a console version and now the studio is hoping to have the game out by this holiday for PSN and XBLA. Runic CEO Max Schaefer told Joystiq at Gamescom today, "We're trying, we're talking [to Sony and Microsoft] and we hope to get that done quickly." Although there's no release window, he told us it'll "hopefully" be available "by the holidays."

Schaefer also told us the game has now sold over 750,000 units and is en route to a million. The RPG reached the half-million milestone back in May after launching in October, following a tiny development time of 10 months. If the sales figure seems a bit low, the executive mentioned that piracy has been an issue, but they have no way of tracking how many illegal copies were made.

As for Torchlight 2 on consoles, Schaefer told us Runic will "try" to get the multiplayer sequel to consoles sometime after the PC and Mac release.

You can try a free demo here:

http://www.torchlightgame.com/download/

 

[Scott_Arm]

Already own torchlight on mac and probably won't buy it again, but Torchlight 2 on xbox live is a done deal for me, if and when it comes out.

 

[BRiT]

About freaking time!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There's a nice resurgence of the loot-and-level RPG and console making up the painful couple of attempts that headed the generation. There's this and DeathSpank (bite-size variation), and Dungeon Siege 3. torchlight is interesting because it's not trying to be anything other than a dungeon crawler, and it's streamlined to exactly that experience, yet it's still sold 750,000 on PC and will probably do a million. A properly crafted multiplayer game like BGDA/CON would inevtiably do well, and yet it's a genre avoided as half the devs in the world chase after the FPS market.

Suffice to say I will be playing this one.

 

[liolio]

YES!! That made my day I just love that kind of games
And I didn't bite into Deathspank the demo didn't do it to me which was a huge deception

Spoiler

I still even play Sacred 2 from time to time

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And I didn't bite into Deathspank the demo didn't do it to me which was a huge deception

I didn't take to the DeathSpank demo either, but the full game was entertaining in its way.

 

[matthias]

These arre very good news. I loved Deathspank and am looking forward to torchlight and deathspank 2.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I tried Torchlight long time back, didn't like it, frankly speaking. I liked the Deathspank demo a lot, on the other hand. I like borderlands too, FPS but its loot shooter.
I dunno, somehow Torchlight just didn't click, I had no motivation to continue in the game.

 

[zed]

I saw torchlight on gamasutra mentioned as a smash hit, so I tried it (first game I'ld played for months + its also the last game ive played which shows how often I play games)
like RenegadeRocks it didnt click for me, in fact the whole game seemed to consist of
1/ kill monsters
2/ click on treasure
3/ go back to #1

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes, it's very basic. It's taken the core mechanics of loot-and-level gameplay, and kept it at that without story (from what I hear). I guess providing a game as brutally paired back as that could be unnerving. I guess some gamers won't like seeing their games reduced to the core mechanics that they do over and over with the illusion of some progress! imagine a shooter called "shooter" where you just run and shoot things without story. It doesn't change the gameplay, but it will make the game feel less.

However, this is a budget, download title that appreciates lots of peeps just like grabbing loot and levelling!

 

[Richard]

I don't agree entirely there Shifty. Torchlight is as paired down as Diablo 2 was, with the possible exception that Diablo had cinematics while Torchlight has text over a static background. The Diablo 2 story is slightly better but the game itself is just the 3 step process zed enumerated. I believe your second point resonates more. People adjust their expectations. They went to play a budget title and "experienced" budget quality. If Runic could call it Diablo 3 and price it at 60 euros it would have been game of the year.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'd have to respectfully chain-disagree with Richard here.

Torchlight has more in common with Diablo 1, IMO, than Diablo 2. It's a bit more involved than 1, but far less than 2. Sort of a midpoint between those, but a midpoint closer to the first. And this is pre-LOD. D2 + LOD isn't very comparable to Torchlight other than in very basic ways. But when compared to Diablo 1, it's a very very similar clone. All the way down to the one dungeon and one town.

Torchlight was quite obviously a basic budget title and the developers did nothing to hide that. Instead they embraced it and rather than spend any time with storyline and storyline progression, focused on the gameplay mechanics and controls. It's amazing how many Action Click RPGs have totally failed due to mushy or imprecise controls. In that aspect alone, Torchlight is worlds above something like Sacred (1&2), and closer to the sheer responsiveness of the Diablo series.

Regards,
SB

 

[Richard]

Torchlight has more in common with Diablo 1, IMO, than Diablo 2. It's a bit more involved than 1, but far less than 2. Sort of a midpoint between those, but a midpoint closer to the first.

How so? There's more flexibility with the gems and socketed items, transmutation recipes, you have a pet, dual stashes, inheriting items, and you have fishing. Other than LoD's charms, and having only 3 instead of 5 classes, Torchlight has everything D2 had gameplay-wise and then some.

 

[NavNucST3]

Already own torchlight on mac and probably won't buy it again, but Torchlight 2 on xbox live is a done deal for me, if and when it comes out.

I intentionally didn't buy it from Mac Steam as I had....hmmm..."hope" that it would makes its way to a console.

 

[Grall]

I don't care much for the skill trees of Torchlight, or at least not for the ranger-type class, whatever its called. Weird skills, feels largely useless. Also, controls really could be better, there's no way to just fuckin stand STILL and shoot like in D2 without holding the bloody shift key down, which feels like I'm going to break the fingers off my hand to accomplish while playing.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

How so? There's more flexibility with the gems and socketed items, transmutation recipes, you have a pet, dual stashes, inheriting items, and you have fishing. Other than LoD's charms, and having only 3 instead of 5 classes, Torchlight has everything D2 had gameplay-wise and then some.

1 town. 1 multilevel dungeon. Fewer Characters. Diablo 1 and Torchlight have 3 (basically the exact same classes Warrior/Destroyer, Sorceror/Alchemist, Rogue/Vanquisher). Hellfire Expansion added 3 more classes (Monk having to be hacked in), however. Diablo II has 5 and LOD has 7. So basically Diablo 1 as far as setting and storyline.

As for skills, virtually no dependencies and very limited skill synergy leading to fairly uninteresting and very limited number of effective class builds.

For socketables there's less than even Diablo II (Gems and Jewels) much less LOD (adding runes which adds the potential for runeword items). As well only 2 variations on gems versus 3 for D2.

Set items are sorely lacking in Torchlight. Trasmutation recipes are also fewer but at least there. There's a pet sure, but I'd take a portable Horadric cube over a pet going to town anyday. Especially as at later levels in both games you'll start to want to keep gems more than selling items. And price for sold items in Torchlight is a bit of a joke, but that's somewhat balanced by the fact you can send your pet to town to sell. Which still doesn't balance out being able to transmute anytime you want.

Spells for the Alchemist rapidly peter out with growing difficulty levels due to lack of scaling (as with the weapon based classes) as well as limited skill synergy.

The pet is somewhat nice for combat, but I'd take a D2 henchmen over the Torchlight pet for that. And the LOD Henchmen even moreso. Especially as difficulty level rises and the pet becomes less and less effective.

Inheriting items and Fishing are the only things new. Other than that it was a very faithful recreation of Diablo 1 with some of the mechanics from Diablo 2. I was originally going to say being able to swap spells, but then Diablo 1 had the ability to memorize spells available to all classes and upgrade them, only you weren't limited to 4 spell slots.

But at the end of the day it's still a very low budget Diablo title. And both developement time, in game assets, lack of multiplayer, price and buginess of the program are all prime indications. The game is better now, but after almost 1 year's worth of patches it's still quite buggy with some skills still not working correctly the last time I played it. D2 had relatively few bugs and most of the patches were to address balance issues.

So after typing all that out, in some ways it's more similar to D2 while in others it's a blatant copy of D1. So I'll revist my original assertion that it was more D1 than D2. It's pretty solidly right in the middle of the two, IMO.

All this isn't to say that Torchlight is in anyway a bad game if you like point and click action RPGs with loot collection. It's fantastic for the price. Budget title for a budget price. I don't regret buying it for 10 USD at all.

Regards,
SB

 

[Richard]

1 town. 1 multilevel dungeon. Fewer Characters. Diablo 1 and Torchlight have 3 (basically the exact same classes Warrior/Destroyer, Sorceror/Alchemist, Rogue/Vanquisher). Hellfire Expansion added 3 more classes (Monk having to be hacked in), however. Diablo II has 5 and LOD has 7. So basically Diablo 1 as far as setting and storyline.

As for skills, virtually no dependencies and very limited skill synergy leading to fairly uninteresting and very limited number of effective class builds.

For socketables there's less than even Diablo II (Gems and Jewels) much less LOD (adding runes which adds the potential for runeword items). As well only 2 variations on gems versus 3 for D2.

Touché. I don't consider the setting for comparison because in either Diablo or Torchlight it's just stuff to keep you occupied before your index finger goes numb.

Set items are sorely lacking in Torchlight. Trasmutation recipes are also fewer but at least there.

There are less of these, sure but they feel much more special when you get them. They're also, in my experience, more flexible exactly because the skill tree does not funnel you into an archetype.

There's a pet sure, but I'd take a portable Horadric cube over a pet going to town anyday. Especially as at later levels in both games you'll start to want to keep gems more than selling items.

Well, there are gem merchants in between "acts" and the pet going to town saves you plenty of space to keep amassing gems.

And price for sold items in Torchlight is a bit of a joke, but that's somewhat balanced by the fact you can send your pet to town to sell. Which still doesn't balance out being able to transmute anytime you want.

Spells for the Alchemist rapidly peter out with growing difficulty levels due to lack of scaling (as with the weapon based classes) as well as limited skill synergy.

The economy and some of the spells could use rebalancing I agree. The difficulty also is a bit skewed. Only the highest proves a significant challenge, though [strike]Ironman[/strike] hardcore is quite tense on its own.

The pet is somewhat nice for combat, but I'd take a D2 henchmen over the Torchlight pet for that. And the LOD Henchmen even moreso. Especially as difficulty level rises and the pet becomes less and less effective.

You have the transmutation fish for that, though it's a bit more micro-management that I personally like.

So after typing all that out, in some ways it's more similar to D2 while in others it's a blatant copy of D1. So I'll revist my original assertion that it was more D1 than D2. It's pretty solidly right in the middle of the two, IMO.

Fair enough, you did actually sell me more on the lack of MP which is far stronger and more fundamental to Diablo 2 than it was for the original.

All this isn't to say that Torchlight is in anyway a bad game if you like point and click action RPGs with loot collection. It's fantastic for the price. Budget title for a budget price. I don't regret buying it for 10 USD at all.

Agreed. I did pay euros for it but what the heck.

 

[infinity4]

If Torchlight can be brought to consoles, Blizzard should port Diablo 3 onto consoles as well! I feel they could grab a huge market if they ever chose to make the game to 360 and PS3.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes. Although I must say I don't find PC to console conversions like this play terribly well. Console games want a hit button mashed to hit thing, and a block button, whereas on PC you just hold the mouse button. PC feels very detatched, and console conversions tend to mirror that. eg. Sacred 2, you held the attack button. And it doesn't help that you can't direct you attacks like you can with a mouse, so things like auto-aim.auto-target-selection come into effect that also mess things up.

I deally we need people to set out to make these as console games from the outset, basing the core mechanic on BGDA and not Diablo.

 

[BRiT]

It's simple really. They only need to properly make use the right-thumb-stick for look/aim in place of the mouse.