When Tom reviewed Torchlight he was very impressed. Actually, I think anyone who reviewed Torchlight was very impressed. It’s done tremendously well after all and to find out some more about it, we asked Wonder Russell at Runic Games some questions.
Firstly, Torchlight seems to be doing really well. Congratulations! Given that the game was only announced at PAX, and there hasn’t been a huge amount of hype in the run up to release, why do you think it’s appealed to so many people?
Thanks! We think it appeals to people for the same reason it appeals to us. It strips down ARPG to the essentials, gets you in and playing quickly, offers tons of monster-killing fun, and offers a lot of value for a low price. The ARPG market tends to be under-served by developers, and it’s pretty clear that people want more than they are getting these days.
Torchlight was developed in less than a year; was it always planned to get it out so fast, and what kind of strains did it put on the development team?
Yes, we planned on doing a fast project from the beginning. We had an enormous leg up on other developers since we began with a full team that just had an extended practice run with the Mythos project. While we started over from scratch with Torchlight, we were able to bring all the experience we’ve had, what works and what doesn’t, how to make good development tools, and familiarity with each other. Those are significant advantages.
‘Diablo Clone’ is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot with fast-paced RPG’s – what do you think of that?
It’s totally fine. Honestly, a lot of it is because the A-RPG genre is extremely limited compared to other genres; almost every contender is going to get called some sort of Diablo-clone because the diversity is still growing. Think about how “Doom clone” dominated the shooter genre until there was enough variety available. And since we devs from Diablo worked on Torchlight, we wouldn’t deny the heritage!
There are, as with any RPG, a lot of complex systems when it comes to levelling up, customising your character, buffing up your equipment etc. How did you streamline all of these elements into something with that pick up and play appeal?
A lot of our process is always having a playable build, testing it, and getting immediate feedback. If it’s not working, if it’s not intuitive or fun, we talk about why that is and how to make it better. We drew heavily on our experiences developing Diablo, Fate, and Mythos, and just knowing internally what we liked (leveling up should feel satisfying and make an immediate difference in your gameplay style) and what we didn’t like (overly complicated systems that penalize trying out new character builds.)
With its ‘ease-of-use’ and low price point do you think Torchlight is almost a ‘casual’ RPG?
Definitely! We’ve always believed that Torchlight is a casual RPG because any player can get started and enjoy the game, from beginners to veterans. We wanted it to be hugely accessible. We also believe that casual doesn’t have to mean low quality, so we wanted to make a title that cared about high quality graphics and the potential for lots of replay.
The artwork rings familiar but is also strangely unique – what were you aiming for with the look and what were your biggest influences?
We needed to use a style that wouldn’t require fancy graphics technologies to look good, that is easy to produce content for, and which appeals to a broad base of people. We aimed for a hand-drawn look drawing on classic animation techniques, going for a bold, streamlined “chunky” art style that had our own quirky twist.
With the release of TorchED, would you consider officially endorsing some user made mods as, for example, Valve have done with Team Fortress 2 maps? And is there anything you are particularly excited about seeing from the community?
The mods are so fun, but there’s no way we can officially endorse them – unless we made them! And in fact, some of our devs have made lots of different mods. It’s a great way to put a twist on the game and make it fresh again if you’ve been playing for a while. Unfortunately it would take a small army to regulate the mods so we’re steering clear of that.
The pets in Torchlight are fantastic, it’s the first time I’ve known them to go off and sell your stuff for you and summon more pets – tell us about how these ideas came about.
This idea was hatched in the making of Fate, an RPG with pets that Travis Baldree developed. In Torchlight though, we really let them shine. The pets aren’t a gimmick, they become a big influence on your fighting style and in a way, it’s a lot less like a single player game. ;)
What have been the biggest surprises with the release?
The overwhelming number of people who wrote us thanking us for making Torchlight. How high our Twitter followers spiked within a week. The folks who reviewed and played Torchlight who not only loved it, but told all their friends. It was humbling and overwhelming.
Penny Arcade have obviously been really supportive with you announcing at PAX and them doing a strip on Torchlight – have you always had a good relationship with them or has it all come through Torchlight?
We were pleasantly surprised by how much they loved Torchlight! None of us know the guys at Penny Arcade, but we have always been big fans. Their support was invaluable for us, given that most of our press is word of mouth.
Are there any plans to extend Torchlight in the future with extra levels/character classes? And can you say anything about your upcoming MMO?
More on both of these questions will be answered in the coming couple months
The tease. Massive thanks to Wonder for answering our questions and you can buy Torchlight from steam if you still haven’t played it.
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Dear Runic, moar Torchlight plz, k thnx.
“We needed to use a style that wouldn’t require fancy graphics technologies to look good, that is easy to produce content for, and which appeals to a broad base of people. We aimed for a hand-drawn look drawing on classic animation techniques, going for a bold, streamlined “chunky” art style that had our own quirky twist. We needed to use a style that could compete visually with bigger retail games and still be developed on a very aggressive schedule and with minimal budget. We aimed for a hand-drawn look drawing on classic animation techniques, going for a bold, streamlined “chunky” art style that had our own quirky twist.”
Is the last sentence supposed to be there?
Also, I should finish my second run of Torchlight, JC McCrits and her pet panther have been neglected for some time now.
I don’t know what you are talking about. Looks fine to me… *shuffles around nervously*
Huh. Must have been my imagination.
Must have. Crazy person.
Well I think it ruins the entire internet. Shame on you, Mr. Editor!
Woohoo, Torchlight! Gotta go back and finish my other characters too. My normal Destroyer’s been chilling in the Shadow Vault since I finished him, but I’ll be damned if I don’t want to play my awesome summoner Alchemist (very very fun build, at least to watch your own swarm murder the enemy). Or my gunslinging Vanquisher! Woo!
Albeit a bit buggy, Runic should be very very pleased with this. (I personally have only encountered one bug involving Ember.) The Torchlight MMO is something I’m actually looking forward too, and god knows I hate MMOs. I just really hope they go out of their way to be different than other MMOs, or even just be closer to the Diablo formula, which was almost an MMO.
Oh SNAP! New patch.
WHAT HAVE I DONE? *dies*
Shit, Craig’s dead. Looks like another promotion for Ed.