• Torchlight: Interview with Max Schaefer, CEO of Runic Games and Wonder Russell, Minister of Culture at Runic Games

    09/08/2009

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    Posted in: Interview, PC

    The folks at Runic tell me all about Torchlight, due out for single player release October 27, 2009, and reveal some tidbits of the MMO version to follow.

    Cat: With a $19.99 price point for the single player game, what can players expect for the scale of gameplay?

    Max: Endless adventure! Players can pick from three character types, a Vanquisher, a Destroyer or an Alchemist.

    Wonder: I think especially for people that played Fate, which Travis Baldree developed pretty much single-handedly, and some of our guys like Max who worked on Diablo, so like the single player is just it’s for people that want gaming on their own time, on their own you know, get in there and do it on their own. We heard some statistic that like moms at home played Fate more than any other gamer and we’re like “great!” There’s that and people that don’t really, they want to solo quest and they want to do things differently and they want bragging rights so there’s that experience. It also give us the legwork and the background to see what works and what we want to carry on into the MMO. So as soon as this ships we’ll start making the MMO, it’s supposed to come out 18 months later. It will be a different model, it’ll be free to play with micro-transactions. Your character can’t come over, but we’ll have the same classes, same characters, more towns and overworld, PvP, PvE, guilds, treasury control, everyone you’d want.

    Hanging out with Max Shaefer (Runic) and Jason Varden (Perfect World)

    Hanging out with Max Schaefer (Runic) and Jason Varden (Perfect World)

    Cat: So 18 months from the end of October?

    Max: Yeah, about 18 months after we finish this one. We;re not solid on the yet because, you know, we’re developers and our ability to project ate sand times is limited. (laughs) It’s a very a aggressive schedule. It’s going to depend on making really good tools, and getting the most out of the time you have with them.

    Cat: Why the free to play model?

    Max: First of all it’s working across the world right now, and there are very, very successful games out there that are free to play. We like it because we don’t really like the subscription model because how many subscriptions do people want to have? I mean, you can have one or two and then you feel like you have to play that game and if you buy another one then why are you paying for that one, you know. It’s an impediment. With the free to play model you can have as many games as you want, drop one for a month and pick it up a month later, play it for one week and not feel like you’re getting ripped off. It’s just more versatile. We fully expect most of the people to never to buy anything, we fully expect most people to play for free forever. Which is great, it’s designed so you can be just as powerful, basically, playing free as you can buying stuff. You might get there a little faster buying stuff but for the most part the game is geared to the free players. It’s a good model, we see it working around, there’s lower barriers to entry and customers seem to like it. It’s a model that’s working more around the world than it is in the United States so far just because new here. We think that it’s going to be the model of the future.

    Wonder: We think that it’s kinda the smartest way to go right now. It’s something that’s still catching on over here and is a great idea. Our publisher is Perfect World and all of their models for MMOs are free to play with microtransactions or cash-up, and you don’t have to, you know. You can play the whole game start to finish without spending a dime, and people love it, it’s really popular, a really user-friendly way. It’s for people that want to play a great game. Obviously a lot of people will just think of this as a model that comes from Asia I think it’s catching on more and more here especially when they see a game like this that’s in the mold of Fate and Mythos and things like that that they’re going to want to try it out.

    Cat: If only my gym membership were free to play.

    Max: I know, I know, just buy a little upgrade if you want to use the stairclimber, treadmill is free.

    Stomp!

    Stomp!

    Cat: How do you keep your game balanced with micro-transactions?

    Wonder: We’re gonna be figuring that out! That definitely has been the topic of a lot of discussions. We know that we don’t want to withhold anything from any player. If they don’t want to spend the money we still want them get the cool loot and stuff like that. There won’t be a penalty, just if they want to upgrade things faster or if they want a few more options that’ll be there, but I mean those are things we’ll have to really hash out in earnest once we start on the MMO after this ships. And that’s gonna be interesting, it’s gonna be a new one for us, too.

    Max: Yeah, before we did this project most of the team was working on Mythos and the company, Flagship Studios, crashed and burned in spectacular style. So we lost the game, so we were doing the same thing on that project. So we had lots of items, things to sell, cosmetic items that don’t affect gameplay. Things like a bigger stash for your character or a shared stash, things like that. What we want to do with an MMO is we’ll branch into other things, we want to player housing, we don’t know if we’re going to be able to do that r not. Things that just get you places faster, are for convenience, but we’re not going to sell just the best sword. We want people to find their loot, people find it more satisfying to find their stuff anyway.

    Cat: Pets, companions, I love that idea.

    Max: Yes, every character has pets, the pet will carry stuff for you, it’ll take your stuff back to town and sell it.

    Wonder: For the single player we have two, the MMO we’ll have a bunch. In the single player you have your pick of like a lynx, it’s kind of like a big cat but it looks like a lynx, and then there’s a dog which is more like a wolf. They go with you, they level up with you, they don’t die, but if they do get injured they’ll disappear for awhile and then come back.

    Cat: That is something I was wondering about, killing kids in games is a no-go, but animals don’t get that kind of protection. Are you ever going to make me choose between killing my dog or killing lots of people?

    Wonder: I know, I know, I’ve definitely had those moments of “Ahh, I need to drop a potion on her! Run for it FiFi!” No, that would be sad, your pet is your friend.

    Max: Your pet never dies, when his health gets low he runs off-screen and heals up and hen comes back. No one wants to kill their dog and cat, I mean c’mon. Also, you never really kill people in the game, just skeletons and demons and stuff, things we can all rally around killing. Everyone supports the killing of zombies (laughs).

    And one of the mini-games is fishing, and if you catch fish and feed them to your pet it’ll transform into different things. So your pet can transform into a spider, or something, and come fight along you as a spider. In that way it’s actually more than two pets, really. You have a dog or a cat, but they can transform into different things.

    Cat: That’s a very well-trained animal.

    Wonder: A very well-trained animal! If you could get ‘em to get you a beer that’d be even better. And then I think there will be an option, it’s kind of tongue in cheek, but it’s the imaginary. Essentially, I think you still get the stash but your won’t have the pet following you for people that want that option.

    Cat: For gamers not prepared to handle the responsibility?

    Wonder: Exactly! For people that are really more of a fish person. Maybe a hamster? Can’t really train a hamster to attack things -

    Cat: – but if you could!!?

    Wonder: – but if you could and it had big pointy teeth -

    Cat: – Monty Python style -

    Wonder: Yes. (laughs)

    Cat: Lately there have been a lot of non-traditional heroes in gaming, in Torchlight do you think it’s more traditional?

    Max: Yeah, but it feels good, you know, it feels good to kill monsters! (laughs) In that sense, it’s comfortable ground. The game is set in the town of Torchlight, and it’s a mining town. In the mines is ember, and ember is this magical substance that you can imbue into weapons and armor and it has properties that are really cool so it’s a very valuable substance. Something has corrupted the ember in this particular ember mine, which is the largest ever mine, and it’s turning bad. People going down and mining are disappearing, and you’re discovering evidence of these ancient civilizations that have also come across this ember mine and have become corrupted and collapsed. So as you descend in the mines you come across civilization after civilization that has come before you and failed to identify and stop the corruption and collapsed. So that’s why you get the crazy architecture and levels down within this mine.So you’re really there to find why this is going wrong and stop the corruption. Oh, and find loot and kill monsters!

    Cat: Why should gamers play Torchlight, what sets it apart from the pack?

    Wonder: I think part of it is we were working on Mythos when that project got shut down, and a lot of the people who were playing the beta have been awesome and they’re waiting for this game to come out and they’re telling theirs friends and that’s really gratifying. There’s people who are just fans of the studio and there’s a lot of people who are just fans of this style of game, you know. It’s a hack n slash, it’s a dungeon runner, but it’s randomized levels, you’re don’t see the same thing twice, there’s traps, and you can blast through it on your own or you can play all the mini-games. The combat feels really good, I like playing this game. It’s challenging without begin hard and you can pick it up really fast. The running and the skills, they just feel solid, really fun to play, it’s really satisfying to smash something and see it go flying, and I love the art style.

    Max: I wouldn’t say it’s really revolutionary in any sort of way, except it’s going to be really inexpensive, it’ll be really fun. The really cool thing that is revolutionary about it is that we’ve included the actual game development tools that we used to make the game, and it’s called “Preditor”, and it’s a super powerful tool that lets you layout and do levels, change balance curves, set up quests. It’s really super powerful and that’s going to be included with the download that you get so the modding community will be able to make all kinds of new things that people can then share.

    Cat: What prompted the decision to include “Preditor”?

    Wonder: Just, wanna see what people make! We had a mod community, and they’re just enthusiastic, very creative, people that are very into the game and made a lot of really great things and we wanted to do that again so we wanted to do that again.

    Cat: What will Diablo and Mythos fans find that’s familiar?

    Wonder: Well, I think actually, it will be a little bit of our own humor. There’s some tongue in cheek humor that ran through both of them. They will definitely find, I think, a similarity in the art style. We are a little bit different from Mythos, but it’s basically all the same artists who were working on that and want to bring in this very colorful palette but that doesn’t feel cartoony. It’s very bright and vibrant, but also has the hard geometry lines in it. There’s some really great loot, lots of unique items.

    Max and Wonder, thank you so much for your time!

    Want more? Here’s the fact sheet:

    CHARACTER CLASS FACT SHEET

    DEVELOPER: Runic Games
    GENRE: Action RPG
    RELEASE: October 27, 2009

    PRODUCT SUMMARY
    Behold Torchlight, a fresh new action-RPG franchise developed by Runic Games. Based in Seattle, Runic Games is lead by a veteran team composed of designers and leads of projects like Diablo, Diablo II, Mythos and Fate.

    The adventure is set in the mining settlement of Torchlight, a boomtown founded on the discovery of rich veins of Ember – a rare and mysterious ore with the power to enchant or corrupt all that it contacts. This corruptive power may have dire consequences however, and players set out into the nearby mountains and depths below to discover the full extent of Ember’s influence on the civilizations that have come before.

    Players will choose from among three character classes, and venture from the safety of the town of Torchlight into randomly generated dungeon levels, with a huge variety of creepy monsters, endless variations of loot to find, and quests to complete. The endless randomization ensures a long-lived gameplay experience.

    CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

    The Destroyer

    An endless wanderer, who is drawn to conflict with his dual-welding blades, was led to Torchlight after hearing of the evils befallen it. Through channeling the power of his ancestors, the Destroyer excels at close-quarter combat and is able to smite his foes with such ferocity as to easily dispatch multiple enemies at once. With a strong sense of virtue, the Destroyer sets out to deal justice with his blades, but things may not be as simple in Torchlight as they appear.

    With a darkness rising to cloud the Destroyer’s judgment, only time will tell whether or not the draw of Ember will tempt his soul into corruption.

    The Vanquisher

    Part of an ancient order dedicated to justice and bringing balance to the world, the Vanquisher was sent out to Torchlight to investigate the mysterious slayings and missing town folks. Unknown to her, the darkness below the small town of Torchlight runs far deeper than the mines beneath. As an expert marksman, the Vanquisher is able to take enemies from afar as well as use traps to confuse and deliberate her foes from all directions.

    The flow of Ember and the darkness below will test the Vanquisher’s skill and conviction to the fullest.

    The Alchemist

    Drawn to the power of Ember as a cornerstone of his magical art, the Alchemist came to Torchlight for his own ends. Being the largest cache of Ember ever found, the temptation may lead the Alchemist never being able to break free of its influence and ultimately to his downfall. The power of Ember is beyond imagining, but the price is very high.

    By channeling the power of Ember, the Alchemist is able to dispatch enemies from afar as well as summon minions to his aid.

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