![]() We actually get to spend more time polishing, and more time with the art direction, and more time iterating on the things we’re designing, because the production of the art assets is just a lot easier and faster. Taking a low-tech approach has benefits in performance on any machine, not just running on low-end machines.Īlso, not doing bump-maps and shaders and all this sort of stuff, means that we can make stuff faster and it’s easier to iterate. If you have a super-high-end gaming rig, Torchlight runs smooth as silk on it, and it just feels good. By going low-spec, your frame-rate goes up on your good machines as well. Like you say, it really helped World of Warcraft a lot, and I think it has an even more profound effect to a game like Torchlight, for several reasons: firstly, if it runs on old machines, then the market is bigger also, action-RPGs really benefit from a smooth frame-rate more than other game genres do. Now, since there are more people on screen and there’s a little bit more happening, it won’t be identical in its performance, but it’ll be very, very close. ![]() Max Schaefer: Torchlight II runs on the same graphics engine and technology as Torchlight. Is it going to be a similar deal with Torchlight II? This is a tactic that Blizzard put to very good use with WoW back in the early days. On the subject of lightweight, easily digestible games, part of Torchlight’s success was almost certainly down to the fact that it would basically run on anything. If we’re going to spend $50 million and take four years to make each game, we’re just not going to serve the market. I hope we see more of it, because I think what the PC business really needs right now is more creativity, more responsiveness to customers and more fun, compelling titles. It just proves that one guy can make a clever and compelling game. I can safely say that Minecraft will slightly delay the shipping of Torchlight 2. When you come down to a rational budget and a rational team size, you really are freed to take more risk and do more creative things. ![]() So you get a lot of sequels, copycat games and conservative plays. And just from a business perspective, when you make these $50 million games, it’s so hard to make your money back that publishers are very conservative about what sort of games they’ll greenlight. Do you think this is because people have just got tired of spending too much money for games which are too big? We’re seeing very big numbers for these games. Torchlight’s a great example, and Minecraft’s another one. To expand on that, then, the climate at the moment, especially on PC, is seemingly very kind to mid-budget developers delivering games which are not quite so fully-featured but have a lower price and are more easily digestible. This article contained embedded media which can no longer be displayed. I think they were, and I think that’s an approach that we’re going to continue to take as we go forward. We figured that we could make a really fun, compelling game and only have to charge $20 for it - no subscription fees, no item sales or anything like that - and that people would be receptive. Assuming there are people that will play a single-player RPG was the biggest risk.īut also we felt that in PC games in general, the projects have got too big, and too labourious, and they take too long and too much money to make. That was the basis for why we wanted to make Torchlight to begin with.Īlso we took a couple of gambles with Torchlight that I think paid off, and that was that people just want a fun game, and don’t so much care if it has multiplayer. For whatever reason, there seem to be precious few good action-RPG titles. There are a million people out there trying to make WoW-killers, and the standard MMO genre is very, very crowded right now. I was involved with the whole Diablo series as well, and the motivation was the same then as it was when we started making Torchlight, and that is, like you said, that there’s a gap in the market. What was it about the game that resonated so well with PC users? Do you think there was just a gap in the market for another point-and-click action RPG at the time? VG247: You had a real hit with Torchlight. We spoke with Runic co-founder Max Schaefer in December on the state of play for PC development in general, the original thinking behind Torchlight as a project and what we can expect from the much-anticipated sequel. While the console outing has received a complete UI and control overhaul over the PC smash, Runic's rushing towards a "May" launch of Torchlight II on PC, replete with online co-op, overland areas and more. Having clocked more than 500,000 sales for 2009's universally-loved indie ation-RPG Torchlight on PC, the developer hit the big leagues this week with a place on CES's Microsoft keynote stage and confirmation of an XBLA version.
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