By John Walker on October 9th, 2009 at 8:36 pm.
In their attempt to write a developer diary for Torchlight, Runic games managed this:
“Dear Diary, I think I will make a kick-ass game. Yes! That’s all for now. Lootfully yours, Runic Games.”
Fortunately they instead chose to elaborate further in video form, and you can see it below.
It’s a shame it sounds like they recorded it using Skype on dial-up (yeah, like we can talk), but apart from that this is a fun insight into developers behind the forthcoming dungeon crawler. They employ someone with the job title Zombie Pyrotechnician. Which is a recession-proof skill.
In the video they confirm it will be $20, and come with a level editor on release. Which is on the 27th October.
So is he a zombie who specializes in setting things on fire, or a person who specializes in setting zombies on fire? Or is he just a Union soldier who likes President Roslin? Details, man. Give us details!
Also, there’s nothing wrong with that diary entry. It’s better than “Dear Diary, I think I will make a mediocre game. Yes! That’s all for now. Unenthusiastically yours, Ubisoft*.”
*insert game developer you’re currently annoyed with here.
report
Given it is a small studio I would have to go with him being a zombie who is also a Pyrotechnician simply because I don’t think they’d be able to afford to hire such a specialized type of Pyrotechnician (What they you have to have a Minotaur dismembermenttechnician?)
BTW how do you guys pronounce Minotaur? I've always said "Min-O-Tore" but recently I've seen two movies where they say "Mine-O-tar" which seems very odd to me :P
Shadowcat “It hammers at my retinas like an evil woodpecker of pure energy”
report
Mine-O-taur.
I’ve heard it pronounced your way, though.
report
I think it might be a US/UK difference. I say “mine-o-taur,” while my American wife says “min-o-taur.”
People look at us funny with those weird pauses between syllables, too.
report
I’ll have to ask my American wife too! That should have occurred to me.
report
I always hear it as min-o-tore in NZ. Never heard ‘mine’ afaik
report
My next business card will, I think, have to say Zombie Pyrotechnician on it. If nothing else, I like throwing molotovs in L4D so it’s not entirely untrue.
report
The little telecoms hardware dev company I used to work for folded before the next batch of business cards were printed, but I was due promotion from Electronic Engineer to Beaver Wrangler.
Was most unhappy.
report
Is it a US vs UK thing? Both movies I heard it pronounced that way the people saying it had English accents : ) (One was Prince Caspian and I believe the other was Ink Heart but the dude saying it had a British accent)
report
That would confirm jsutcliffe’s point. Brits (like jsutcliffe and myself) say ‘mine-oh-tor’. Americans might tend to say ‘min-oh-tor’. I’m going to grab the next American I see (probably my better half) and ask.
The Dude abides.
report
I say “banana”, you say “banana”! :)
report
On a more sensible note, I’m quite interested in this. I love the art style, both the in-game footage and the 2D concepts (which is odd, as I don’t usually like such cartoony people). I know practically nothing about whether it’s actually a game I would enjoy — I get the impression is it Diablo-esque, but I’ve never played a Diablo-type game. I also have no idea whether its emphasis is on single player or multiplayer,
It sure is pretty though.
report
Their other popular game, Fate, is a Diablo-clone and completely single-player.
report
It should also be noted their other popular game is actaully Diablo :P One of the people that made Diablo is making this so ;P
From what I’ve just read this is going to be a more serious (slightly) version of Fate. You still get the pet (cat or dog) and it still goes with you and has the awesome ability of going back to town to sell all your loot so you don’t have to. You still level almost the exact same way and the levels are random ect. Sounds like it is going to be awesome.
report
IF it is anything like Fate I know I will enjoy it. It looks a lot like Fate only less generic (Which is good) One thing I loved about Fate is that you had the option to retire and state a new game as the relative of the origonal hero. It would make you slightly stronger and also you could pass down a single item from the pervious game that will have gotten stronger in the mean time, I seriously hope they put that in this game. (also the pet was pretty cool, you could start off with a cat or dog but by feeding it fish it could transform into all sorts of things. Everything from a spider to a dragon type thing, very cool. My favorite was a scorpian/lion mix)
report
Thats already in Torchlight, so no worries.
report
A tiny bit of research later, I see that it is entirely single-player, and has excellently low system requirements: http://www.torchlightgame.com/faq/#faq17
report
Also, they have said that its possible to play Torchlight on a netbook because they don’t use any shaders iirc.
report
“Q: Will I be able to play Torchlight online?
A: Because of the relatively short development window and tiny development team, we decide to focus our efforts on making a complete single-player experience. However, we are already in development of a massively multiplayer action-RPG set in the world of Torchlight for future release. ”
Single player is a good thing, but I wish they were working on a co-op version rather than a (blech) MMO version.
report
It will probably end up being more like Guild Wars
report
Yeh. Fate was good and $20. Torchlight will be even better, and still $20.
report
@Railick
I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. My Guild Wars account tells me I’ve logged in excess of 1500 hours on that damnable game at this point. :)
report
From what I’ve read this is going to be pretty much exactly like fate even down to the retiring and infinite dungeon and fishing. (I remember fishing up a Cheese Hat in Fate that gave me a huge bonus to gold found but reduced health by 75% or so :P
report
Q: Is there a place for me to store items besides my backpack?
A: Your character has a private stash which can store excess items. All of your characters also share an additional stash which you can use to transfer items between them. In addition, your pet has its own pack that you can use to store items while exploring the mines.
AWESOME!! Diablo 2 needed this.
report
Actually that’s exactly the system from Titan Quest: Immortal Throne.
report
I’ve always avoided Titan’s Quest because of the setting . I got Age of Myth and ended up hating it, I don’t want anything to do with ancient Greek ect myths in my games :P I don’t want to fight a Gorgon with a mirrior shield and a brone short short no thanks. I want a giant claymore and armor so heavy no human could ever walk in it or two giant steel axes that I can spin over my head (and in the game)
report
After reading the FAQ For this game I am extremely excited. I can’t wait for this game to come out.
report
I totally agree. The $20 price point makes buying it an easy decision, too.
report
Ack. Just discovered the retail box won’t be out until January. I’m of the indefensible ilk that can’t really stand purely digital copies. However, this will give me time to play through Fate: The Traitor’s Soul.
report
What, do you think our diary is full of witty jargon?! Well, maybe. But yeah, we saved it for the video. ;)
report
I can’t wait to get home to watch this video. I’ll probably end up skipping blood blow tonight and playing fate some more. Might start a new character in hardcore mode and see how that goes.
I wonder why they chose to move away from Fate’s classless game play and go for 3 classes instead ? I kind of liked the ability to make up my own class (Say a warrior with heal magic abilites ala a paladin or cleric)
Am I the only person that sit there for 3 hours straight fishing just to see what crazy stuff I could find ? :)
report
So excited. Just can’t hide it!
report
hmm, the game looks like fun but they went for full ripoff taking every single thing from other diablo and diablo-like games (some of the areas look so much like the ones in diablo 3 videos that i think blizzard might sue them), i hope they at least tried something new with the items
report
weren’t a few of these folks diablo developers themselves before they left blizzard?
report
unless they have “the one diablo dev to rule them all” i dont think it makes any difference, the Hellgate team had the same thing and the game stunk really, really bad
like i said, the game looks fun but the question is, will it have anything fresh and interesting to set it apart from the hundreds of diablo clones, or will it just play it safe and rip everyone off Halo style ?
report
I agree. I can’t really see anything unique about this game. It’s a clone in every sense of the word.
report
Got to watch the video finally . I’m even more excited about this now ^_^
report
Looks fantastic. I don’t know why people looking for “unique” are even in this thread, we haven’t had a fun, well constructed action RPG since Titan Quest and I for one would be thrilled to see something “by the numbers” that was well built and enjoyable with a bit of personality. This seems like it’s likely to fit the bill.
report
I STILL
WANT
THAT
SOUNDTRACK!
report
Anyone know if this will have a Steam release?
report
NO CO-OP, no buy. sorry, that feature is DIABLO. all the rest is meh.
report
Co-op would be awesome in a title like this! How could they overlook that?!
Forget turning this into an MMO, just give us co-op.
report
i’d love to play this with spartan: total warrior controls
report
abhishek said “I agree. I can’t really see anything unique about this game.”
what about this ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu1KMHtAJsY
and yes, it will be available from Steam and Direct2Drive around December
report
yes, it will be available from Steam and Direct2Drive around December
abhishek said “I agree. I can’t really see anything unique about this game.”
what about this ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu1KMHtAJsY
report
try that link again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu1KMHtAJsY
they are including the editor they used to develop the game
and they have it running on a notebook
“We’ve only got a GMA 916 with 64MB of VRAM here ( real stinker ), and it runs ~14-17FPS in moderate areas…. It’s ‘playable’ on our netbook, although obviously not optimal.”
report
let’s try that link again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu1KMHtAJsY
they are including the editor they used to develop the game
and they have it running on a notebook
“We’ve only got a GMA 916 with 64MB of VRAM here ( real stinker ), and it runs ~14-17FPS in moderate areas…. It’s ‘playable’ on our netbook, although obviously not optimal.”
report
dam ! sorry for so many posts
it wasn’t posting from firefox, so I tried IE 8 and now I see they actually did post from firefox
report
Yeah, OK, so it’s an obvious Diablo clone. Thing is, it’s got three advantages right now: One, it’s got a level editor – yeah, Diablo has always been procedurally generated, but that doesn’t have the same flavor. It just feels generated, not crafted. Two, it’s a clone, but it looks like a bloody good one. Three, it’s coming out this month, not three years from now.
report
Don’t forget that it’s only $20.
report