Torchlight - Runic Games

[Mrbloodworth]

Linky

Newly founded developer Runic Games, one of several companies formed from the ashes of Hellgate and Mythos developer Flagship, today announced its first project: an action-MMO titled Torchlight.

Torchlight is billed as a simple, action-oriented online PC game in the style of Diablo. The basic setup: "Adventurers set out from the town of Torchlight into the nearby mountains in search of the magic ore that imbues their equipment with power, yet imperils their very existence."
The title is set to be published worldwide exclusively by Chinese online gaming company Perfect World.

Runic Games was founded by brothers Max and Erich Schaefer, two co-founders of Diablo developer Blizzard North.

Since the dissolution of Flagship, all 14 developers that worked on the company's action-RPG Mythos have joined Runic. The studio has also been bolstered by the addition of Diablo and Diablo II composer Matt Uelmen.

[Furiously]

That looks nothing like wow.

[Murgos]

That looks nothing like wow.

Or Diablo III.

However, it does look fun.

[Ratman_tf]

An MMO. How quaint.

Will there be lifetime subs? 

[Tarami]

Smells like Dungeon Runner. Could be fun, DR was, for a while.

[Zzulo]

Looks moderately interesting.

The premise is pretty dull in comparison to Diablo though.

"Fight satan and his spawns from hell" vs" gotta get them resources to make my gear better hurr". Well at least it goes straight to the point, I guess. 

[schild]

^_^

[Yegolev]

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Mythos 2.
SQUEEE.

Also Matt Uelmen?  Yes, please.  I still think the Diablo sountrack is awesome, one of my favorites from all games ever.

You naysayers can lick my nuts.

[Ard]

Hurray, I'm glad they finally have something to show again.

[Nija]

Cool. Mythos was pretty fun, but it desperately needed some direction to it. Hopefully they'll address that this time around.

[Musashi]

I was like all  .

And then I saw Chinese publisher, and then I was like  .

So, like awesome is not to be ruled out, but the likelyhood of a RMT heavy Asian net cafe title seems high.

Also, it's kind of pathetic that the art style is a total rip off.

[Draegan]

Mythos is now owned by HanbitSoft.  So I guess the art style is a"ripoff" even though it's the same people.

[Velorath]

That looks nothing like wow.

Or Diablo III.

However, it does look fun.

It makes me think that this is how Diablo would look if it were designed by Playskool.

[Falconeer]

Meh, I hate the art direction. Those screenies are awful.

[Mrbloodworth]

Also, it's kind of pathetic that the art style is a total rip off.

Of who?

[Nebu]

It makes me think that this is how Diablo would look if it were designed by Playskool.

However, Lego Diablo would be awesome. 

[Ratman_tf]

It makes me think that this is how Diablo would look if it were designed by Playskool.

However, Lego Diablo would be awesome. 

[Yegolev]

Don't make me start dick-slapping people.

[Musashi]

[Yegolev]

If the second shot is from Diablo 3, it is worth noting that Torchlight models and graphics are very obviously the exact ones used in Mythos.  I'm assuming they were simply smuggled out on a DVD when they heard Bill Roper clomping down the hallway on That Fateful Day (oh hey, a Fate joke).  Also, who cares?  Blizzard stealing art from the Schaefers (or GW, nyuk nyuk) or Schaefers stealing art from Blizzard (or Wildtanget, nyuk nyuk) isn't something that will keep me awake at night.

Unless I can't have my character smoke a cigar.

[Mrbloodworth]

The first models are way more exaggerated then the second. 

[sam, an eggplant]

Looks fine to me. I'm impressed they're ready to release screenshots after only nine months of development from the ground up.

[Mrbloodworth]

Looks fine to me. I'm impressed they're ready to release screenshots after only nine months of development from the ground up.

Haven't they done this like, 4 times now? 

[Malakili]

I actually enjoyed Mythos quite a bit, and was more sorry to see it go under than Hellgate, to be honest.  It did unfortunately play a bit like a glorified tech demo (oh wait, it was a glorified tech demo), but I think with some more development, they could be on to something.

[Draegan]

Mythos was really fun except that the classes and skill tree's sucked in Mythos.  Will play Diablo 3 Torchlight.

[Ingmar]

The art styles are... not similar. Unless torchlight and isometric view somehow makes a ripoff.

[sam, an eggplant]

Haven't they done this like, 4 times now? 

It's Travis's third isometric view diablo clone, yeah, but he couldn't actually build on the fate or mythos codebases as they're owned by wildtangent and hanbitsoft respectively. Torchlight is being developed from the ground up. Experience matters, though, of course.

[koro]

I'm fairly excited for this, since I played and enjoyed a lot of Mythos before it got the axe.

I'm very leery about any "action-MMO" moniker, though, and the "it looks just like Diablo III" sentiment from people who never saw what Mythos looked like is something I see them having to fight against from now until release and probably beyond.

[Musashi]

The models aren't similar.  Clearly the Torchlight guys are more cartoonish.  But the Torchlight background and ambiance looks like the dude who made it started the day after he saw Blizz release all the infos on D3 and said, "Hey, I'll do that."  Of course, it's just two screeshots, so who knows.

Don't get me wrong, I don't really care that much either.  I'll play it if it's fun one way or the other.  But it's just a little weak.

[Malakili]

Mythos was really fun except that the classes and skill tree's sucked in Mythos. 

I disagree with them sucking, they were just super poorly balanced, so one tree for each class was overwhelmingly better than the others

[Tarami]

It's Travis's third isometric view diablo clone, yeah, but he couldn't actually build on the fate or mythos codebases as they're owned by wildtangent and hanbitsoft respectively. Torchlight is being developed from the ground up. Experience matters, though, of course.

Third time's the charm.

[Nija]

I disagree with them sucking, they were just super poorly balanced, so one tree for each class was overwhelmingly better than the others

Yeah but the most powerful builds seemed to be "one button wonder" builds that were boring to play. Needs a deeper skill system.

[Righ]

The art styles are... not similar. Unless torchlight and isometric view somehow makes a ripoff.

They're blatantly using similar colors.

[Ratman_tf]

The art styles are... not similar. Unless torchlight and isometric view somehow makes a ripoff.

They're blatantly using similar colors.

!I'm copyrighting the use of blue in videogames! *ch-ching!*

!Wait! BROWN! *ching* *ching* *ching*

[Merusk]

Patent a process for producing the color brown from little bits of light instead.