Torchlight II Announced For 2011

Runic Games has announced a sequel to the popular action RPG Torchlight, planned for release in Spring 2011. One notable improvement from the first game is Torchlight II's inclusion of online co-op play, with LAN support and a matchmaking system. "The sequel will feature an updated version of the Torchlight editor, randomized overworld areas complete with weather effects, random dungeons, a selection of pets, fishing, limitless loot, and a retirement system which will allow users to retire an older character and bestow some benefits of it to a newly created character." An MMO set in the Torchlight world is still in development.

Comments

Built with Ogre3D

[johnhp]

Torchlight was built using Ogre3D, an open source graphics rendering engine. I hope that the sequel uses it too.

Ogre3D is written in C++ and is compatible with PC, Linux, Mac, iPhone, Android and other platforms. If you're into programming 3D games or simulations, you should definitely check it out. www.ogre3d.org

(I'm a long time user of Ogre3D but otherwise unaffiliated)

Re:Built with Ogre3D

[xororand]

It worked for 2D Boy's World of Goo.

Quotes:
"It’s only been 2 days since the release of the Linux version and it already accounts for 4.6% of the full downloads from our website."
"More copies of the game were sold via our website on the day the Linux version released than any other day. This day beat the previous record by 40%. There is a market for Linux games after all :)"

A welcome trend.

[PhasmatisApparatus]

At a time when there seems to be more defunct than active game companies, and huge gaming monstrosities such as Activision and EA are merging/acquiring left and right, it's a welcome change to see new developers like Runic spring up overnight.

Re:A welcome trend.

[Anonymous Coward]

Runic is comprised primarily of developers previously from Flagship Studios (Hellgate London) previously from Blizzard North (Diablo 1 & 2). So they're not exactly 'newcomers', despite the age of the studio itself.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/08/05/0422232/Torchlight-II-Announced-For-2011#

Re:A welcome trend.

[El_Muerte_TDS]

The other half of Runic comes from wildtangent. And the last half is in fact new, or at least according to their mobygames profiles.

And because Runic has 3 halfs their games are 50% more fun that the closest alternative.

Timing

[TheJokeExplainer]

Runic really *really* needs to be able to release this way before Diablo III comes out.

Torchlight 1 was excellent for scratching the Diablo itch except that it painfully lacked multiplayer/coop -> that was what made the Diablo series really really fun and was very sorely missed. All in all that was my only Torchlight gripe, and was why I stopped playing it after a while. Collecting randomized bling ain't as fun if you can't show 'em off and trade 'em with others.

If this comes out at roughly the same time as Diablo III, it'll not only be a problem of gaining wallets+mindshare, but also the big one of timeshare.

People playing other games means less time playing your game, and with multi-player games, critical mass of players is very very important. It's really frustrating at how there aren't enough players to play with who have decent pings if you're in Asia, like with Streetfighter IV on PC and Borderlands.

If there aren't enough players online to play with, it'll make the game a little less attractive.

Anyway, Runic did a good job with Torchlight. The modest system requirements were a big plus too as it allowed you to run it on netbooks with less horsepower. Hope they're able to push the sequel out the window in time to avoid being slaughtered by Diablo III.

Re:Timing

[WankersRevenge]

First thing, you need to go back on the meds. I know they make you feel like a slug during the day, but it makes all of us feel safer to be around you. Especially when you are cleaning your guns. God, I almost killed Frank when he mentioned that Fallout3 should have had at least token multiplayer while you were at the target range. I thought we were all dead.

Second thing ... instead of paying sixty dollars for a full price game, maybe you should wait until the games are cheaper so you won't feel so ripped from the lack of single player content. Um, don't get up. It was just a simple suggestion. You know ... let the early adopters take the hit and then you can get it used and not feel so ripped off.

Thirdly ... calm down, I'm almost done ... if playing multiplayer makes you so upset, maybe you should avoid it. Or play with only vetted friends. ... what's that? you want to play with me? well, i'm busy these days ... no, of course I'm your friend. Why would you think otherwise?

And just remember, it's just a video game. okay? you feeling better? There's no reason to load that gun now. Can we please talk? Did I mention I hate multiplayer just as-

Re:Timing

[morari]

I agree. Certain games do not benefit from multiplayer. A basic hack-n-slash dungeon crawl like Torchlight is practically begging for it though. With as little story as there is in the game, playing with friends is the only thing that would really keep me interested. The game's mechanics are there and fun, but the driving force of interest isn't quite.

I thought that I'd have fun playing the original Torchlight in little chunks while I was on the go with my netbook (Toshiba Mini NB305). Unfortunately, I found that the proclaimed "Netbook Mode" coupled with the lowest settings possible still made the game unbearably choppy during combat with more than two or three opponents. So I play Diablo II: Lord of Destruction on my netbook instead. :P

Re:Nice!

[TheJokeExplainer]

Excellent point. If Diablo III will continue to be internet-only with zero LAN support, that could be how Torchlight can grab a respectable enough chunk of the Diablo market segment. That'd be a sale from me as well :)

Re:What about Fate?

[PotatoFarmer]

I played the Torchlight demo and I could not stop thinking how much more similar it was to Fate than to Diablo.

There's a good reason for that. Travis Baldree, the lead developer of Torchlight, also designed Fate.