As our forum member Puffles and the official Runic Twitter page have alerted us to, there is a new interview up on a website called GameTopius. Some of the more interesting things can be seen below.

First up was the mention of just how easy it is to pick the game up and play!

TC: While Diablo and Mythos are obvious influences, the version of Torchlight I played had something you rarely see in games: it was incredibly easy and smooth to play. It wasn’t over-simplified, it just felt like all of the extraneous stuff was gone. It was free of the unnecessary clutter that a lot of action-RPGs have. What did you have to do to attain this feeling?

Thanks for the high praise, that’s definitely a feeling we’re going for.

We all love games at Runic, but as we get older and take on more personal responsibilities, gaming time is harder to come by.  Since play time is becoming more precious, our tolerance for the tedious or boring parts of games is getting pretty thin.  We want to get right to the meat of the experience, anything else is just frustrating.

That ties in with our tendency to iterate a lot.  We have ideas and put them in the game, and then everyone tries them out.  If the new system overcomplicates game play or creates a boring distraction, people are vocal about that and we will either fix it or rip it out.  Features that have become standard in the genre also have to pass this test, which is why we end up with things like auto gold pickup and pets that sell your loot for you.

Oddly, item identify passes the test.  It seems like it would be one of the first things to go, but the games feel less satisfying without it.

This is great to hear, as it means we’ll likely see a very broad range of players in the game!

Next the interview turns towards the number of classes in the MMO as well as what level designs of the single player will be like.

TC: As of right now, you have three classes announced. They’ll be shipping with the single player portion. Do you have any idea of how many will be included in the multiplayer version?

Right now, we don’t have a specific number of classes, but we are committed to offering a diverse world. We’ll see how many we can put in!

TC: The game world isn’t expansive vertically (as opposed to Dungeon Seige’s deep chasms and high mountains), but youe engine can render other levels of the dungeon in the “filler” sections under bridges and the like. What made you decide to go with the more Diablo-like level transitions as opposed to contiguous, connected levels?

Dungeon design is a balance between giving players enough room to explore, and not giving them so much room that it feels like a maze.  Our levels have areas that you can see but not get to, those sections add atmosphere without complicating game play.  With our engine it’s possible to make every square foot of the dungeon a playable area, with stairs up and down to all the different sections, and I’m sure people will make dungeons like that after we release our editing tools.  After some experimenting we found that slowed the pacing of the game and was less fun, but I’m sure someone will make cool rooms in that style.

Our levels are randomly generated, and that works a lot better if they’re broken up with level transitions.  It also has the benefit of making memory management a whole lot simpler.

The next few questions are regarding items, customization and pets.

TC: One great thing about your weapon and item system is that anybody can use any weapons, and that you can tailor your skills to make these combinations work. This always seemed like something that should be in other RPGs like Titan’s Quest or D2, but isn’t always. How deep is this flexibility going to extend? Will I be able to have very high level fighters using magic wands, or will that prove difficult to play?

We love having the flexibility to pick up a bow and use it if you want, even if you’re a melee class, or use a sword if you’re a caster. It is a lot more fun to experiment and play with different weapon sets and still be formidable. We are keeping the flexibility, but there will be weapons that are little more useful to certain classes than to others. This helps keep the classes unique while still providing varying gameplay. In your specific question, for example, you probably wouldn’t want to use a wand at a high level if you’re playing the Destroyer, because he levels better with strength rather than magic – doesn’t mean it’s out of the question, though.

TC: Are the characters customizable appearance-wise, or is that kind of customizability saved for items and pets?

For the single payer, customization will be more found more in gear sets and weapons. The MMO will present a lot more of the customization you would expect from playing in highly populated world to really make your character stand out.

TC: On a related note, I saw a dog accompanying my character at E3. What other pets can you have, and how can you level and modify them?

Right now, we have a wolf, and a lynx.  Those will be the two pets available for the Single player. They will level along with you, and you can also feed them different types of fish you catch, to transform them briefly into monster types that are in the game – and they will briefly take on all those monster’s abilities. It’s really cool to see your dog turn into a giant spider and attack the undead!

TC: You pets can be gifted with skills; you can even teach your pet to pick up loot for you. Are there similarly interesting perks and skills in the pets’ futures?

One feature that’s really great is your pet has an inventory for extra items you pick up along the way. And if you fill up your inventory but don’t want to port back to town, you can have your pet return to town and sell all the items, and come back to you with all the gold! Now that’s some training!

Skills are looked at next as well as the awesome music.

TC: You’ve made a conscious effort to create active powers that really look powerful, as opposed to increasing damage dealt by 1%. How does this affect high level characters? How are you helping high level players manage all of these active skills?

The skills actually do level up with % damage.  As skills do get higher level the visual actually can change to reflect the increase in damage.  So we can make them look stronger as they level up. As for managing the skills you can hot-bar up to 10 skills.

TC: What’s the music going to be like in Torchlight? I love Diablo, but I really like it when a game has over-the-top symphonic scores, like the music in Dungeon Seige. Which side of the spectrum is Torchlight going to fall in?

We’re really lucky to have Matt Uelmen who did the music for Diablo, doing all the music for Torchlight. It has a great feel –epic and dark without being overpowering, a little more rock than symphonic, and a great soundtrack.

To leave us wanting more, Runic have the following to add.

TC: Finally, it’s obvious that anyone familiar with Diablo and its successors will be at home with Torchlight. The prospect of a similar game with amazing graphics, interesting monsters and environments, and the smoothest controls around sounds great. For everyone else, what do you think would interest them most about the game?

One thing we haven’t touched on too much here is the toolset and our support of the modding community. All the tools we wrote for Torchlight are being released with the Singleplayer, making it a real life modder’s paradise. It’s intuitive enough that beginners can play in it and test it, and complicated enough that more dedicated modders could make a virtually new game with new levels, tweaked skillsets, new weapons, etc. Its’ one of the most exciting features, for both the creativity promised and getting to see what people come up with!

Make sure you check out the rest of the interview as it’s quite informative.

Also stop by our forums to discuss!

Enjoy