Say hello to our first forum tidbit in quite a while, Volbard stopped by on the official forums to remind us why there aren’t many updates these days:

I’m glad you guys are interested in what we’re going to do next, but I think you would probably get tired of a constant stream of hype. A lot of our day to day work just isn’t that interesting. To build outdoor areas we spend a lot of time talking about rocks and how they could fit together, modeling and painting rocks, assembling rocks, and then talking about how the rocks could be better. It’s the sort of groundwork that’s necessary to build a world, but I think you’d get tired of hearing about it.

We’re also talking about game systems and how they could be fun, but we’ll end up changing our minds and pitching most of our ideas out the window several times before release, so that doesn’t seem like a good thing to talk about either. Early screenshots are too rough to release, and so are early ideas.

In other words, he’s reminding us to hang in there, because over-hyping for too long can lead to burn-out and disappointment. Just remember to check in here at RGF for updates when they arise!

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Things have been slow lately, and Travis stopped by the forums yesterday to tell us why!

Hi everybody! I just wanted to make a quick post to let you know what’s up with Runic these days, and what’s in the pipe.
Our post count has been a bit low lately as we gear up on lots of other tasks, and as we catch up on things after returning from Winter break.

We took a much needed two weeks off this winter, which allowed us to recharge our batteries a bit – however, since we were on skeleton crew during that time, and since that also coincided with winter sales events, we’ve been digging out of a lot of correspondence since then. You have my apologies for some of the slowness – we’re doing our best to get on top of things.

So, here’s what’s up right now with Torchlight -

* We are in testing for a new patch for Torchlight, for all vendors. This will include several bugfixes and tweaks, and a few small goodies.
* We are endeavoring to get our Mac port toward completion – we ran into some schedule snags and are currently getting them sorted out, and think we are getting this on the right track to finish up.
* We are beginning translations to various languages for international release

Apart from Torchlight itself we are….

* Moving heavily into preproduction on our next game.
* Getting ready to move our offices ( Sublease is up in just 4 months! )

As far as the next project goes, we should have some interesting announcements about that in the next few months I think.

At any rate, we’re still actively supporting Torchlight and trying to finish the rest of its release as far as other platforms and languages go, while still addressing some existing issues with the game, while at the same time moving forward on a brand new project.

Thanks all!

Travis

There you go! This may be some good news for our international players and Mac users out there, who have been waiting to try Torchlight out. Remember, whenever this team goes quiet for a while, it usually means big things are on the way, so let’s wait for some announcements!

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This just in via the official forums:

Has a new build of the torchED been released? I dont see anything on these forums. could use a more stable version.

GBrown: Should be a new build out sometime this week. A lot of the problems (like the one you mentioned above) come from the things I did to try to make the editor more useful to modders. When we use it internally, there’s no redirecting of the project path. The base files are what we change, not copies files in mod directories.

Good news for you frustrated modders out there!

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As I sit here with the dozens of the rest of you on the forums, I figured I might help break up the monotony by posting the latest round of forum tidbits! Hopefully these will hold you over until we can get some previews up!

Today’s topics include:

• Ogre 3D Mesh Exporter
• A few random pre-sale questions
• Changing the game difficulty
• Developer Mods
• The Infinite Dungeon
• Key Binds
• Character Gender
• Player Pet Basics
• Revisiting old areas
• Game Difficulties

Continue Reading…

Today we continue to chip our way through the tidbits of the past week, moving down the list and trying to post everything new. Fortunately the devs only posted a couple times today, so it gives us more of a chance to catch up! Ok, time to get into it, here are the topics of the day:

• Alchemist abilities
• 3D Maps
• Leap Skills/Animations
• Mod Size, Steam, and Animations
• Modding Hardcore
• CD-Key Unlocks
• Particle Effects
• No Tilde for the cheat console
• Preditor Features
• Special entrances for modded dungeons
• The official return of Shaders
• Shift Click and Pets
• Skill Points
• Skill Resets/Respecs

Continue Reading…

This is going to be a whopper of a post again, because despite being in the final crunch for the making of Torchlight, the devs have posted an amazing 185 times in forums in the week since I last made a tidbits post! I guess not sleeping gives them more time to answer our questions? In any case, they are working around the clock, and we’re here to support them!

Since the number of tidbits this week is so great, this is going to be as stream-lined a post as I can manage, and I am going to split it up into 2 or 3 post (one each day). Here is the list of topics for today and then we’ll get right into it!

Today’s Tidbit Topics

• Auto-loot pickups
• Cosmetic Choices
• The 300 MB Download
• Animation Swapping
• The Best Summoning Class and Pets that summon
• Camera View in the MMO
• Fishing-only items and Quest Position Saving
• Control Key Remapping and Movement Keys
• Custom Mouse Cursors
• Fishing Rewards
• Zone-Based Skill Effects
• Skill drops
• Equip Comparisons
• Game Length and Carnage
• 13 General World Creation and Dungeon Questions
• A “hot” enemy concept

Continue Reading…