iGame Radio

Hosts Omaha Sternberg and Rob Benson talk about the Runic Games’ copyright infringement claim against EGLS, Valve’s Steam Greenlight, and Penny Arcade’s Kickstarter campaign. Plus, much more!
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We’ve all been waiting anxiously for Torchlight 2, the sequel to Runic Games’ popular shooter from 2009. Well, Runic Games has made an announcement! They’ve relaunched their website with new Torchlight 2 goodies. What, you were expecting a release date or something?
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Runic Games has announced that the release of Torchlight 2 has been delayed. Runic boss Travis Baldree announced on the company’s website that, due to a desire to ensure “quality and polish” and include a small beta, the game release date will be pushed back.
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We also talk a brief bit about where the plans for the MMOG are, and when the Mac version will be released.

Runic Games announced today that their critically-acclaimed dungeon crawler Torchlight has officially sold over one million units across all platforms (PC, Mac, and Xbox).

Torchlight debuted for Windows in October 2009, the Mac in May 2010, and Xbox in March 2011. Runic Games hit their 500,000 sales halfway point in early May of 2010 before the Mac version was released. By August of that year, they had already sold more than 600,000, which gives a rough idea of the additional sales after the Mac version was released. And in March of this year, Runic stated that they had the highest sales day ever on any platform when they released the XBLA version.

Torchlight is available in retail and as digital downloads from Steam. It’s an action-RPG dungeon-crawler with a more casual gaming approach to play, enabling gamers of all skill levels to quickly immerse themselves into game play. A level randomizer creates unique adventures for each quest, with different monsters, treasures, puzzles and items for players to find, defeat, and unlock.

Runic Games is currently developing the PC-based multiplayer sequel, Torchlight II, which was nominated for six awards at E3 2011, including Best RPG and Best of E3. Torchlight II is scheduled to release for Windows first, with a Mac version to follow shortly afterward.

Every other week until E3, Runic Games is giving folks a glimpse of what to expect in Torchlight II. This week, Runic Games is exploring a few environments within the game. Included is an intro by Patrick Blank, Lead Level Designer.

The developers will also be explaining a bit about what to expect from the different types of areas, how they are technically different from each other, and how the environments compare to the first Torchlight game. In addition, they have a Level Design Q & A with Patrick Blank and Jason Beck with questions asked by Runic Forums members.

From Making the World of Torchlight II:

Torchlight II introduces randomized outdoor areas throughout the game, in many sizes. We have broken down our outdoor areas into two different types: Passes and Overworld areas. There are multiple Passes and Overworld areas in each Act of the game. All offer random dungeons, random events, and lots of exploration for players.

From Level Design Q&A:

How much of the world will we visit in TL2? – asked by Seer

Jason: In Torchlight II you’ll be traveling across 3 distinct regions of the continent of Vilderan, one of two major continents in our game world. Those 3 regions make up about 1/5th of the continent. Within each of those 3 regions there are various zones, passes, dungeons, and cities. So, it’s a big step up from the single little mining town of Torchlight, but it allows us a great deal of real estate to play with later on in the MMO.

To read the entire set of articles, hop onto the Runic Games website for more information.

Runic Games is celebrating their one year anniversary of the release of Torchlight with a big 50% off sale of Torchlight. Which would be great news, if you owned a PC. But we don’t…so we get to pay the entire 100%.

This is because the Mac version is distributed via Steam, and the rules for that version are different. I spoke to Wonder Russell, the PR guru for Runic Games, about how this all works. Though Runic Games sets the initial basic price for their game, Valve determines when sales, promotions, etc happens and discounts occur.

“However, Steam sales, promotions, giveaways, etc, or whether or not we’re on their front page, are entirely at their discretion,” said Russell. “We generally keep each other in the loop because it’s polite, good business, and the right thing to do, but a Torchlight anniversary sale is not really a Steam event as much as a Runic event.”

So even though Runic Games would love to offer the Mac version at 50% off to celebrate, they can’t because they don’t control the distribution of the Mac game beyond the basic price.

However, I will say that a little birdie twittered in my ear the other day something about a Thanksgiving sale on Steam, so maybe we’ll get a reprieve after all.

While wandering around the Pax Prime expo floor, I ran into Travis Baldree of Runic Games. Runic has announced Torchlight 2, the sequel to their popular dungeon crawler Torchlight, which includes co-op multiplayer. I asked him about the progress on the game and especially about the Mac version. You’ll be happy to know that they are planning on bringing out the Mac version in a shorter time frame than with Torchlight.
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Straight from Gamescom in Germany comes the trailer for Torchlight 2.

• Corey Tamas of MacGamer reviews StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty by Blizzard Entertainment. A true inheritor of the StarCraft crown with superbly balanced gameplay and gorgeous graphics, Corey still wishes that Blizzard was willing to go out on a limb and evolve it.
  

Show Notes:

• Host Omaha Sternberg chats with co-host Corey Tamas of MacGamer about the announcement of Torchlight II and Steam’s impact on Mac gaming in general.
• Apple is rumored to be acquiring Chinese online game developer Handseeing. Is Apple finally getting into the publishing business?
• Corey and Omaha talk about other games they’ve played, and games soon to be released, including the pending launch of Supreme Commander 2.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Digital Droo for featuring music from Burning Monkey Solitaire.
• Rich Carlson for featuring music from Dr. Blob.