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Runic Has Fantasies About Their Latest RPG, Torchlight

A console version for Torchlight seems to keep the developers up at night

Oct 9, 2009 18:31 GMT  ·  By
The dungeon crawler Torchlight
   The dungeon crawler Torchlight

Flagship Studios may have sunk over a year ago, but Runic Games surfaced from their wreckage and is now preparing to launch a brand-new game. Torchlight will be a dungeon crawler exclusive to the PC, but Max Schaefer, Runic Games CEO, said that they would really like to bring the game to the consoles. "We talk about it a lot. We fantasize about getting the [Xbox Live Arcade] version, and that would probably be the one we did... the XBLA one," Schaefer said in an interview with 1UP.

But for now it seems like duty comes first for the studio and their whims and wishes must be put on hold. The team is already working on a game and they can't afford to delay development. "We're really committed to making the MMO version next, and we're a pretty small studio. We just have one little team." A business is a business, and productivity and efficiency come first. Still, the creative desire will forever linger inside Runic as will hope of one day bringing the game to the console market. "We look at it and we say, 'This would really do great'," Schaefer said.

Torchlight will be a Diablo-styled RPG that will focus on single player. It has an official release date of October 27 and is being positioned as a budget download on the PC. The game will be accompanied by a large package of development tools that won't be able to be part of any future console releases, if they ever do happen. The nature of the game does make it a perfect candidate for the Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network but without the manpower to work on the project, it will just have to wait. A Mac version is also in development, but at the moment there is no end in sight for it.

Players will have three classes at their disposal with which to explore the belly of the mining town of Torchlight. The first is The Destroyer, a heavy-type warrior acting as basic melee damage dealer and tank. The second class is The Alchemist, a steampunk spellcaster that will follow the classic specifications of the class. The last one is The Vanquisher, a rogue-type character that alternates between long and close combat.