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Ars Technica has posted a new article on the history of Runic Games' action RPG, Torchlight. Featuring comments from Wonder Russell, the "Minister of Culture" for the company, the article covers the demise of Flagship Studios and Mythos, the decision to make a single player only title with Torchlight, and the value of using of digital distribution.

"To lose a game you've worked on for years like that is heartbreaking, so first priority for us as a new team was simple: ship a game," Russell explained. The founders of the company had worked on both Diablo and Fate, so they knew this genre inside and out—it was a natural fit. Sticking to single-player meant that they could focus on one thing and deliver it with a high degree of polish.

So they wanted something fast, in the vein of Diablo, but it had to be good. Those requirements rarely add up to anything worthwhile, but the strategy for creating the game left a lot of room for iteration. "The MO at Runic is to 'always have a playable build.' The game has been essentially playable weeks after its inception, and so everyone can play and comment and tweak—we have constant, daily iterations of the game, so playtesting really began a year ago and has only ramped up since then with our hardworking QA team," Russell told Ars. They also invited the friends and family of the developers to come in and play to make sure the game was fun for the more casual fans. The goal was simple: to make the game fun to play, even if that meant focusing on single-player.

Ars Technica: Torchlight History

Runic Games (add to watch list)

Torchlight (add to watch list)

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