Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

I wrote for a long while about Vanguard, a game that has a dedicated mod community that feels it receives little support from the developers. In an interview with Runic Games Insider, you noted that Torchlight will highly modifiable and that it will “deliver some robust modding tools.” You later pledged to support the mod community. Exactly how will Runic Games support its modding community? Will players be able to create custom UIs and downloadable content? How hard will that be? Will advanced modders be able to provide feedback to the development team for improvements or fixes to the user interface?

John Dunbar: We like to keep close ties with our community.  It’s pretty easy to get a hold of us on forums, and I’m sure we’ll be having a ton of discussions about modding.  If you’re an advanced modder and involved in the community, we’ll know who you are.  The tools we will release are the same ones we use to make the game, so any improvements we make for the community will help us out as well.  There’re already pretty awesome though, Greg has done a fantastic job creating them and adding new features that make our lives a lot easier.

Since your question focused on UI modding, you’re probably thinking about the MMO, and I can’t really tell you what sort of modding it will support.  Right now when I think of mods, I have the single player game in mind.  Modding is one of the coolest things about single player games, and I can’t wait to see what people come up with.  I hope to see new monsters, new dungeons, new quests, everything.  Maybe someone will replace all the monsters with laser space bugs.  As far as difficulty, it varies depending on what you want to do.  If you want to make a whole new monster with new art, then you will need to know how to model and animate.  If you can do that, then adding it to the game will be easy.  Changing item or monster stats is super easy, making particle effects or levels will probably require you to read a tutorial.

You have mentioned a persistent, evolving pet as one of the gameplay elements you’d like to see in Torchlight or other Runic Games titles. How do you envision a pet evolving in a way that keeps it as fresh as getting access to new pets at different levels?

Travis Baldree: Apart from the fact that you will be able to transform your pet into other creatures using a mechanic similar to the one in FATE, we've talked a lot about having abilities that are equippable on your pets via a collar.  This is stil in flux right now, so I don't want to commit to too many lofty goals just yet, but we definitely want your pet to gain new abilities as you play, keeping them interesting to develop.

In Taylor Balbi’s account of playing Torchlight at the 2009 Game Developer’s Conference, he mentions secret doors in dungeons. Can players expect a lot of Easter eggs like that? Will there be a secret Zardon level or something?

John Dunbar: I wouldn’t call secret doors an easter egg, they’re just part of the dungeons and there will be lots of them. There are also levers that make bridges extend, release monsters, and do that sort of thing. It’s a lot more interactivity than we’ve ever had in dungeons before, and it makes them a lot more interesting.

If there’s a secret level, we’ll probably have to do it without Zardon.  For sad.  We can only hope to find a different ridiculous, un-usable monster to idolize this time around.

The word on the web is that inventory will be one item to one space rather that the older Tetris-style system. Why did you make this choice, how many slots will players be able to fill, and can pets really carry items for us, too?

Travis Baldree: Primarily it's a question of simplicity.  Mythos actually had single-slot items for a while, early in development. Eventually, we went to the Tetris system because we were unhappy with how the single-slot icons looked - they were small and hard to pick out, and inventory management caused a lot of eyestrain.  In Torchlight the icons are generally much larger, and we're pleased with how the gear looks in icon form, so we don't really miss it.  At present, for standard gear, the player has 15 slots [and[ your pet has an additional 15.  You also have separate areas for quest and fishing-related items (15 each), so that they don't clutter the primary inventory. This is all subject to change, however.

A lot of great publishers put our quality titles ever year. Tell us why Perfect World is the right publisher for Torchlight.

Travis Baldree: Perfect World is both a publisher and a developer. They know what it takes to make a successful MMO in the business model we were attempting, have completed successful launches in the US, and are fantastic to work with.  Even though single player games aren't really considered for development in China, they were gracious enough to give us the time to release a single player title first - we really couldn't ask for a better partner.  In the end, Perfect World was the right publisher for us because of that - because they're our partner as well as a publisher, and they generously give of their resources and expertise to help us make a better game.  They've really been a pleasure to partner with.

Since Perfect World is known for free-to-play games in the West, does that mean the Torchlight MMO will work on a micro-transaction system as well? Will there be a retail box for either the RPG or the MMO?

Travis Baldree: Yes. The Torchlight MMO will have a micro-transaction system similar to what we were attempting with Mythos.  With Perfect World, we really have an opportunity to achieve what we set out to do with Mythos, which is extremely lucky for us.  I'm not sure yet whether we'll have a retail box for the MMO, but we intend to do so for the single player game.