Torchlight was ”just barely” shoehorned into XBLA. It’s the memory limit that’s the problem for a ”straight port”. Torchlight on Xbox Live ”did very well for us.”
Torchlight 2 is a dramatic change from the original as it adds multiple hub cities, outdoor environments and co-operative multiplayer.
”With Torchlight 2 there is a little more complication as far as just being able to do a straight port, as we did with Torchlight 1,” explained CEO Max Schaefer. ”In all likelihood, if Torchlight 2 gets to the Xbox it would be probably fairly comprehensively redesigned.”
”We would have to be redoing the interface for a console release anyway, just like we did with Torchlight 1, so it would probably make sense to do something more specifically tailored to the Xbox. We managed to shoehorn Torchlight 1 in there but just barely.”
”As some people have pointed out, there’s a little bit of frame-rate slowdown when it gets super crowded on screen. That’s another fact of it not being designed for the system and just being shoehorned onto it,” he continued.
Despite a few niggles it still performed well: ”Torchlight on Xbox Live did very well for us. I think it’s the number one revenue game on XBLA for the year so far. We missed out being the top for units sold to Full House Poker by a little bit but they cost less than we do. It was definitely a profitable and valuable experience and we’re happy with the results.”
Could Torchlight get a full retail release for Xbox 360 instead? ”We would absolutely consider that,” admitted the studio boss. No such discussions have ever taken place.
”We’re very consciously trying to focus on one thing at a time and at the moment it’s getting Torchlight 2 out for the PC. Then the next thing will be the Mac port.”
”Beyond that we’re keeping our options open, depending on what happens. We have a lot of opportunities to do a lot of different things but we want to stay a small studio,” said Schaefer. Runic has 30 members of staff and they don’t want to over reach.
At PAX Prime this month Runic will unveil the fourth and final character class for Torchlight 2, and reveals a player limit for co-op is yet to be decided - likely between ”four and eight.”
Torchlight 2 releases on PC this Autumn. Is this dungeon crawler for you?