Torchlight Frontiers - Announcement Trailer

Silver

Spaceman
Staff Member
Joined
February 13, 2014
Messages
9,324
Location
New Zealand
A new hack and slash game has been announced called Torchlight Frontiers.



REKINDLE THE FLAME IN 2019!

www.torchlightfrontiers.com

Torchlight Frontiers combines the heart of the beloved Torchlight series with a shared, persistent and dynamically generated world. In true Torchlight style, players will team up with friends and devoted pets to hack and slack their way through a vibrant world, discover ancient ruins of lost civilizations and brave dungeons filled with riches and dangerous creatures.
More information.
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
9,324
Location
New Zealand
Looks like the developing studio is Echtra Games, founded by Max Schaefer who was one of the founders of Runic and an original dev of Torchlight 1 and 2. No idea if anyone else involved with the earlier Torchlight games is involved with this or not.

TL1 and 2 were pretty fun Diablo clones, so I'll be keeping my eye on this
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2014
Messages
612
Torchlight and Torchlight 2 were sort of quirky fun - but ultimately too silly and lacking in thoughtful mechanics. Certainly among the lowest ranking D clones, to my mind.

While this could be interesting, my immediate reaction screams cash grab.
 
Pass...
If it has to be an ARPG I'd rather give the Anniversary Edition of Titan Quest another try.
 
Joined
Feb 21, 2015
Messages
2,229
Location
BW, Germany
Pass…
If it has to be an ARPG I'd rather give the Anniversary Edition of Titan Quest another try.
 
Joined
Feb 21, 2015
Messages
2,229
Location
BW, Germany
Perhaps my mistake. Thought the guy who wrote rebel galaxy also did torchlight but maybe not...

Looks like the developing studio is Echtra Games, founded by Max Schaefer who was one of the founders of Runic and an original dev of Torchlight 1 and 2. No idea if anyone else involved with the earlier Torchlight games is involved with this or not.

TL1 and 2 were pretty fun Diablo clones, so I'll be keeping my eye on this
 
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
7,758
Location
usa - no longer boston
This was kind of what Mythos was supposed to be before Flagship Studios shutdown and became Runic. I might try this one out, even though Runic is no more, and the original Blizzard North crew is off to greener pastures.

When I was playing the closed beta of Mythos, it was like the wild west of development. We would submit ideas to them on the forums and the next day they would implement them. Fun times.
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
2,265
Location
Calgary, Alberta
From memory:

Travis Baldtree was the guy who designed Mythos (another Diablo clone) for Flagship Studios (developers of Hellgate London). I believe they hired him because he made that shallow kiddie Diablo, called FATE. IIRC, they were using Mythos as a testbed for their innovative network infrastructure.

Along with some other ex-FSS developers, he formed Runic games - the developers of Torchlight and Torchlight 2.

AFAIK, he went on to form Double Damage games with Schaefer - and they made Rebel Galaxy - which is a pretty and extremely shallow "Diablo with spaceships" sort of game.

Apparently, Schaefer must have moved on yet again.

As far as I'm concerned Baldtree is a curse more than a blessing, as everything he's been involved with since FATE has been a weak-ass, shallow Diablo clone of one kind or another - and his studios keep closing down.

Schaefer has been part of some really, really great games before Runic - but I'm guessing he's sick of the big stuff - and he's probably just trying to cash in here and there.
 
From memory:

Travis Baldtree was the guy who designed Mythos (another Diablo clone) for Flagship Studios (developers of Hellgate London). I believe they hired him because he made that shallow kiddie Diablo, called FATE.

Along with some other ex-FSS developers, he formed Runic games - the developers of Torchlight and Torchlight 2.

AFAIK, he went on to form Double Damage games with Schaefer - and they made Rebel Galaxy - which is a pretty and extremely shallow "Diablo with spaceships" sort of game.

Apparently, Schaefer must have moved on yet again.

As far as I'm concerned Baldtree is a curse more than a blessing, as everything he's been involved with since FATE has been a weak-ass, shallow Diablo clone of one kind or another - and his studios keep closing down.

Schaefer has been part of some really, really great games before Runic - but I'm guessing he's sick of the big stuff - and he's probably just trying to cash in here and there.

Also important to note, Flagship Studios was comprised of some the ex Blizzard North people, responsible for the original Diablo 1/2, so there's quite a heritage to everything here.
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
2,265
Location
Calgary, Alberta
Also important to note, Flagship Studios was comprised of some the ex Blizzard North people, responsible for the original Diablo 1/2, so there's quite a heritage to everything here.

I know, Schaefer was one of those :)

Also, I believe Bill Roper was the guy everyone decided to blame for HGL's failure - because he was the PR lead in most cases.

Brevik, which is the real genius behind Diablo and Bliz North was a part of Flagship, too.

Here's an interesting interview with Brevik, if anyone actually cares how Diablo got started - and how Brevik was forced to concede that going from a turn-based combat system to a real-time combat system was genius, even though he HATED the decision at first:

 
Run around, kill lots of things, then send your pet to the store. Plus fishing. 'Bout sums it up. I enjoyed the art style though.
 
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
5,599
Location
Seattle
TORCHLIGHT I and II were fun, casual games. I'll be checking this one out!
 
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
706
If I remember correctly, a Torchlight MMO was the next planned project for Runic after Torchlight 2, before Travis and Erich left and everything fell apart.

This looks to be a continuation of that.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2014
Messages
612
Torchlight 2 was great; hardly among the "lowest ranking D clones". Much more fun than the bland, vanilla Diablo 3.

If it was just a normal sequel that could be played in local co-op, I'd be on this like a ... something on a sticky something. As it's a MMO-isation of Torchlight, I'm less enthusiastic, though I'll undoubtedly follow its progress.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,672
Location
New Zealand
"Team up with friends in a shared, persistent and dynamically generated world"

This scares me. It sounds like it might be online and multiplayer only.

I had great fun playing and MODDING the first two 'single player' Torchlight games. But I hate multiplayer games! So I have no interest at all in a multiplayer version of Torchlight, especially if it doesn't support modding.

But I'll keep my eye on this, hopefully I'm wrong, but so far, it doesn't look promising.
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Messages
112
Location
Australia
"Team up with friends in a shared, persistent and dynamically generated world"

This scares me. It sounds like it might be online and multiplayer only.

I had great fun playing and MODDING the first two 'single player' Torchlight games. But I hate multiplayer games! So I have no interest at all in a multiplayer version of Torchlight, especially if it doesn't support modding.

But I'll keep my eye on this, hopefully I'm wrong, but so far, it doesn't look promising.
Well……
Torchlight Frontiers has been announced as a shared-world action-RPG set in the same universe as Torchlight 1 and 2.

Along with the setting, the “signature features and mechanics” also return.

Torchlight Frontiers features a share, persistent, dynamically generated world. In the game players and their pets team up to “hack and slack their way through” the game.

Intrepid adventurers will discover ancient ruins of lost civilizations and, of course, gather loot and give enemies the what for in dungeons.

“Evolving the Torchlight universe into a shared world has always been a goal for the franchise,” said Schaefer in the announcement. “I’m excited that we’re finally able to make it a reality,”

“Torchlight Frontiers will be a living, breathing universe that will still feel uniquely Torchlight, with our own creative spin. The team is building something truly special, and we can’t wait for fans to play it for the first time at gamescom and PAX West.”
I'd say that answers that it will be an online shared world.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
38,598
Location
Spudlandia
Back
Top Bottom