Memoirs From Torchlight: Developers Are People Too?
I ran across something interesting while browsing the official Torchlight forums the other day. I had been looking for a way to respec my character (which you can, by the way, with this mod) and instead found a topic called “OVERWRITING SAVES! HERE’S HOW TO AVOID UNTIL NEXT PATCH!” For obvious reasons, I opened the topic and gave it a read.
It turned out to be a post from one of the game’s developers, Travis Baldree, explaining that he had finally discovered why some player’s save files were being overwritten. He explained the problem, detailed a solution, and ended the post with, “Really sorry about this folks, but man, am I glad I found it!” And a smiley face.
The even stranger part? The responses to Travis’ confession were nothing but thanks and compliments to Travis for finding the bug.
“Am I dreaming?” I wondered. “I must have typed a wrong address or clicked a wrong link somewhere. This couldn’t possibly be a video game message board.”
Memoirs From Torchlight: A Satisfying Spectacle
I’m playing on Very Hard mode, and I’m only level 18. Twitter buzz told me the game was too easy on Normal, and many players advocated Hard mode for an actual challenge. But I chose Very Hard. And I just died for the hundredth time. What was I thinking?
Hard mode is different for me to begin with. Ever since I decided I wanted to play through my games, I’ve always chosen normal or easy modes. Most times, the experience and story hook me enough that a challenge isn’t what I’m after. Games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic come to mind. I was so enthralled by the characters in that game that I left the combat on easy so I didn’t have to think about my battles. Pulling off strategic victories in a D&D style fight was simply not where that game shined for me.
Torchlight is different. The secret sauce to diablolikes (which is what we might as well call them) is twofold. First, there is the loot. Second, there is the sublime slaughter your loot summons. Hundreds of games feature character progression and loot. What makes the formula so addictive in the good diablolikes (Diablo II, Titan Quest, Torchlight) is how that character progression is linked with power.
Here’s an example.
