In a short update from Travis Baldree over at Runic Games, it was announced that Torchlight II, originally planned for release this year, well…won’t hit that mark. Doesn’t mean they didn’t try, at least!

“…[W]e made a good run at that,” Baldree wrote. “We’ve come to the realization, however, that getting a game of this scope up to the quality and polish level we want to achieve is going to take a little longer; especially since we want to run a small beta before release to ensure that our launch is smooth.”

Today, Runic released a State of the Game podcast that you can take a listen to if you’re wondering what, exactly, led to this delay. But Travis still hopes you won’t be too sad about the game’s delay:

Besides, you’re all playing Skyrim right now anyway, aren’t you? Or Battlefield 3? Or Uncharted 3? Or Saints Row 3? Or Arkham City? Or Skyward Sword? Or Minecraft? Or Modern Warfare 3? Or Dark Souls? Or Assassin’s Creed Revelations?

Those are awesome games. When Torchlight 2 goes live, we want it to be awesome too – all the way through.

Torchlight is one of those games that if you have ever used a computer for more than just checking email and looking for game deals, you might have stumble upon it once or twice.  One of my favorite games on Steam, since I was able to put it on a small low powered laptop and play it between classes or on long trips.  Once I played it from Portland to Seattle and it made the two plus hrs trip feel like a twenty minute ride.  So when I chatted with Jason Beck, the art director of the game, I was desperately wanting to know what was different.

Jason said, “Well, is co-op now, different worlds instead of one dungeon underneath the town, as well of new skills, completely new classes and a lot of fine tuning from the first one. “  For the classes, we can now chose between male and female for one particular class, something Torchlight did not allow us to do before.  Not only can you change what class and sex your character is, but there is a now a higher level of customization involved with the building of the character, adding things like 42 different hair styles and well over 90 gear sets.  Back to co-op, you’ll be able to play online with your friends and LAN, as Runic are fans of LAN parties and are trying to keep that alive. In game chat will be supported but not in game voice chat.  Even though you’ll able to play with your friends, you don’t have to play on the same area.  Your friends will b

e able to explore and kill and do whatever they want on a other section of the game, while you are playing, or they can come and play with you for some co-op extra loot, bonuses, and experience.  This way, if you are playing alone the monster will be the right level, but if a friend comes to help, the monster will adjust so it becomes a challenge for both players.  As far as loot goes, whatever you see on your screen is yours, and what your friends see on the screen in theirs, so no problems with ninja looting.  If your friend happens to get an item that would be best for you, you’ll be able to trade or your friend can give you the item, instead of selling it to a vendor.

For PAX they brought Torchlight 2 second zone: a take on an arctic desert.  The game contains three major acts, which each of which will have a unique town .  Upon exploring those regions you can find different entrances to the dungeons.  Which brings a new element to the game.  There was not much exploration in the original game, but this one will allow you and reward you for looking around and searching a particular area.  Even for loot, clicking on rocks and other items in the game will yield you gold or potions.  The game seemed to have moved away from having to destroy crates and barrels in order to obtain items.  This new addition to the game, adds to the exploration part that they want you to be able to experience at its fullest.  When entering into a dungeon, the camera view went to the original Torchlight type of view which differs from the outside area, as we got an open camera view allowing us to explore.   If you happen to enter a dungeon by yourself and find that you are in a pickle, Runic is talking about creating a teleport or summoning available for the players, but nothing has been added to the game as of PAX time.

Many things have not been finalized yet, Jason said that when it comes to the co-op, they have not set a  number  for the size of party.  So we might be seeing parties as low as four players or as many as eight.   They have been working on trying to get as many people in the game as possible, but still keeping it fun.  Too many people would make it chaotic , especially since all  four characters have their own pets, some of the classes can summon creatures, which can slow down the game play as everyone rushes to kill something.

The look and feel of the game is a bit different  than your normal arctic desert.  Very desolate, but a lot of purples and different shades making it very unique to Torchlight.  As Jason traveled through it, he would constantly try to get to a specific location, but the game randomizes the outdoor layout, which is fantastic for game play, not so much to demo or show me something specific.  I was fascinated by the notion of not having an area that would be constantly the same each and every play through.

One of the many things that brought me into playing Torchlight is that at the time I was playing the larger MMORPG types and I disliked having to spend one or two hrs just setting up my character, checking auctions, looking for a group in order to finish a quest or finding that one item that would make me +0.5 awesomeness.  I just wanted to pick up and play.  Torchlight has an extremely friendly interface, nice graphics and all of the RPG plus action that one person would want.   Jason agreed with me and said, “Back on the first Torchlight it wasn’t a done deal that we had an audience. We basically had to sort of do what we wanted to do, but also do it in a way that would set us apart about the things that were out there or the things we knew were coming . I think a lot of us as gamers, sort of had that ‘I am free for forty five minutes to play a game’ and Torchlight is something that you can get into for the moment , get whatever level of enjoyment you want out of it and get out without having to worry about anything else.”

Another thing I loved about Tochlight was the pets.  The pets in this game are useful, they carry  loot and you can send them back to town to sell the loot without leaving the dungeon.  Once PAX was over, Runic went back to work on pets in particular, trying to get a couple a new ones in, trying to bring more options as far as skins and other things.  Pet’s might become specifically good at certain things, like the dog might have more room to carry things, the cat would be faster, but that has not been set in stone.

The User Interface has been changed and moved to a friendlier tab system.  Since Torchlight 2 is multiplayer, pausing is not an option, so the User Interface had to be made in a way that you could get in and out as fast as possible, since you can get attacked when you are in inventory mode.  Spell scrolls are still part of the inventory  and you can activate and fine tune your character that way.  They have separated your consumables so they don’t take up space in your inventory . The pet inventory will be modelled the same way. So you can still give your pet a zombie spell and have a ferret necromancer, which is fun and silly, but it works.

Since the game is so portable and easy to pick up, I wondered if Runic Games had any plans to make Torchlight or any other games for the massive amount of portable devices.  Apparently Travis, the lead coder flirted with the idea to port Torchlight to the iPad but at the time they were working on the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game and it never saw the light of day.  Still, Runic Games is looking to see where this journey will take them as they are trying to find a second game to build and perhaps Torchlight MMO once Torchlight 2 is released.

Torchlight 2 is definitely coming to the PC (Steam) late this year, but once the game is finished and available for purchase (hint, hint), they are looking into doing a Mac port. Runic is a very small company of about 30 people, which does not allow them to develop everything at the same time.  They are excited about how well Torchlight has done on Xbox Live Arcade and have found that some people prefer it instead of the PC version. The good news is that they are debating whether the game would be appropriate for Xbox Live Arcade or an actual retail copy.  Once you add the co-op and the bigger locations, it is hard to fit all that content on the size of an Xbox Live Arcade title and it would take a lot of reworking to make it happen. Even though all this additions might make you feel like your computer might not be able to run this game, fear not.  The game is a bit heavier, but it is not a resource hog.  Most laptops should be able to handle it as the game does not use any shaders and still low tech by the industry standards.  Torchlight 2 is said to cost the same as Torchlight and after PAX it was announced officially that it will retail for $19.99. The game will also release a “Torch Editor” so you can make your own maps and locations.  The Torch mod program is also getting a face lift and making it easier to use.   All mods would be able to be shared with your friends in order to keep the co-op alive, essentially making you the dungeon master.

Even though the game is still under heavy development, like the end of game being the end of the story or do you get to carry your character over with a higher difficulty level,  it looked highly polished and ready to be shipped.  With multiple times more of content , new weapons, new pets, co-op, new levels,  and approximately 40+ hours of game play (16-20 hours based on game quest and speed runs), new towns and everything else that has been added on Torchlight II,  this game will be one that should be put in your Christmas list or purchased as soon as it comes out.

“We’re very excited to bring Torchlight to the 360, and have been really gratified by the positive reaction,” said Runic Games President Travis Baldree. It’s affirming to know that console players love this genre as much as we do. We think the experience translates pretty well to the couch.”

Torchlight launched during Microsoft’s House Party promotion. Runic is still working on the sequel, appropriately named Torchlight II, for PC.

I’ve only delved into Torchlight through Steam a few times, because I’m not a point-and-click adventure gal on the computer. But, on the Xbox? Well, that’s a whole new animal, and I’m willing to give it a go. Hopefully you are too.

Other games included in the lineup for that promotion are Beyond Good & Evil HD (If you haven’t played that, I recommend it as highly as I can), Bejeweled Blitz, Hard Corps Rising and Full House Poker. Excellent list, really.

“We couldn’t be happier to bring Torchlight to Xbox LIVE Arcade,” said CEO Max Schaefer. “This is what the fans have been asking for. Torchlight for the Xbox 360 is a new way to experience a great game, and we’re thrilled to work with Microsoft to bring it to fruition.”

The 360 version has been overhauled almost completely, with new art and navigation more suited for the 360 controller. There are no cursors at all in this version, either. This version of the game apparently benefits from work already done on its sequel, with reduced loading times and automapping included.

This will probably lead to an insane sales boost for the game, which is already pretty popular – it’s sold over 750,000 units for PC alone, and Torchlight II is currently in development.

Thus far, there are no plans for a PS3 release.

For more, see this page on the official site.

The new title adds new character classes, a larger overworld, new quests, new monsters and brand-spankin’ new dungeons. In addition, you’ll finally get to play with your friends, as well as other peers, using Runic’s peer-to-peer matchmaking technology.

Like the original game, Torchlight II will be sold at a low price point. Expect it to ship in Spring 2011 as a digital download.

If you want to see its debut in person, you’ll have to be in Germany at gamescom 2010 in Cologne from August 18-22. After that, its North American debut will happen at PAX Prime in Seattle, Wash. from September 3-5.

We’ve got a ton of ladies headed to PAX Prime this year, so you can definitely expect a preview of the game.

If you want more from Runic, visit http://www.torchlight2game.com/ to see more.

This week’s collection demonstrates “Steam Play,” which lets you play any Steam game on its supported platforms without buying it multiple times.

Portal will be the first of Valve’s Source engine games to be playable on the Mac. Luckily for you, if you haven’t played it yet, it’s going to be free until May 24th. For Mac or PC. Yeah. So if you haven’t played it yet, there’s no excuse now. Get it here.

Runic Games’ popular title Torchlight will also be available tomorrow. Those two titles will be the only ones in tomorrow’s library update, but at least they’re fun ones.

Valve’s suite of software for publishing and development, Steamworks, is also going to be available for Mac OS X. So Mac gamers can finally enjoy the things that their PC counterparts do, like auto-updates and social networking.

All information on Steam can be found at www.steamgames.com.

Aussies who’ve been wondering when the game Torchlight will grace our shores – wonder no more!

Come April, the folks at Mindscape are excited to make Torchlight available to purchase from your local retailer and apparently it has new exclusive features that aren’t in the online version. Some of those features will include the ferret as a bonus pet and an optional full DVD editor which lets you create your own content, while the key features include randomisation, simple interface and retirement system.

In the RPG (brought to us by the designers and leads of Diablo® and others) you need to save the town of Torchlight, embarking on a perilous journey through many dangerous locations to cleanse the mines. Choose from 1 of 3 Character Classes to battle your way through dungeons and against monsters while searching for fame and fortune.

Winner of quite a few awards including “Best Debut Game” Award at the 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards, Torchlight will be available from all major retailers and computer software outlets from in April 2010 and will cost $29.95AUD.

If you’d like more info on Torchlight, you can find it at www.mindscape.com.au. You can also read an interview by GamingAngel with the games developers, Runic Games!

During the holidays, Runic Games’ Torchlight was a featured sale on Steam and made the list of highly recommended PC games for GamingAngels readers. I grabbed this game at $10 and during the holidays it went down to $5. The sale prompted me to ask Runic Games how the sale affected purchases of Torchlight and I tried to get information on what Runic Games is working on next.

Torchlight is a great game. What motivated the sales on Steam this holiday season?

Thank you! It’s fun to see the word of mouth among friends about Torchlight, and that definitely factored into the holiday sales. Chances are you if you liked playing, your friends will too and as a last minute gift, you can’t go wrong. We had enthusiastic players buying up copies for their whole family, which is awesome!

Some of my friends felt the game was great at the $20 price point, others have purchased it for $5. Are there any trends you see with the various price points?

We saw a huge spike with every sale, which was both surprising and gratifying. The first sale kicked off the night of our company Christmas party, and everyone was on their iPhone watching the Steam sales. We felt really fortunate to be on the bestseller lists over the holidays – it’s competitive enough as it is out there, but with virtually every game on crazy sales, it was a small point of pride to be able to say “Hey look, we’re in the top ten!”

Based on the positive response to Torchlight, will there be any followup like DLC or future episodes?

Probably not, to be honest. Torchlight is done. On the plus side, the mods are plentiful and lots of fun, which should keep people happy for a long time! Onto the next project!

What is Runic Games working on now? And what New Years resolutions do you have as a team?

We didn’t really discuss any resolutions as a team other than to stay small and keep doing what we love. Oh, and find a new office when our sublease is up! Maybe even buy a couch instead of the hand-me-down futon we’ve had for several years! We’re in pre production for the next phase now. Can’t really talk about it yet but we’ll have updates when we can.

Thank you to Runic Games for the interview and please feel free to contact us when you are ready to announce what’s next!

Many people on my Twitter seem to be enjoying their Torchlight experience. Now they can add even more to their game with the TorchED, Torchlight Editor. The modding editor is free to download and available now here.

Gamers will need .Net installed. To download and get the install go here.

There are tips for running TorchEd here. Last, mods will not be hosted by Runic Games but can be stored at the original Runic Games Fansite or Torchlight Insider.