In part II of our interview with Runic Games (you can check out the first part right here) we talk about what went wrong at Flagship Studios and what the future holds after the single-player part of Torchlight is released on Oct. 28.
Runic Games first title, an action RPG called Torchlight, got a lot of buzz at the Penny Arcade Expo in Sept. and a lot of positive feedback from fans that were seeing it for the very first time. A month later the game is in its final stage of development as the team races towards its Oct. 27 release date. To understand the appeal of Torchlight, you need look no further than the gentlemen working on the game and their influences and past accomplishments. Collectively the small development team working on this game has worked on such titles as Diablo and Diablo II, the indie hit RPG FATE, and the now cancelled MMO Mythos. While that list of accomplishments might seem short, it’s also very impressive.
What I learned from talking to Runic Games co-founder and CEO Max Shaefer, Art Director Jason Beck and Runic Games co-founder Travis Baldree was that these influences are helping them to build a better game and later to build a perfect extension of that game with an MMO project. In part I of my interview with this trio I learn about the first fruits of their labors: Torchlight. Read on.
Perfect World Entertainment and Runic Games are offering a treat for fans of its upcoming action RPG, Torchlight - developer diaries. In case you didn’t know Runic Games is comprised of former Flagship Studios employees that were working on Mythos. The company’s collective resume includes such games as the now cancelled Mythos MMO, Diablo, Diablo II and Fate. Links to the first three developer diaries can be found below:
Are Hellgate: London and Mythos coming back? According to a job listing on DICE.com and a story on Gamasutra, it would seem so. According to that report both games have been picked up by Korean publisher and developer T3 Entertainment, who plan on opening up shop in San Francisco.
Both games were put on hold after some financial trouble and massive staff layoffs at Flagship. The job listing on DICE.com mentions both games by name. The company also said that - in addition to Mythos and Hellgate: London - it is developing other games and that all of these titles would be published by HanbitSoft Inc.
Did HanbitSoft manage to hammer out a deal with Flagship or one of its investors to secure rights to both these games, or is this story another instance of HanibitSoft and its agents jumping the gun and claiming ownership of two games that they don’t have a legal right to? At this point, we don’t know, but we’ll continue to follow this story to its conclusion.
Source: Gamasutra
The very public battle between Korean publisher HanbitSoft and Flagship Studios over Mythos and Hellgate London, continues to get ugly. Talking to the Korean press, the company is threatening legal action against Flagship and its founders, which include former Blizzard heavyweight Bill Roper. The company has a publishing agreement with Flagship to publish and operate Mythos in Korea. The company told a Korean newspaper that it should have no trouble securing the Mythos intellectual property and that it will also talk to another collateral holder, who apparently owns a piece of Hellgate, about securing that property.
Hanbitsoft also went on to say that it is within its power to hand off Flagship’s IP to Korean developers in its employ, who are quite capable of completing these projects and making them even better than they are now.
If anything, this is a lesson in letting outside forces gain a controlling interest in your company. You can read some of this sage at Hellgate Guru.
