Q: What is Torchlight?

A: Torchlight is an action role-playing-game for the PC made by the creators of Diablo, Fate, and the never-released Mythos among other games. Set in the mining town of Torchlight, players will adventure to uncover the mysteries of the Ember mines. It offers a fully featured character leveling system, randomized dungeons, hordes of monsters, and gobs of great loot.

Q: What is the release date, and how much will it cost?

A: Torchlight became available for digital download on October 27th, 2009 on PC for a price of $20 (US). You can get Torchlight from our site (www.torchlightgame.com), as well as various other digital distributors.

Q: What is the world of Torchlight like?

A: Torchlight is a boomtown built on top of a rich deposit of a magical stone called Ember – the rare and valuable keystone of magic. Shortly after its discovery, all sorts of adventurers came to Torchlight to make their fortunes.

Unfortunately for the miners, they weren’t the first to discover this particular vein of Ember – the mines are in fact a layer cake of ruined civilizations, growing more ancient the deeper one descends. Before long, ancient horrors that were once locked safely away from the world boil out of the mines, terrorizing the populace.

Q: What sort of quests will Torchlight have?

A: Torchlight has both an extensive main story line and lots of side quests besides. In-game cinematics are used to help illustrate the story.

Q: Will Torchlight have special “boss” fights?

A: Yes! Torchlight has several epic bosses which provide a unique challenge (and reward) to the player.

Q: How does character advancement work?

A: Characters gain levels in typical RPG fashion: by killing monsters and completing quests. Each time your character levels up, you gain 5 attribute points and 1 skill point to distribute. In addition, characters gain fame by killing boss monsters and doing quests. For each level of fame, you are awarded a bonus skill point!

Each character class has three trees of unique skills, allowing for many different “builds” of each class.

Q: What’s this I hear about you having a pet?

A: You can select between a cat or dog companion at the start of the game. Your pet fights monsters, gains levels, can be taught to cast spells, fetches items, and can even run back to town and sell stuff to the vendors!

Q: What item types will I be able to find in Torchlight?

A: Your character has slots for helm, armor, boots, shoulders, gloves, belt, 2 rings, amulet, and left and right hands. You can also easily swap between two sets of weapons. Your pet can be equipped with 2 rings and an amulet.

There are normal, enchanted, rare, unique, and set classifications of items, each providing magic upgrades on the base weapon or armor piece.

Q: Is there a place for me to store items besides my backpack?

A: Your character has a private stash which can store excess items. All of your characters also share an additional stash which you can use to transfer items between them. In addition, your pet has its own pack that you can use to store items while exploring the mines.

Q: Will monsters scale in level with my character?

A: In short – no!

Q: Are the dungeons randomly generated?

A: Yes, most levels are randomly generated. However that doesn’t mean they’re boring! They feature considerable elevation change, secret rooms, levers, set pieces, shrines, non-monster encounters, moving bridges, traps, and much more!

Q: How long does it take to complete the game?

A: Completing the main storyline takes about 10 to 20 hours. The main dungeon has over 30 levels, composed of seven distinct tile sets. However, levels that use the same tile set can be created using different rules and themes – so even though two levels might share the same tile set, they might be quite different from one another.

Q: What can I do once I finish the main storyline?

A:Once you complete the main storyline, you can continue to adventure in the world of Torchlight, gaining levels and loot. There is also an “infinite” dungeon in the town, to provide almost unlimited challenges for your character.

Q: What sort of background music will there be?

A: Matt Uelmen has composed over a dozen fantastic pieces, totaling close to 40 minutes, for the game.

Q: Will I be able to play Torchlight online?

A: Because of the relatively short development window and tiny development team, we decide to focus our efforts on making a complete single-player experience. However, we are already in development of a massively multiplayer action-RPG set in the world of Torchlight for future release.

Q: What are the minimum system requirements?

A: The PC version will require Windows XP or later, x86-compatible 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 400MB Hard Drive space, DirectX-compatible 3D graphics with at least 64MB of addressable memory (such as an ATI Radeon 7200, NVIDIA GeForce 2, or Intel GMA 950). An internet connection is required for the digital download version to activate your installation.

The requirements are so low, we are even able to play Torchlight on the netbooks around the office!

The Mac version will require OS X 10.4 or later, an Intel processor, 1GB of RAM, 800MB Hard Drive space, and an OpenGL 2.0 compatible video card with 256MB dedicated RAM (ATI Radeon X1600 or nVidia equivalent). The Mac version runs through the Steam Platform, and other requirements may apply.

Q: Will there be Mac and/or Linux-native versions of Torchlight? How about console or mobile?

A: We have released Torchlight for Mac (OS X 10.4 or later) through Steam Platform. However, the editor will not be available on Mac OS. We have not made any decisions regarding versions on any other platforms as of this time.

Q: Will players be able to mod the game?

A: Users will be able to separately download our editor (named “TorchED”). This is the primary tool which we used to create Torchlight ourselves, and exposes a huge amount of the game to user customization. Players will be able to create their own fixed and random levels, items, skills, classes, monsters, quests, adjust balance, and so forth.

Q: What will the download size for Torchlight be?

A: The game download is approximately 420MB.

Q: Will there be a demo?

A: Yes, we will release a try-before-you-buy demo which should be available for download from a multitude of sites.

Q: Will there be boxed version? How about a collector’s version?

A: There is a boxed version available now from several retailers, including Game Stop, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com.

Q: Will the game be released in other countries? What languages will Torchlight be localized into?

A: Because Torchlight will be available as a digital download, you should be able to purchase the game easily from any location. The game will initially only be available in English, however we hope to be able to make the game available in other languages in the future, depending on demand.