Torchlight 3 feels like it’s come out of nowhere because in many ways it has. For a long time it was known as Torchlight Frontiers. It wasn’t a codename but a name for something fundamentally different to the Torchlight games which had come before. It was free-to-play. But the people playing the alpha didn’t like it and, truth be told, the developer didn’t either, so late last year, big, bold changes were made. The studio went dark and when it reemerged in January, it announced a remarkable turnaround. No longer did the game have a free-to-play heart. It, and all its wiring, had been ripped out and replaced by a buy-once, premium design. No longer was the game fundamentally different to the Torchlights which came before it. No longer was the game Torchlight Frontiers. It was, instead, Torchlight 3.
And people loved it.
“We had no idea the name part itself meant so much to people.” I’m talking to Tyler Thompson, co-founder of Echtra Games and co-lead of Torchlight 3, whose credits stretch back to being co-lead on Diablo 2 expansion Lord of Destruction, with his Torchlight 3 co-lead Max Schaefer. How things circle back around, eh!
