Torchlight 2, the action-RPG sequel, is getting ported to consoles thanks to the talented people at Panic Button. They are also giving us a bit of a peek behind the curtain, so to speak, about the porting process (they’ve ported a lot of high profile titles, such as DOOM, to the Switch). Also, we may have gotten a hint at a Switch revision?
In an interview with Game Revolution, Dan Hernberg, Head of Production at the studio, talked about the porting process. He said the company has no issue being known for porting games, and in fact thinks it’s a great position to be in, as being known for a specialty means they are someone high profile developers can come to without a lot of need for directions or instruction.
“This is why people come to Panic Button; it’s our bread and butter,” he said. “What we try to do is take great games that other people have made and we try to honor those games and when we bring them console. We don’t just [do a one-to-one port].
“I think porting has a bad connotation. When we port a game, we try to think of what the people who made this game were trying to do. If Runic put this game on console today, what would they do and what would they add? [We do this] instead of just saying “Here’s a game, let’s just copy and paste it.” A lot more of our work is not just trying to get the game running but trying to get the game to feel like it was made for the consoles in today’s generation with achievements and friends and all those other things that you just don’t think about. A game like Torchlight 2 that is that old, none of those concepts exist in that game.”
It’s an interesting read for a section of game development we don’t hear from a lot, but Hernberg says something particularly interesting when asked about a Switch Pro, a long rumored revision of the system that will be more power-focused to contrast with the recently announced Switch Lite– or maybe I should say it’s what he doesn’t say when the interviewer asks him if it thinks it’d be cool if there was a Switch Pro.
“Um… no comment,” said Hernberg. “You’re welcome to speculate. I’ll just drink my coffee.”
Whether he’s taking the piss with us or not remains to be seen. Either way, Torchlight 2 is now available on PC, with a release coming for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on September 3rd. The first game in the series is also available for free on PC on the Epic Games Store until July 18th.
