Runic Games - History

History

Runic Games was founded in August 2008 by Travis Baldree, Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer and Peter Hu. The company formed specifically for the purpose of keeping the Mythos team together to develop a new action RPG video game as a "spiritual successor" to their previous project. Following the dissolution of Flagship Studios in 2008, all 14 members of the Seattle team that developed Mythos signed onto Runic Games.

Full production on the game started around November 2008, meaning that the game's total development period was approximately 11 months. At the 2009 Game Developers Conference some members of the Runic Games team were present with an early version of their single-player game, at which point it was revealed that the title would be Torchlight. One notable addition to the staff was Matt Uelmen, composer for Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo series. As of mid-2009, the company employed no fewer than 26 people.

Gamasutra named Runic Games one of its "Top 5 Developers" of 2009 for the studio's ability to create the "highly-polished" Torchlight in only 11 months. The company was also praised for its responsiveness to its player community, citing one particular incident:

Mere hours after a forum member mentioned that one of the game's camera effects left her unable to play sections of the games due to an uncommon eye condition, a Runic developer patched in a user toggle for the option -- at 8:00 am on a Sunday morning, no less. —Chris Remo, "Gamasutra's Best Of 2009: Top 5 Developers" Gamasutra

Following the 2009 release of Torchlight, the studio shifted to the production of a sequel Torchlight II.

In 2010, Perfect World Entertainment, Inc. bought an $8.4 million majority stake in Runic Games.

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