Torchlight III - Echonok Reveal Trailer and Gameplay Interview

In a few days, on June 30, 2020, Torchlight III’s early access build is going to be expanded with its third and final story act. Set in the Echanok mountains, this fresh bit of content will let you explore a run-down dwarven kingdom inhabited by steampunk automatons and mechanized vultures. And thanks to IGN’s Summer of Gaming event, we can now watch the official reveal trailer for this new act:

Additionally, there’s also this gameplay interview with the game’s director Max Schaefer where, among many other things, he reveals that a good number of people responsible for Diablo and Diablo II are now working on Torchlight III. Have a look:

And then, you may be interested in the latest early access status update that starts with a message from Max Schaefer. Check it out:

Hi everybody!

We’re into our third week of Early Access, and it seems like it’s been a month already! I can’t thank you enough for all the feedback you’ve shared, it’s given us amazing insight into all the things we got right, and all the things we got wrong. After the first 36 hours of getting our servers stable and fixing all the things that catch fire when thousands of people play your game for the first time, we got to the business of listening, bug-fixing, and developing a roadmap to maximizing the potential of Torchlight III. Before I talk about what’s coming, I want to say a few things about that. We know that many companies don’t take Early Access seriously, and it’s just a way to make money before they release. We will prove to you over the coming months that we take a very different approach. Everything you’ve been telling us, we’ve been hearing. When someone says we’ve missed the mark on something, you know deep down if they’re right. You’ve been right a lot. So after the first several days of your input, we took stock of where we were, and set out on an ambitious, exciting, and player-focused plan to address the substantive and insightful recommendations you’ve been making. Whether it’s been the feedback posted on our Nolt Support Center, or from Twitch streams, from our amazing group in Discord, or from the various social media platforms, we’ve taken it all in. Sometimes it was a bitter pill for us to take, and sometimes we thought “well of course we should do that!”. In all cases, it will make our game better. It is at a time like this that I am thankful that we created a flexible game architecture that allows us to make profound changes in a relatively short amount of time. You’re about to get the first taste.

Next week we will release our first major patch, which will include Act 3 in the Echonok mountains, and the return of our Contracts system and its Fame mechanic. These features will be accompanied by a vast list of fixes and updates to other areas of the game - last I looked the patch notes are 18 pages long. Most of the items listed below will be attached to this patch, including the Lifebound system, Relic skills, UI re-scaling and refinements, less sticky monster collision, and a ridiculous number of other fixes based on your feedback and suggestions. If you saw a popular suggestion or bug fix that is not listed below or in the upcoming patch, you may still see it arrive in an upcoming patch. So thank you again for sticking with us, and buckle up, because it’s going to be an amazing ride!

- Max