And they’re off!

Members of Runic Games are en route to China today, spending 10 days in Beijing and Shanghai visiting our partners.

This is Technical Artist Adam Perin’s first trip to China which inspires a lot of glee around the office – Adam is the most notoriously finicky eater we have ever met. Subsisting primarily on mac ‘n’ cheese, fries, and cheap beer, it’s only a matter of time before he dies of scurvy.

Eating in China would be a cuisine adventure for anyone, but for Adam it’s more like truth or dare. We’re daring him to challenge the boundaries of his consumption habits – maybe by a nanometer or so. Here are Adam’s thoughts on the matter:

We want you to add your opinion! Check out the poll on our forums to vote for what you think Adam should eat!

Check back often, we’ll keep you updated with photos from the trip. Bon Voyage, boys!

Salutations! My name is Jamus Thayn, I’m that other character artist guy here at Runic Games. I’ve been at the studio since April and love being a part of this amazing team. Seeing all the talented and awesome people I work with is really inspirational and has been one of the best experiences I’ve had so far in the gaming industry.

I deal primarily with player armors and npcs though I also made a few of the boss mobs and creatures. Exploring the Torchlight art style has been incredible amounts of fun, it’s a constant balancing act between simplified styles and building complex and interesting looks. As for my time before this I was actually caught in a dimensional portal when I was born so I was raised by the elder gods in the great dreaming city, otherwise known as a small farm in Nebraska. I’ve done a lot of traveling acquiring mystical artifacts of great power and eventually decided to go into a truly dangerous field… Game Art. Originally the school of desert ninjas I attended told me it was a pipe dream but after mastering the disappearing file technique I was promoted to grand admiral and began my work at Mythic games working on Warhammer Online.

I can’t say much more about what its’ like to work in the games industry since I’m currently preparing the foundation for the apocalypse… but what I can say is that there is no where I would rather be at this moment than working on this amazing team and the exciting things they have planned for the future. There is a purity here at this studio and an openness I think the majority of studios have lost, and if you think Torchlight was awesome like I did… wait ‘til you see what we have coming up next.

Hi everyone, we hope you had an awesome holiday season filled with spiked beverages and loot!

You may have heard, Torchlight was nominated for a Game Developer’s Choice Award, “Best Debut.” Very exciting, and composer Matt Uelmen will be there in LA for the entire event, representing the team! Fingers crossed for us, it would be fantastic to win. GDC runs March 9 – 13th.

So what have we been up to? We’ve been concepting our next project, which involves more meetings and wiki threads than you’d believe. Still mostly blue sky at this point, but we should have some fun things to share within the next couple months. Also, a big congratulations to Travis and his wife, who welcomed a new baby girl, Emma June, on the 26th! And lastly, a few Runic team members will be travelling to China on business, so we plan to bring you some pictures of the fun and keep you updated.

And, brand new on the site, check out our latest Dev Blog: Meet the Team, featuring Jamus Awesome Thayn!*

Thanks for bearing with us in this quiet period, we’re working hard and hope you’ll love the results!

Best,

Runic Games

*(I added the Awesome, it just sounds right.)