Hi guys, I’m John Dunbar. No one knows what I actually do here, but my business card says Zombie Pyrotechnician.

I also had time to create the boss room for the crypt this weekend. I built the original boss room way back in April, but Patrick and Leo have made such awesome levels since then that it was starting to look cramped and boring in comparison. No longer! The room now features an epic monster-filled hallway, spooky spirit wells, and a grandiose backdrop. See if you can spot the throne!

I had a hard time tearing myself away from playing Torchlight today, we have a great team and the game has come a long way in just the last month. I hope some of you will be at PAX to play it, be sure to say hi!

Howdy gang!

Matt Lefferts here. I’ve been the animator here at Runic since the very beginning. To say that I love my job would be an understatement. It’s pretty much my dream job. I work with fantastic people here. I went to the Savannah College of Art and Design for Film and Game Development, and soon after found myself in Seattle. I’m still rather fresh to the industry, I’ve been here for about a year and a half and did freelance work for a couple of years before that.

So the basic day to day is pretty simple. I handle all animation content creation, and management. I get a list of what monsters we are working on for a particular level and go from there. I always start with the character’s idle, as it’s pretty much the most important. It sets the tone for the character because almost all other animations branch off from it. The start and end of other animations will use this pose. Often the idle animation itself is something simple, like breathing or looking ready for a fight. Once we have a full set for a particular character, I go through the process of exporting it and bringing it into our editor. In the editor we have a specific section for animations where we apply tags for things like what frame something gets hit on, or when a sound is played.

Now that we are winding down on the project, I’m focusing most of my time on polish. Going back through and making sure there is necessary secondary animation on bones we might have for bits of cloth that dangle, or a tail, or something else attached to the character that would be effected by the way it moves. Things are really moving along for us right now. It’s an exciting time and I’m really looking forward to getting this out there, into the hands of the player.

Many people have shown great interest in not only our game, but also the tools we are using to create it. And considering we are going to be putting these tools into the customers hands enabling them to create their own modifications, I thought it was about time we start giving fans a sneak peak in just how powerful and simple this toolset is to use.

Today we are releasing Part 1 of a 3 part series demonstrating scripting in levels. Part 1 covers setting up player spawn areas, monster spawns, regions where the monsters can’t spawn, triggers, and a basic trap. Part 2 and 3 will continue building on the same level, and show different and more advanced scripting techniques.

We hope people enjoy these videos and not only find them informative, but also get you excited to use the toolset for your own creations. So follow the link to Part 1, and keep an eye out for Part 2 very soon. You can discuss the video in the forums here!