Last Epoch Q&A on Runemaster Class, 1.0 Launch, and Advantages over Diablo IV

wccftech.com:

Indie game Last Epoch has no intentions of submitting to the franchise power of games like Diablo IV, Path of Exile 2, and the recently unveiled Titan Quest II.

First conceived in 2017 during a relative dearth of new releases in the hack-and-slash genre, the Last Epoch project started when Eleventh Hour Games Founder and CEO Judd Cobler (who had no prior game development experience) decided to establish a studio to create the hack and slash game of his dreams. He took to Reddit to find like-minded people with actual game development experience, as you can see in archived threads like this one.

In May 2018, Eleventh Hour Games (which owes its name to the team working on the vertical slice after finishing their day jobs) turned to the then-popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, where the campaign gathered $255K in funds. The funding allowed the studio to hire people to work full-time on Last Epoch, and that's when the development really sped up.

The game launched on Steam Early Access on April 30th, 2019, immediately garnering a niche audience. To date, Last Epoch has sold over 800K units, is on the wishlist of 600K Steam users, and holds a Very Positive (84%) approval rating from over 19K user reviews.

Just yesterday, Cobler stood alongside Geoff Keighley on the Gamescom 2023 Opening Night Live stage to announce that Patch 0.9.2 will be released on September 7th, adding the Runemaster class to Last Epoch.

Before that happened, though, I interviewed Cobler for over half an hour on everything from the game's unique development history to direct comparisons to the likes of Diablo IV and the planned 1.0 launch (currently scheduled before the year's end). Keep scrolling to read the full edited transcript.

Judd, can you talk