Titan Quest Console Edition Changes

The console version and collector’s edition of Iron Lore’s venerable action-RPG Titan Quest launched on March 20, 2018. You can pick the edition you want and grab it through the game’s website. And if you’d like to know what’s so different about the new console versions, this developer post on the Xbox Wire blog sheds some light on the newly added features, UI and visual improvements, and the radial menus. Check it out:

As we dissected the original PC version of Titan Quest, we realized we had to change a bunch of features and implementations. The first one we addressed was the input system which handles how a game is controlled and with what hardware it is controlled. Simply said, we had to have gamepad controller input management in order to make sure we can test this new incarnation of Titan Quest as early as possible. We then dived into changing all the bits and pieces of the navigation system to ensure it was working properly with the gamepads.

This led to the next big area, the user interface. Having a controller used in a UI that was originally designed and implemented for mouse & keyboard use only is one of those points where your mental preparation comes into play. You take a critical look at what you have from the original, which is a great game, and make sure that you move forward with two considerations in mind: How do we keep the usability of the original? As you answer this by understanding what made the original good, you ask the next question: What has changed in a decade that shifted gamers’ behavior and expectation?

This where you sneakily modernize the original game: Some will never notice it, but we added a bunch of new features into the UI and the HUD. Threw in a new loot window to make sure the player can actually see everything he is looting because this time around, there is no mouse cursor to hover finely on those pixels, choose the item and then click to loot. Good, but modern gamers will still want some direct information on what they are looting from the ground as well.

We all take it for granted that a modern game will somehow highlight what the player is focusing on and there again we modernized the usability of the game by adding a seemingly tiny feature that highlights that object for you. We then went one more step beyond for readability and accessibility and revised all of this specifically for the Xbox One. So technically, the goal was to port a circa 2006 computer screen (think 19 to 21 inches as standard back then) game to the new norm of 37 to 43 inches TV set screens.

Throughout this process, we increased the quality of the textures on one side of the fence, and streamlined the streaming system for performance on the other – whilst reworking the gameplay system features wherever needed.

Expanding the same approach to fighting, we realized that now there is no longer a mouse cursor to actually fight enemies! So we added a target cone system that allows you to better focus your attention for item interactions and fighting. It does work like a charm for those AoE attacks…

Modernizing the game required us to revisit the way the graphics were handled as well: SSAO, improved shadows and anti-aliasing was implemented to make sure that the visual richness of the game was properly transferred to larger screens to maintain a high quality result. This is relevant for the gamers, however it also made it possible that as much rendering work is done on the GPU rather than the CPU of the consoles – and this is a must for console projects, as it is naturally a must for the players because you want to enjoy a stutter-free game.

What about those HUD or keyboard shortcuts to pop a potion in the midst of combat? While we reworked the quick-slot system, we realized that we are missing a crucial modern feature: Enter the player behavior and expectations shifting, and implement the multifaceted and versatile idea of radial menus. We added radial menu support where needed, and did the user-interface elements around them. Skill assignment screen was also another new feature added into the midst as well as a bunch of options to make the player experience more accessible and modern.