'Torchlight' copycat modifies iOS game following theft accusations

The developer accused of stealing from Runic Games decides to "modify" their iOS title in the wake of these accusations.

Entertainment Game Labs, the Chinese developer behind an iOS game accused of taking art assets from popular dungeon crawler Torchlight is now modifying "some parts" of its design in the wake of these accusations.

"Players always come first," wrote an EGLS representative in a prepared statement. "There, we prefer to modify some parts of Armed Heroes Online where have caused those disputes rather than go on arguing. As long as this carves out a way out of angry disputes, it will be definitely worth our efforts."

The developer still denies stealing assets from the Runic Games title, however, and offers to submit documents and material to Apple proving the artwork is based on original material developed by the studio.

But speaking in an interview with Joystiq, Runic Games president Travis Baldree remains incredulous, stating the material is taken directly from Torchlight.

"I also downloaded the app, and you can just unzip them and look at any iPhone app. And there was a sound manifest that listed all the sound files in the game, and they were verbatim all of our sound files, including our own misspellings," he said. "Our technical artist Adam Perin did voices for a sword called 'The Sword of Adam.' And it had goofy little things that he would say when you swung the sword. And those were in there [Armed Heroes Online], even in one of their videos."

As of now, Armed Heroes Online is no longer available via the iTunes App Store, following Runic's takedown request.