With , and the Hellgate London and Mythos IPs moved to new owners, Runic Games is hard at work on a secret new project that will be a spiritual successor to Mythos, itself a spiritual successor to Diablo. In my correspondence with Schaefer, I learned exclusive first details about his upcoming (still untitled) action-RPG, the challenges facing independent developers in a shaky global economy, and his anticipation of Blizzard's own . It's a great, informative read for any fan of Diablo, Mythos, Blizzard, or the action-RPG genre.

So how is life at ? What's it like out there for an upstart young developer in this typhoon of an economy?

These are tough times for any developer, especially small, independent ones. We've been able to establish a good, strong partnership with a publisher so we're one of the lucky ones. Given the state of things, however, we're watching every penny, and developing with an extra sense of urgency and effort.

Max Schaefer talks Runic Games' secret new project

Mythos never made it past a beta stage, but Runic's new game will pick up where Mythos left off.