Independent games have a hard road to tread—little to no marketing budget, small teams, competition from huge, well-known names. That's why it's worth celebrating when a great game from a small developer becomes a hit. And Torchlight didn't just sell in decent numbers, it sold in huge numbers for a game of this type: 500,000 copies to date.

That's not just a hit in the world of independent gaming, that's a hit in any corner of this business.

"We basically approached all the usual suspects—Steam, Direct2Drive, etc, and began setting up those partnerships and agreements," Runic Games' Wonder Russell told Ars. "There is definitely an ease-of-use and approachability with digital downloads that is a huge help to the indie developer, but getting the word out there that you have a game for sale that’s a lot of fun to play is always going to be the trickiest part of the business, especially for a small company like ours, with zero marketing budget."

He shared those thoughts with us back in November 2009. Clearly, things worked out.

In an interesting twist, Perfect World Entertainment has now purchased a majority stake in Runic Games for approximately $8.4 million. Perfect World is known more for Chinese MMO releases than single-player dungeon crawlers, so the company is likely looking towards the MMO update for Torchlight that's coming in the next few years.

This is great news for everyone involved, and it proves that you can still pour your heart into a game and be greatly rewarded. Torchlight is available on a selection of digital distribution platforms, including Steam for Mac gamers, for $19.99.