When I first tried to load the game, it came up with an error about a directory not existing:

/users/USERNAME/appdata/roaming/runic games/torchlight

I created the folder, and now the game will play, but it does not save my progress. A little googling turned up some people that had this problem a while back, but I couldn't find any solution. Anyone know what's going on??

Sorry, should have given my specs:

Alienware M17XR3
8GM Ram
Intel i7-2720QM
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
GeForce GTX 460M

It appears to be a permissions' issue. Try to run the game as administrator.

You may also need to uninstall the game and then reinstall as admin.

May I ask where you installed the game? Permissions issues are much worse when you install to Program Files. If you change the install location to something else (like C:\games) you can often avoid permissions headaches.

Finally figured it out.

tried everything you all suggested, with no luck (I had tried the "run as administrator" thing already, but not installing somewhere else).

A couple of other things I tried:
I tried running it in compatibility mode, with no luck. In fact, it wouldn't start with WinXPSP3 compatibility mode turned on at all. I had to kill the process from Task Manager. *shrug*

I also tried changing the save path in the registry to be c:/games/torchlight/saves. It kept coming up with the same error about AppData even after I did that, so I guess the registry key is meaningless.

Ultimately, I realized that one of the files the game created in AppData/Roaming/Runic Games/Torchlight/ was a game log (Ogre.log), and it included errors about the game failing to save to the above path +/Save/, so I manually created that path (and /mods/ which it apparently needs, too) and now it works.

so ultimately I had to create:

c:/users/USERNAME/AppData/Roaming/Runic Cames/Torchlight/
c:/users/USERNAME/AppData/Roaming/Runic Cames/Torchlight/save
c:/users/USERNAME/AppData/Roaming/Runic Cames/Torchlight/mods

Why the game running as administrator wasn't smart enough to create these folders itself is beyond me.

fwiw, I was running the program with "run as administrator" on an account with administrator permissions.

thanks for the typo correction. My bad. :-)

My Torchlight games aren't saving properly. I am a Windows 7 user, and the game already automatically created the folders above, but my save games don't match up. I will explain with examples below.

E.g. 1.
First installation, first character:
I played to level 8 and then quit for the evening. However, when I tried to use the "Continue" option the next day, it kept going to the "New Character" screen. After checking in the "Load Character" screen, I realised that my character no longer existed!

E.g. 2.
First installation, second character:
Sometime during gameplay, the "Alt" key's function was reversed. I.e. Instead of item names showing when I pressed the "Alt" key, they were permanently showing, and only disappeared while I was holding the "Alt" key. So I reinstalled.

E.g. 3.
Second installation, third character:
The "Alt" key issue resolved itself after reinstalling. I played a new character for a while and then quit the game from the menu. The next day, I used the "Continue" option, only to be back with a previous character, right after entering the mine for the first time (i.e. no new gear, about 1200 XP), and now the "Alt" key problem had returned.

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Something is very wrong here, but I have no clue where to look. Can anyone help?

I'm not sure what is happened. Maybe it's connected to different user account. For example, when you install the game and choose to start the game right out of the installer, the game runs with the user account you used for installation. If you did this with the Administrator account, the save games are created in his profile folders. The next day, you start your system with your usual user account and start Torchlight, all saves seem to be gone, because they're located in another profile. Hope this helps a bit. Try using only one account running the game, and make sure it has proper access rights to all folders, hence the Admin account. Although lots of people hate using the Admin for running programs, it's not such a big issue, if the software is from a trusted source and not crucially involved in online activities.