Legend of Grimrock 2

[Metro]

Noooooooooooo I need mah vendors!

 

[Luzur]

Judging by what I read, it isn't going to have NPCs or quests or anything of the sort. It's just another level with an outdoor tileset.

man, sounds boring.

 

[Infinitron]

Any artists in the crowd? http://www.grimrock.net/2013/04/29/almost-human-looking-for-freelance-portrait-artist/

 

[Metro]

Any artists in the crowd? http://www.grimrock.net/2013/04/29/almost-human-looking-for-freelance-portrait-artist/

This guy is really good.

 

[Infinitron]

Grimrock 2 - inspired by the Finnish wilderness: http://www.grimrock.net/2013/05/16/dev-update-2/

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.grimrock.net/2013/06/27/greetings-from-the-isle-of-nex/?utm_source=feedly

It is the thirtyeighth day of my journey. The sea has been strangely calm for weeks with nought but a slight breeze and no drops of water from the heavens. The Ratling captain says that this is an ill omen, for in this season rains should be plentiful.

The reports of strange structures on the Island are perplexing to my mind. Surely some of them were made by the natives now long lost to the mists of time. But the tales of seafarers also tell about more recent, grander constructions towering above the trees. The natives and the priestesses long gone, who are building these structures and why?

The seamen believe that the Island is cursed — I say guarded by strong Magicks — since no ship sailing close to the Island has ever returned. Perhaps the ancient statues reported by the few survivors of shipwrecks are there to guards the secrets of the Island until the constructionwork is complete? Perhaps with the careful usage of the Art we are able to dispell the shields and grant us entrance to the Island? Perhaps the King’s endless thrist for knowledge shall be finally quenched? Perhaps.

There are black clouds billowing in the horizon. The storm is rising.

– Alarast the Sage of Royal Library

 

[7hm]

For example, we have 16 complete new monsters and more is coming. Combined with the monsters from Grimrock 1 we have something like 40 unique monsters, although many of the old monsters won’t make a come back in the new game. The monsters of Grimrock 2 are also much more complex, many with multiple types of special attacks and unique AI behavior.

Very nice.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

That kinda sounds like Grimrock 2 will include all the Grimrock 1 monsters even if they aren't used in the Grimrock 2 campaign itself. Hopefully they do that with dungeon tilesets as well. Expands what people can play with in the editor.

 

[felipepepe]

The editor in the first one was very solid and easy to use, just too limited... a new, upgraded one could lead to awesome stuff.

 

[Infinitron]

Puzzle creation in Grimrock 2: http://www.grimrock.net/2013/09/05/puzzle-creation-in-grimrock/?utm_source=feedly

 

[jagged-jimmy]

The editor in the first one was very solid and easy to use, just too limited... a new, upgraded one could lead to awesome stuff.

If GR2 will have more open areas - they just need to add NPCs. That would give a lot of RPGish possibilities to the editor.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Any artists in the crowd? http://www.grimrock.net/2013/04/29/almost-human-looking-for-freelance-portrait-artist/

This guy is really good.

Those are fantastic

 

[Infinitron]

Cinematics and skyboxes: http://www.grimrock.net/2013/12/13/a-breath-of-fresh-air-a-grimrock-2-update/

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.grimrock.net/2014/03/27/making-of-grimrock-2-zarchton/

It’s time to shed some light behind the dusty curtains that cover the massive art department of Almost Human and take a look at some behind the scenes action. A lot of new shady creatures have been creeping around the studio walls and this time we’ll try to catch one of them. Be very, very quiet, we’re hunting Zarchtons. Zarchtons are one of the first monsters you’ll come across in the beaches of the Island. At first you’ll hear their croaking calls and before you know what hit, you realize you’ve been ambushed.

Zarchtons are amphibious creatures that are as home on dry land as in water, but they never leave too far from water, because they are dependent of water and need to dampen their skin from time to time. That’s why Zarchtons are usually seen around water, but that doesn’t limit to natural water sources. Overflown dungeons are also perfect environment for them too…

The origin of Zarchtons is highly debated topic in the Natural Science Department of the Nothampton’s University. Some say Zarchtons have evolved from fishes and some say they we’re originally land creatures that have moved to live partially in water. Sometimes Zarchtons are seen far in the open sea and they are often mistaken for mermaids. Being amphibious creatures, Zarchtons have both lungs and gills, so they can breath air and in water. Zarchtons have primitive culture system and they make use of resources from the sea to create clothing and accessories from shellfishes and other small creatures they hunt. Swimming in water and walking on land have developed Zarchtons’ leg muscles to enable them to take long leaps to help them hunt their prey and attack anyone coming to their territory…

 

[Eyeball]

If they DO add non-hostile NPCs, they should take the Anvil of Dawn approach (which is, by the way, a non-shit Grimrock): put in a few NPCs, even add the option of bartering simple NPCs with them but don't put more than 1 in the same spot and add NO SAFE HAVENS OR CITIES!

LOG's greatest force, in my opinion, was the feeling of isolation in a deeply hostile dungeon where everything was out to murder you. Putting in safe areas or anything resembling organised settlements would ruin this immersion entirely. In Anvil of Dawn, all NPCs you met were refugees from evil forces trying to survive the same hostile World as you were, most of them dying shortly after meeting them. Grimdork should copy this.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Almost every dungeon crawler I've played had the "everything was out to murder you" approach. The first Eye of the Beholder had that camp of Dwarves that were willing to help, but only as long as you didn't attack them or expose them to harm. The sequels had no such "havens".

Captive fails as well, even though it had non-hostile NPCs (which you had to kill to get their clipboards) and shops which only looked like they offered safe havens. In truth the world kept moving around you while you interacted with the shopkeeper, and I died at least once to being blown to bits by a monster while I making a purchase.

Lands of Lore had safe havens. The starting dungeon had non-hostile NPCs, but making them hostile is suicide by halberd. What LoL had were squares that removed you from the map and paused all monster movement, so while you were there you were safe from harm. Sadly I don't remember if any of these havens offered to heal you in some way, but they were there.

Stonekeep had them as well, and I recall that Stonekeep have half the Fairy Realm and the Dwarf clan as "safe havens", where no monsters could or would attack you... mainly because there weren't any there.

 

[theSavant]

Agreed. If no safe havens then grimly rock my ass.

 

[Jasede]

Wish you people would shut up about the fucking "combat mambo" already.

 

[vealck]

Can't wait. So far the outdoors gfx looks a lot better than anything seen in MMX... and god, it still had severe performance issues.

Imho, the game would benefit from item randomization, trading, NPCs and (lit your torches, angry mob) introduction of turn-based combat.

But let's be honest, I enjoyed GR1 so much, I'll buy next one even if it's just a new tileset pack.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.grimrock.net/2014/04/16/a-tale-of-automaps-skill-systems-and-miscellania/

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode in the acclaimed “Hey, Look at What We’ve Been Up to Lately” -series! It’s been a while since we’ve had one of these posts so there’s been a lot of stuff that we haven’t covered. So sit on tight because there’s gonna be a lot of text!

Alright, let’s jump right into the deep end and start with the skill system! I’m not going to go into too much detail here since it’s still a little work-in-progress and the details can change once we clock in some more testing hours with it, but finally we seem to be reaching an equilibrium where we feel comfortable with how the skills and character traits work. Now we have a system that’s easy to approach but which still offers plenty of depth, tactics and replayability for all players and which should be more extendable and flexible for modders (and us too). It’s so nice when everybody wins!

Character creation screen also got a much needed makeover, partly due to the ripple effects from the improved skill system, and it’s looking very slick now. Even though a lot of players will only see the screen just once (or not at all if they opt in to go with the default party), it’s still super important since it’s a major part of the first impressions that the game will give.

We’ve also redone the automap. The automap in Grimrock 1 was pretty good but since the sequel features outside areas and a less linear level structure (levels are side-by-side as well as on top of each others), the old way didn’t really work anymore. Now we have a smoothly scrolling and zoomable map which handles the environments of the new game much more elegantly. It’s not 100% complete though since it’s missing the ability to write down notes, some of the icons are still placeholders and a few interface elements are missing but hey, we’re almost there!

One major milestone that we’re also rapidly approaching right this moment is getting the end combat done. We have a very interesting prototype brewing and if it proves to be working the end fight is gonna be one hell of a ride! As a matter of fact, the end fight is really the only major missing bit I can think of that we still need to make the game whole (which, mind you, is not the same thing as finished).

Speaking of prototypes, I threw together a quick test about a herb growing or farming mechanism but we’re still on the fence if it’s a good fit for the game. We’re going to meditate on it for a while and see if the idea feels worth implementing properly.

Things have been galloping along in the realm of graphics and audio content creation too. We now have a few glorious landmarks for the bigger structures of the game world and an assortment of decorations to spice up the underground portions of the game. I’ve done a couple of new spooky ambient tracks too and polished some older ones as well so that they suit the mood of the game better. And like always with the posts in these series, we’ve got new monsters and plenty of new items!

Oh yeah, Juho also has done some key art (or box art or whatever you want to call it) for Grimrock 2 and it’s looking glorious although I think I’m not allowed to show it to you yet since I think Juho would want to do the honors… Sorry, I hate to be a tease but I’m sure you’ll see it sooner or later.

That’s it for now from us but if you’re hungry for some more Grimrock right now, you should try out One Room Round Robin 2 mod. It’s a massive mod built in collaboration by 22 master modders and they’ve really pushed the Grimrock 1 engine to its limits! Check it out!

 

[Decado]

The lack of safe havens in the first GR made sense, since you were in a fucking prison meant to keep a demi-god chained up, or whatever. If GRII is going to include outside areas, it makes sense that there should be some safe places to sit down. Also, some non-hostile NPCs could go a long way towards fleshing out a story or increasing the immersive factor.

 

[LivingOne]

yeah,what the game needs are inevitably poorly written exposition dumps here and there to increase immershunalso

Wish you people would shut up about the fucking "combat mambo" NPCs already.

 

[Decado]

Great post!

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.grimrock.net/2014/06/02/grimrock-2-in-alpha

Grimrock 2 in Alpha!

We sneakily went past a very important milestone just a while ago. Legend of Grimrock 2 is now in alpha! The definition of milestones of course varies from one company to the next but I think our alpha is, relatively speaking, a “strong alpha” (since we don’t have any publishers or investors who we have to deliver to to get money for progressing in development, we can use terms that are actually useful and descriptive

). Alpha in our case means that the game can be completely played from beginning to the very end and that all the planned features exist. The last missing piece from the alpha we had was the ending of the game but now that we got that done, the deal is sealed.

Of course at alpha, there are still features and content that lack polish and refinement, and balance and progression of the game is not complete, but in a sense the game is now “whole”! To celebrate the milestone, we have a new screenshot for you… The herders are back!




And like the natural order of things typically is, after alpha comes beta and that’s where we’re heading next! To get there, me and Petri have been doing a systematic polishing round for all the levels. Or maybe I should be talking about “areas” instead since each area that we tackle contains, technically speaking, 1-4 levels of varying sizes. Each day we pick one area of the game that we concentrate on and for the duration of the day we work only in improving that one place. Basically what we do is that we fix the biggest issues that arise from playing the level but we don’t limit ourselves on only improving the levels themselves (like the level layout, monster placement, puzzles, items and secrets) but we also work on game design issues (for example underwater gameplay, herbs and potions), visuals (lighting & atmosphere, particles, items & environment objects), audio (ambient & environment sounds, monster sounds) or even the game interface (automap and such) if need be.

One day for each area is not a lot of time but doing a pass like this over the whole game really improves the overall experience since this way we always tackle the weakest spots of the game without getting stuck into details for too long. This also helps us by breaking down the game into more digestible bits that we can focus on since trying to polish the whole game at once feels like an overwhelming task and it would always be difficult to decide what would be important to do next.

Oh and if you want more details on the progress of the development, Petri often tweets about things he’s been working on with the game.

 

[Metro]

In Alpha after a year... GO FASTER!!!!!