Legend of Grimrock 2

[Lord Azlan]

Found it, bought it, beat it - no messing around.

It did remind me a lot of my beloved Dungeon Master on Amiga - sniff. It was excellent that a new developer came out with a product that could be played properly - not many bugs to talk about - they promised - they delivered - good signs for LOG2. It was a good purchase.

The problem they will have going forward is if any of the criticisms of the first game are not addressed on top of the new content they want to deliver. The stupid rune magic needs to be fixed (have some spells memorised or something). I see from their website they are really looking at magic and how to make that a better experience. There should be better character development options. Not so many timing puzzles. Some interaction with NPCs. The pixel hunting walking sideways along corridors needs to go - better clues should fix that. Keep the killing and sometimes having to eat what you chopped up in - I liked that. Looks like the new game will have modding options available - cool.

Torchlight 2 went 'upstairs' and just about got away with it - having played it again recently I had a nagging feeling that Torchlight 1 was more fun - surely that can't be. There is something about having to escape a dungeon quite ingrained in RPGamers, can't explain why. When Lands of Lore or Eye of the Beholder went outdoors - just felt like a different game.

All the combat, moving on squares, running around like a lunatic was okay in my opinion - it said all that on the tin - hit and run - why not. Hit, move left, turn right, hit et. Why not? Apparently that's called flanking and accepted combat tactic. Four weakling prisoners again a Tunnel Ogre - you better keep moving.

So - fingers crossed - make sure the dungeon part is better than the original and I will see what you got upstairs.

 

[Decado]

Not so many timing puzzles.

Gotta disagree here. Those puzzles were pretty cool. I'd like to see more of them.

All the combat, moving on squares, running around like a lunatic was okay in my opinion - it said all that on the tin - hit and run - why not. Hit, move left, turn right, hit et. Why not? Apparently that's called flanking and accepted combat tactic. Four weakling prisoners again a Tunnel Ogre - you better keep moving.

I am one of those people who didn't like this aspect of the combat, because it didn't feel like a "feature" so much as a design oversight. Constantly moving out of the way of your opponent by shifting over one square makes even the hardest fights completely cheesable. After I had figured out the mechanics of the game, I didn't die in combat a single time. It made wearing armor or using shields or pumping evasion pretty much useless.

There has to be a better way of doing grid based combat like this. Perhaps some blending of Grimrock and MMX:L style. Don't remove maneuverability from combat completely, but make it so you can't super-cheese your way out of every encounter. I dunno, make combat movement on a timer, maybe? Like, put a cool down on it so you can move in combat, but not constantly. So when do you decide to move, it is a tactical choice with real consequences. That also forces you to invest in defenses, and makes you care about positioning a great deal more.

 

[bloodlover]

I'm with you on the combat. M&M 10 however made ranged irrelevant since u could not move and the mobs were always in your face. Let's face it though, how are you going to make a system that is not cheesable? Constantly moving also reminded me of arrow spamming in M&M 6. Since we have no details on the actual combat, would it be ok to think of turn based combat, similar to Wizardry maybe?

 

[Infinitron]

There has to be a better way of doing grid based combat like this. Perhaps some blending of Grimrock and MMX:L style. Don't remove maneuverability from combat completely, but make it so you can't super-cheese your way out of every encounter. I dunno, make combat movement on a timer, maybe? Like, put a cool down on it so you can move in combat, but not constantly. So when do you decide to move, it is a tactical choice with real consequences. That also forces you to invest in defenses, and makes you care about positioning a great deal more.

Three words: Attack of Opportunity.

No reason you couldn't do the Pillars of Eternity melee engagement thing in a blobber.

 

[Decado]

Yeah, that is one way to do it. Let your guys move a square but face a 50% chance of critical hit, or something.

 

[Decado]

I'm with you on the combat. M&M 10 however made ranged irrelevant since u could not move and the mobs were always in your face. Let's face it though, how are you going to make a system that is not cheesable? Constantly moving also reminded me of arrow spamming in M&M 6. Since we have no details on the actual combat, would it be ok to think of turn based combat, similar to Wizardry maybe?

I don't think they are going to suddenly switch over to TB combat.

 

[Athelas]

At this point, I'm sure there is a sizeable group of fans who see the dance nature of combat as a strength and an iconic aspect of the games rather than a flaw.

 

[Davaris]

Damn straight!

Spoiler

 

[Decado]

At this point, I'm sure there is a sizeable group of fans who see the dance nature of combat as a strength and an iconic aspect of the games rather than a flaw.

I will buy the game either way. For all I know, they are working on other things regarding combat that will make the fights less cheesable.

 

[Euronymous]

Seems they're going outdoors with this one, this is going to be interesting. An outdoors dungeon crawler :D...

 

[evdk]

Seems they're going outdoors with this one, this is going to be interesting. An outdoors dungeon crawler :D...

True, it has never been done before...

Spoiler

...successfully.

 

[Euronymous]

Didn't think that it wasn't, just never encountered one. I mean there is Lands of Lore that has several "forest" themed levels, but their design of the levels themselves are still corridor-like.

 

[Broseph]

Didn't think that it wasn't, just never encountered one. I mean there is Lands of Lore that has several "forest" themed levels, but they're design of the levels themselves are still corridor-like.

That's the proper way to do a real-time blobber, otherwise you end up with square dancing arenas like Grimrock.

 

[Euronymous]

I didn't find the "step dancing" bad in Grimrock...

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

I read on the forums that the game was actually nearing the end of its alpha stage, I believe they just forgot make a post about it.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Not so many timing puzzles.

Gotta disagree here. Those puzzles were pretty cool. I'd like to see more of them.

The timing puzzles that appeared in the Grimrock campaign were alright, they allowed for error and didn't punish failure. But have you seen some of the timed puzzles that are in the user-generated dungeons? They're horrible. Timed puzzles can be done right... they can also be done wrong. So so wrong.

Optimistic prediction here, but it looks like Grimrock 2 might be out by the end of 2014.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.grimrock.net/2014/07/11/..._medium=rss&utm_campaign=summer-vacation-time

Summer Vacation Time!

Hey, our summer vacations are starting just in a few hours so here’s a quickie Grimrock 2 status update before we vanish into oblivion (aka. the beautiful Finnish summer). I myself have been dueling against a cursed todo-list which, when one item is struck off the list, grows back to its full size! The speedy regeneration of the list is made possible by a full-time albeit temporary tester, Erik, we have had here in the office playing through the game for the last two weeks. That means that there’s been a barrage of tiny tweaks and improvements to all the areas of the game: a lot of detailing, fine tuning and balancing! So a LOT of small things have happened but despite the small size of the tweaks, they’ve been so numerous that game has really taken a huge leap towards being a finished product.


Here Erik is seen carefully advancing through the game

Despite the big advances we’ve had lately, the best way to progress with the project right now actually is to take a short two week break so we can get some fresh air and see the game with fresh eyes again. It’s been long journey, longer than we initially even set out to do, and it’s very easy to start suffering from a sort of a development speed blindness where it gets real hard to judge your own work, and judgement is what we need when we get back to work and start to wrap things up! After the vacation we intend to get the game to a beta status ASAP and continue extending the testing efforts to find all the remaining bugs and balancing issues. And like with the previous game, when we talk about beta testing, we don’t mean an open beta so no need to send in any applications. I know you mean well but we’d rather have you playing the finished, well-polished product instead since we already have a pretty secure supply of friends-n-family testers.

That’s all for now, thank you for reading and we’ll see you again after the vacations!

Summer vacation? These successful indies have it pretty good.

 

[hoverdog]

Vacation? In game development?!

 

[Metro]

FINISH THE GAME!

 

[Decado]

If this was America, you'd be working 60 hour days! :kwafuckyeah:

 

[agris]

If this was America, you'd be working 60 hour days! :kwafuckyeah:

And only taking leave when there's a birth or death in your immediate family.

 

[Euronymous]

Yeah, how dare they take two week holidays. Fuck them!

 

[Metro]

Being a game developer = your life is a vacation. I know, I know all those grueling meetings where you're sitting there wearing shorts and a 'I Fucked Your Mom' t-shirt while you sext your girlfriend.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

FINNISH THE GAME!

FYP.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.grimrock.net/2014/08/05/grimrock-2-music-production/

Grimrock 2 Music Production

We are getting nearer to the finish line and one of the remaining things on our todo list for Grimrock 2 is music production. Like in Grimrock 1, in-game audio will only consists of ambient sounds and sound effects. This is a deliberate design choice and we think it really helps immerse you as the player to the world we have created. In Grimrock 1 we only had the Grimrock theme playing in the main menu, but this time we also have intro and outro cinematic videos and for those we need a cinematic score.

Enter Scoring Helsinki. Scoring Helsinki is a group of four music industry professionals with a studio conveniently located in Helsinki just a fifteen minute ride from our office. The guys approached us a few months ago and simply blew us away with their demo tracks. It did not take long for them to convince that they were the perfect guys for this job. Simply put, Perttu, Hannu and Henri of Scoring Helsinki are super-talented and the most hardworking guys we have had the pleasure working with. We can really recommend these guys, should you need Hollywood grade music for a movie, or soundtrack for a game, these guys can do it.

I’ll end my part here and let the guys do the greetings from their end.

“Hello dudes and dudettes!

We’ve been busy scoring the game for the last few weeks, and it’s coming together nicely. Currently we’re doing some final polishing for the tracks, doing some sound designing and getting started with the mixing process, so practically the production’s almost wrapped. It’s been extremely fun, lots of excellent live musicians, lots of various atmospheres, can’t wait for you to get to play the game and hear everything in context!

Grimrock on,

-Perttu, Hannu and Henri/Scoring Helsinki”

 

[Unkillable Cat]

For some reason the music makes me think of "swords and sandals" films rather than anything Grimrock-related.