Game News Legend of Grimrock Sells over 600,000 Copies, Developers Promise "New Exciting Things"

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Almost Human Games; Legend of Grimrock

Almost Human Games have published a blog post revealing the sale numbers for their oldschool real-time dungeon crawler Legend of Grimrock, as well as containing two screenshots teasing what seems to be some kind of expansion in the works:

And to sum up the year, we’re now proud to announce that Legend of Grimrock has sold over 600.000 copies! We would’ve been happy with just one tenth of the sales numbers, so needless to say we’re very happy and the future of our company is secured for a long time.

But great success doesn’t mean we haven’t lost our passion for making great games. So, what’s next, you might ask. We thought we could share with you a glimpse of some new exiting things we’ve been working on. But beware, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Enjoy!​

To have a look at the screenshots, go to the original blog post.

 

[Infinitron]

But how many actually played it?

 

[Brayko]

Hooray for Limpcock! Doubt I'd buy a sequel, though.

 

[felipepepe]

But how many actually played it?

To be fair, we don't know how many where sold through GOG and other places we can't follow the achievments, but considering Steam's power and that the indie bundles gave steam keys, one could consider that Steam is a big part of their sales, probably around 40-50%, if not more. And to think that 38% of all Steam buyers didn't play more than 1-2 hours is a dangerous data... even on overhyped games like Skyrim 85% played enough to kill a dragon, so people really booted the game, played very little and quited without ever looking back.

I blame those snails with tons of health, that kill you if you don't Tango with them. Sure, every enemy in the game requires dancing, but that's not something that a popamole G4M3R knows about... he's the hero, the runs into danger and press awesome button until danger dies. Having the inital enemy not dying is ragequit worthy for those people...

EDIT: Now I got a serious doubt, does steam counts achievments on owned or on playerd games? I.e., if you never even lauched LoG, does it still consider your data into the global stats?

EDIT2: Just lied to GabeN-sama support and said I'm a marketing student, asking about how global achiemnevt works... hope they reply.

 

[Zeriel]

But how many actually played it?

To be fair, we don't know how many where sold through GOG and other places we can't follow the achievments, but considering Steam's power and that the indie bundles gave steam keys, one could consider that Steam is a big part of their sales, probably around 40-50%, if not more. And to think that 38% of all Steam buyers didn't play more than 1-2 hours is a dangerous data... even on overhyped games like Skyrim 85% played enough to kill a dragon, so people really booted the game, played very little and quited without ever looking back.

I blame those snails with tons of health, that kill you if you don't Tango with them. Sure, every enemy in the game requires dancing, but that's not something that a popamole G4M3R knows about... he's the hero, the runs into danger and press awesome button until danger dies. Having the inital enemy not dying is ragequit worthy for those people...

As a personal anecdote, I torrented it (like everything else), and didn't play more than a few minutes before losing all interest. Nothing about it really grabbed me, and I don't think it's just a case of me not liking the genre. Might & Magic 6 & 7 are some of my favorite games of all time. I guess you could argue they're way more open-world and different than an Eye of the Beholder clone, but I enjoyed Lands of Lore 1, 2, and 3 a ton too, so I dunno. Game just doesn't seem that great to me. A lot of bumping against identical walls, pretty bad combat, nothing remarkable about it at all that I saw in my short time with it.

Just remembered! I played the _fuck_ out of Demise/Mordor 2 back in the day, like hundreds of hours on a single character, so no, I definitely love the genre, just not this particular incarnation of it.

 

[Minttunator]

That's way more than I expected. It's great to hear it did so well, Grimrock was definitely one of my favourites last year.

 

[Infinitron]

EDIT2: Just lied to GabeN-sama support and said I'm a marketing student, asking about how global achiemnevt works... hope they reply.

Mail their Greek economist consultant, he seems like the type to help a student out.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

This genre is very limited, that's why it had died. How many strange bricks and put object on step to raise the door puzzles can you really design?

 

[Zeriel]

This genre is very limited, that's why it had died. How many strange bricks and put object on step to raise the door puzzles can you really design?

You don't have to base a dungeon-crawler game around putting bricks in walls.

 

[Scruffy]

I enjoyed Lands of Lore 3 a ton

There's your problem.

 

[Zeriel]

I enjoyed Lands of Lore 3 a ton

There's your problem.

I said 1, 2, and 3! But no, I'll actually say that 3 was relatively entertaining in its own way, certainly in comparison to... well, are there any modern dungeon crawling first person RPGs that aren't indie? It's alright, any way.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

But how many actually played it?

So basically, you could make a game with pretty graphics, not really give a shit about the ending and you'll make a motza?

According to latest stats, only 8.7% achieved "Master of the Dungeon, Complete the game". Still, is that the fault of the morons playing it because OH THE SHINY or a sign that the developers need to make it "more accessible" and "streamline the gameplay" to "appeal to the mass market"?

To have a look at the screenshots, go to the original blog post.

Oh, nice!

 

[Spectacle]

But how many actually played it?

So basically, you could make a game with pretty graphics, not really give a shit about the ending and you'll make a motza?

Probably not. The people who buy games but don't play them don't buy games completely at random, they buy games they've heard positive things about, either from marketing or fans. If the majority of people who are talking about a game are criticizing it for having no gameplay after the first hour, then it will take a gigantic advertising budget to drown them out.

 

[Scruffy]

I enjoyed Lands of Lore 3 a ton

There's your problem.

I said 1, 2, and 3! But no, I'll actually say that 3 was relatively entertaining in its own way, certainly in comparison to... well, are there any modern dungeon crawling first person RPGs that aren't indie? It's alright, any way.

i hated 3 with a passion, after loving 1 and 2. but heh, de gustibus.

 

[Metro]

It's not really an issue for developers. It's the average attention span of most gamers. That and a lot of people on Steam just buy shit because it's cheap having no intention to play it for more than a couple of hours. There was some momo on Cheap Ass Gamer once who asked if he would like Portal 2 if he could never finish Portal 1... a two or three hour (tops) game.

 

[Zeriel]

I enjoyed Lands of Lore 3 a ton

There's your problem.

I said 1, 2, and 3! But no, I'll actually say that 3 was relatively entertaining in its own way, certainly in comparison to... well, are there any modern dungeon crawling first person RPGs that aren't indie? It's alright, any way.

i hated 3 with a passion, after loving 1 and 2. but heh, de gustibus.

I can understand that. It definitely was no 1 or 2, but it had its charming moments. I'm a huge fan of C&C and appreciate Westwood's cheesier side (like the Wasteland portal world complete with NOD installation), but I can see how those would be game-killers for some other people (or just the shitty 3D). It seemed not so far off from 2, though. Really different from 1, admittedly.

 

[Kahlis]

I'm glad to see the developers are adding on to the game. I feel as though it has lots of untapped potential (the fairly flexible modding capabilities, in spite of how little initiative most people have had in doing anything really ambitious with it), and if nothing else it was definitely the only release of last year that I actually cared about.

This genre is very limited, that's why it had died. How many strange bricks and put object on step to raise the door puzzles can you really design?

I thought the puzzles and traps in the base dungeon for the most part remained pretty interesting. And I've had no trouble coming up with puzzles for my dungeon either. I think what the genre has always lacked, even back in the 90s, was a more extensive character creation system and more interactions with the environment. Also the lack of randomized loot kind of gives one a sense that they have to progress through the dungeon in a very particular way, and with characters built around certain skills, otherwise it's going to be ages before they find useful equipment for them. But there's nothing stopping people from making their own dungeons that ramp up the difficulty more quickly and give the player more weapons to work with from the very beginning, kind of like Doom 2 or The Plutonia Experiment vs the original Doom.

 

[villain of the story]

It's not really an issue for developers. It's the average attention span of most gamers. That and a lot of people on Steam just buy shit because it's cheap having no intention to play it for more than a couple of hours. There was some momo on Cheap Ass Gamer once who asked if he would like Portal 2 if he could never finish Portal 1... a two or three hour (tops) game.

I wonder if these people actually complete any game at all and if they do, which games they are.

 

[tuluse]

But how many actually played it?

So basically, you could make a game with pretty graphics, not really give a shit about the ending and you'll make a motza?

According to latest stats, only 8.7% achieved "Master of the Dungeon, Complete the game". Still, is that the fault of the morons playing it because OH THE SHINY or a sign that the developers need to make it "more accessible" and "streamline the gameplay" to "appeal to the mass market"?

I've never actually finished BG2. It didn't stop me from enjoying the game. Maybe people got what they wanted out of it without needing to finish it.

 

[majestik12]

new exiting things

Outdoor areas, plz.

 

[Dexter]

But how many actually played it?

So basically, you could make a game with pretty graphics, not really give a shit about the ending and you'll make a motza?

According to latest stats, only 8.7% achieved "Master of the Dungeon, Complete the game". Still, is that the fault of the morons playing it because OH THE SHINY or a sign that the developers need to make it "more accessible" and "streamline the gameplay" to "appeal to the mass market"?

I still haven't finished some games I liked a lot like Dark Souls, L.A. Noire, Dishonored or Witcher 2, but I played all of them enough to know that I like them and want to return and do that.
The problem is when games are like 30-100 hours or so long, that's a shitload of investment in time.
I also played Grimrock for about ~15 hours after owning it for almost half a year and never touching it (after Pre-Ordering it) once and plan to finish it but haven't yet.

It's often the case that something new comes up or you don't feel like playing a specific game at some point and it takes a shitload of time to return to it or you might never do. Or you buy a game cause it's on Sale and plan to start it at some point in the future.
It's not only Grimrock really, but a lot of games. And Achievements can also be misread and tell absolutely nothing about the fun someone had while playing a specific game, that might also be why some Developers/Platform holders seem to have a hard-on for "Biometrics" in their controllers lately.

You can look at a lot of games Achievements and often see that only ~30-40% completed the game at all, for instance:
http://steamcommunity.com/stats/Dishonored/achievements/ "Resolution 45.0%"
http://steamcommunity.com/stats/Borderlands/achievements/ "Destroyed the Destroyer 25.7%"
http://steamcommunity.com/stats/DXHR/achievements/ "Trooper 40.1%"

It could also be that they're not tracking right and a lot of people are playing Offline or similar.

 

[Zeriel]

The offline bit could be a lot of it, though some games will track the achievements while offline and update them as soon as you go online.

 

[catfood]

new exiting things

Outdoor areas, plz.

Yeah, this, seriously.

Also other kinds of interaction with NPC's other than whacking them in the head, for instance quest giving, bartering, etc.

Spoiler

inb4 romances

 

[Tripicus]

EDIT: Now I got a serious doubt, does steam counts achievments on owned or on playerd games? I.e., if you never even lauched LoG, does it still consider your data into the global stats?

Many Steam games only count achievements when played in online mode as well. At least it used to, as I did much of what's in Jamestown but only have a couple achievements due to having Steam in Offline mode most of the time.

 

[Arkeus]

Yeah, there is a lot of games that i bought but haven't booted yet. Grimrock for example i only ever created a party and went up a couple of floors. I would tentatively say that quite a lot of gamers never finished games they liked, for E.G bastion where i know at least 5 people who -loved- the game but never finished it.

'Finishing' a game is a poor way to say if the public like it, especially for this genre.