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

[mondblut]

A small studio decides to revive rt blob crawlers. They are honest about it from the beginning, they couldn't have been more clear about what kind of game they are aiming to make. They work quickly, professionally, frequent updates devoid of bullshit. They deliver the game in a decent development time, it's exactly what they promised, with hight production values to boot. Response? Banal, shit, boring, why not turn based (lol), you have to tango (lol x2), no one will buy the sequel, bwaaah.

Well, fact is, rt blob crawlers are banal, shit, boring to begin with. And making them "accessible" to an average ipad user doesn't really help at all.

I guess Big Fish could claim they "revive adventure games" with their HOG crap for housewives, too. The only reason they don't is that no market force wants the adventure games revived, so rebranding is actually preferable.

 

[Moribund]

A small studio decides to revive rt blob crawlers. They are honest about it from the beginning, they couldn't have been more clear about what kind of game they are aiming to make. They work quickly, professionally, frequent updates devoid of bullshit. They deliver the game in a decent development time, it's exactly what they promised, with hight production values to boot. Response? Banal, shit, boring, why not turn based (lol), you have to tango (lol x2), no one will buy the sequel, bwaaah.

Meanwhile:

1. Diablo 3? Bros, this game's so shit, let's discuss it for 300 pages.
2. Mass Effect? What a shit game yo, 198293 pages.
3. Obsidian are making another shit/average game with rtwp and mmo mechanics? Why, that's clearly awesome, let's donate tons of money.
4. Some hacks are harping about their vapourware that still looks and plays like shit after 10+ years of development? I totally support this!

If you were looking for an answer on why can't we have nice things anymore then that's probably something to consider.

Two things.

First, people here discuss the news that gets posted, which comes from elsewhere. Which is mostly about big budget crap games. Look how often Warren Spector! gets news items just because he made one good game 15 years ago.

Second, it justgoes to show that even something bad is more interesting than something boring or nonexistant. You make a game where there's nothing to really discuss, and no one will discuss it.

 

[Excidium]

A small studio decides to revive rt blob crawlers. [...] Response? Banal, shit, boring

Sounds correct to me.

 

[Metro]

Well, fact is, rt blob crawlers are banal, shit, boring to begin with. And making them "accessible" to an average ipad user doesn't really help at all.

If you don't like the genre then nothing they do to it is going to make you like it. I really don't care for adventure games anymore but I realize that and don't criticize them for being... adventure games (unless it's Walking Dead which is just an interactive movie).

 

[Clockwork Knight]

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.

To be fair, you can kill a dragon in Skyrim pretty fast if you play like the average guy that blindly follows the main quest compass. Lets ignore the time it takes to complete the fairly long action-fueled beginning/ tutorial, which is sure to hold everyone's attention anyway...get to that first little town, from there go to Whiterun, do some minor jobs for the jarl, DRAGON ATTACK! Should take 1-2 hours as well.

 

[Davaris]

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

Don't forget the inspiring trailer.

 

[Kahlis]

You see it probably doesn't help that to the modern gamers with no prior experience with the dungeon crawling genre play through the first 2 floors and pat themselves on the back for how hardcore they are that they're playing this niche old-sk00l party-based RPG and not Skyrim, whilst we were expecting a lot more. I've never played any of the DM/EotB games and usually think of roguelikes when it comes to dungeon crawlers, so I was disappointed when I realized that it was just one pre-made dungeon. Pre-placed loot gives you a sense that only one party of a very particular configuration can get decent equipment in a timely manner, and everything else (vials, spell scrolls) are just kind of thrown at you at the point in the game where you're expected to have them, sort of like in The Witcher. Not enough skills and interactions with the environment either.

I do enjoy the puzzle/trap aspect of the game though, which is why I'm not sure turn based would've worked perfectly either. They could have maybe done it like Fallout where only combat itself was turn-based, but even then a lot of things would be difficult to translate to the turn-based timescale - when that trapdoor should close again, how quickly projectiles travel, etc.

 

[felipepepe]

Yeah, the party was a very limited thing... I don't think you'll see things vary much from 2 warriors on the front, 1 rogue and a mage on the back...

 

[Infinitron]

Anyway, what nobody has mentioned ITT is that if Grimrock can sell over half a million copies, that probably means very good things for the sales figures of Wasteland 2 and Project Eternity.

 

[mondblut]

Well, fact is, rt blob crawlers are banal, shit, boring to begin with. And making them "accessible" to an average ipad user doesn't really help at all.

If you don't like the genre then nothing they do to it is going to make you like it. I really don't care for adventure games anymore but I realize that and don't criticize them for being... adventure games (unless it's Walking Dead which is just an interactive movie).

I do appreciate some rt blobbers despite their nature. Ravenloft, for one.

It's just that they were already called "RPG lite" 20 years ago, and with Grimrock they sure as hell didn't get any heavier. Au contraire, Grimrock seems litest of them all, sans Lands of Lore maybe.

 

[Dexter]

A small studio decides to revive rt blob crawlers. They are honest about it from the beginning, they couldn't have been more clear about what kind of game they are aiming to make. They work quickly, professionally, frequent updates devoid of bullshit. They deliver the game in a decent development time, it's exactly what they promised, with hight production values to boot. Response? Banal, shit, boring, why not turn based (lol), you have to tango (lol x2), no one will buy the sequel, bwaaah.

Meanwhile:

1. Diablo 3? Bros, this game's so shit, let's discuss it for 300 pages.
2. Mass Effect? What a shit game yo, 198293 pages.
3. Obsidian are making another shit/average game with rtwp and mmo mechanics? Why, that's clearly awesome, let's donate tons of money.
4. Some hacks are harping about their vapourware that still looks and plays like shit after 10+ years of development? I totally support this!

If you were looking for an answer on why can't we have nice things anymore then that's probably something to consider.

Though I disagree about the Obsidian thing. xD

 

[felipepepe]

Anyway, what nobody has mentioned ITT is that if Grimrock can sell over half a million copies, that probably means very good things for the sales figures of Wasteland 2 and Project Eternity.

Was there any doubt? They'll probably at least sell 1M or so, there's simply too much fucking hype around them, and it seems like they come out in a time with absolutly no big releases and consoles more dead than now, with dissapointing PS4 & Xbawks 720 probably announced (but not released) and running on Steambox.

Which means they will be fucking rich, since there's no costs to cover and no publishers to share the loot...

 

[made]

A small studio decides to revive rt blob crawlers. They are honest about it from the beginning, they couldn't have been more clear about what kind of game they are aiming to make. They work quickly, professionally, frequent updates devoid of bullshit. They deliver the game in a decent development time, it's exactly what they promised, with hight production values to boot. Response? Banal, shit, boring, why not turn based (lol), you have to tango (lol x2), no one will buy the sequel, bwaaah.

QFT

Not to mention without jumping on the KS bandwagon. If those guys don't deserve the success, I don't know who does.

 

[Metro]

Well, fact is, rt blob crawlers are banal, shit, boring to begin with. And making them "accessible" to an average ipad user doesn't really help at all.

If you don't like the genre then nothing they do to it is going to make you like it. I really don't care for adventure games anymore but I realize that and don't criticize them for being... adventure games (unless it's Walking Dead which is just an interactive movie).

I do appreciate some rt blobbers despite their nature. Ravenloft, for one.

It's just that they were already called "RPG lite" 20 years ago, and with Grimrock they sure as hell didn't get any heavier. Au contraire, Grimrock seems litest of them all, sans Lands of Lore maybe.

I don't disagree but... again... I'm sure that was intentional on their part to help with sales.

 

[toro]

Meanwhile:

1. Diablo 3? Bros, this game's so shit, let's discuss it for 300 pages.
2. Mass Effect? What a shit game yo, 198293 pages.
3. Obsidian are making another shit/average game with rtwp and mmo mechanics? Why, that's clearly awesome, let's donate tons of money.
4. Some hacks are harping about their vapourware that still looks and plays like shit after 10+ years of development? I totally support this!

If you were looking for an answer on why can't we have nice things anymore then that's probably something to consider.

Great intelligence and great stupidity go hand-in-hand. There were countless times when threads have devolved in jerking-circles and nothing could stop them from whirling.
The sad part is that a bunch of idiots derive personal self-esteem by bashing games to bits again and again and again. After all I guess we are not so different than other forums.

 

[felipepepe]

I don't disagree but... again... I'm sure that was intentional on their part to help with sales.

True, perhaps now they saw that casuals don't play much of the game at all, they'll focus on a deeper game.

The XCOM guy already said he was impressed at how many people played Ironman, and how he would have added more mechanics exploring that if he knew people would play that way... maybe LoG will do something similar.

 

[Zeriel]

I don't disagree but... again... I'm sure that was intentional on their part to help with sales.

True, perhaps now they saw that casuals don't play much of the game at all, they'll focus on a deeper game.

The XCOM guy already said he was impressed at how many people played Ironman, and how he would have added more mechanics exploring that if he knew people would play that way... maybe LoG will do something similar.

To be fair, Steam achievements put completing the game on any difficulty at 37%, while Classic + Iron-Man completion is 1.6%. That's not exactly a lot of people, I think it was just trendy among blogs/reviewers to talk it up.

 

[felipepepe]

Probably they got a lot of people playing on normal or even easy ironman... or at least talking on the forums.

 

[Infinitron]

Yep. There is a huge gap between the relative "hardcoreness" of the people who are talking about games, on forums, blogs, etc, and the general masses who are playing them.

If you measured by the amount of Internet discussion, you might think that Mass Effect vastly outsold Call of Duty. But the truth is most gamers don't talk about games. They just don't care that much.

What's interesting about Kickstarter games is that they're funded by and developed for that subset of gamers who have an actual opinion on things.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

While the genre is not my cup of tea, it's nice to see relatively "niche" games doing well commercially. Now that the Almost Human dudes have more money than they know what to do with, perhaps they will work on something more ambitious and monocle. I kind of see them as similar to Frictional in that sense (although the first Penumbra was better received by horror-grognards than Grimcock in its respective target group, I think), and we have yet to see what kind of game Frictional end up making now that monthly Amnesia sales more than cover their total operating costs. It might be really good, but it might also be the new Star Wars movies.

Meanwhile:

1. Diablo 3? Bros, this game's so shit, let's discuss it for 300 pages.
2. Mass Effect? What a shit game yo, 198293 pages.
3. Obsidian are making another shit/average game with rtwp and mmo mechanics? Why, that's clearly awesome, let's donate tons of money.
4. Some hacks are harping about their vapourware that still looks and plays like shit after 10+ years of development? I totally support this!

If you were looking for an answer on why can't we have nice things anymore then that's probably something to consider.

Great intelligence and great stupidity go hand-in-hand. There were countless times when threads have devolved in jerking-circles and nothing could stop them from whirling.
The sad part is that a bunch of idiots derive personal self-esteem by bashing games to bits again and again and again. After all I guess we are not so different than other forums.

Don't cry toro, I'm sure Bioshock Infinite will be amazing.

 

[felipepepe]

I got that info from his interview at RPS:

From a post mortem angle, the Iron Man mode was never something that we considered to be a big deal internally, and it has become a very very big deal now that the game is out. That was something that went in post-alpha, and I don’t know that we considered it to be that big of a deal, it was just sort of like ‘oh yeah, this is a feature we think we should offer people.’
It’s become a lot of people’s de facto way to play the game, which was again surprising, and if you think of Iron Man as the de facto way to play the game then I think you can do a lot more interesting stuff too. You could have something where… you know in Torchlight where you can enchant weapons, and I love that, it’s this sort of random ‘oh fuck, you just cursed the weapon’, every time you’re like ‘well, I’ll have one more enchantment’, and then it’s like ‘oh, it’s ruined, it’s ruined?’

Perhaps LoG developer had similar hindsights, that they tried to make the casual-friendly, but casuals dropped it quick and the hardcores complained about lack of depth... who knows, I wish developers where more open about this.

 

[Vault Dweller]

A small studio decides to revive rt blob crawlers. They are honest about it from the beginning, they couldn't have been more clear about what kind of game they are aiming to make. They work quickly, professionally, frequent updates devoid of bullshit. They deliver the game in a decent development time, it's exactly what they promised, with hight production values to boot. Response? Banal, shit, boring, why not turn based (lol), you have to tango (lol x2), no one will buy the sequel, bwaaah.

Well, fact is, rt blob crawlers are banal, shit, boring to begin with. And making them "accessible" to an average ipad user doesn't really help at all.

Not to mention that it lacks the depth (what little there was) of the original (Dungeon Master). The strengths of the game are the graphics and puzzles. The rest leaves much to be desired.

They work quickly, professionally, frequent updates devoid of bullshit. They deliver the game in a decent development time...

You do know that they started working on it back in 2001, right?

http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21366

 

[made]

You do know that they started working on it back in 2001, right?

http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21366

Define "they". It was just one guy messing around with free DM clones and not getting anywhere, until finally in '11 he assembled a team of pros, started from scratch, and finished the game within a year.

 

[felipepepe]

So if Cleve hired some pros and released Grimoire in two months, it would count as a two month development cycle?

 

[made]

If I make a game based on some notes I drew up as a kid, will it count as a 20 year dev cycle? I should get started then, I'm sure there's a record waiting to be broken here.