Game News Grim Dawn Kickstarter Now Live

[Metro]

I once had hope for this but the more I see the less interested I become... especially when it won't be out for another year and a half, two years. Whatever. Not preordering another Diablo clone that far in advance. That and Titan's Quest was terrible.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

Looks quite a bit better than TQ, and the link to the forums where the dev talks about what went down with TQ gives him a fair amount of credit, imo. Already the speed and action looks miles ahead of where TQ ended up, and it doesn't look cutesy, like Torchlight. Would be curious to hear more about the open world aspects. Anyway, I don't think they'll have too much difficulty reaching their target.

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

Won't give one cent. They already have a publisher and it's console game. Only a tool would give money to someone so they can afford the xbawks license and wallow in the decline.

Like I said, I have very little interest in this type of games myself, but it never hurts to actually read up on things a little before you make similar statements. I have invested less than 10 minutes into learning about the project, yet it would appear that making the game solely for PC is one of their major selling points and there was no mention of any publisher other than a hope to get the game on Steam at some point (which is what pretty much all indies aspire to). Bashing the game is fine, but even Skyway usually opts for reasons that are not completely counterfactual.

 

[Brayko]

Well, at least their "exclusive content" seems purely aesthetic based (will look into this further), as opposed to Shadowfag. All their reward tiers seem totally solid, and I won't touch D3 with any Codex dick, so I'm thinking a pledge is merited here.

Also, never played Torchlight.

 

[Darkforge]

ahh TQ wasnt that bad actually but it required IT expantion to be tolerable. It was the best of these after diablo I think.

Give these guys the benefit of the doubt, there is such a thing as learning from your mistakes and TQ was likely bland mainly cause the world was mythology and it's kinda bland in general. Just look at god of popamole.....

Seems like a quite a bit of innovation for this genre by the feature list. I'm with the guy who said Torchlight is too happy. D3 is shit and POE although I do like it, is very low on content.

 

[Cynic]

This game as far as its engine and setting looks far superior to D3. I love the art direction, it's brilliant. Will most likely pledge $35.

 

[DaveO]

Titan Quest isn't nearly as bad as Sacred 2

I tried playing Titan Quest and was bored of it fairly quickly like many other posters. At least with Sacred 2, there is a lot that can be done in the game without being as boring as Titan Quest was. The only common things between Titan Quest and Sacred 2 are that both games caused the developer to go bankrupt(deservedly so in both cases).

Hack and Slash games are over-represented. A role-playing character party game could do better than Grim Dawn if designed and written correctly.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

The level scaling in Sacred 2 ruined the whole game, and the silly elements were just terribly stupid.

 

[Excommunicator]

I tried playing Sacred 2 and was bored of it fairly quickly like many other posters. At least with Titan Quest, there is a lot that can be done in the game without being as boring as Sacred 2 was. The only common things between Titan Quest and Sacred 2 are that both games caused the developer to go bankrupt(deservedly so in both cases).

.

Point is, they're both vaguely different attempts at the same low-achieving game type (hack & slash). They're mildly entertaining for a time and you can pick them apart if you want but you still have two crappy games at the end of it.

 

[MaskedMan]

Looks interesting, the main suck in in TQ was the linearity and the lack of variety in enemy behavior, if they're improving on this I might go for it. Also the setting sounds cool, even if when I started the video to look at it they were running around in the same fucking woods every H&S is set in. Doesn't sound like they wanna make a mmo which is a plus. Will wait and see if they update with some more details.

It's not like it's a real kickstarter anyway, just a sneaky preorder system on a service they know is getting a lot of press atm.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Hack and Slash games are over-represented. A role-playing character party game could do better than Grim Dawn if designed and written correctly.

I don't agree that they are over-represented, apart from Torchlight, what other Hack 'n Slash games were released recently (let's say, post Sacred 2, that is end of 2008)

I do like the art direction on this as well, somehow reminds me of Myth - although it's a different type of game. I don't know guys - I do think they deserve a chance, but it also seems a bit advantageous of them to use kickstarter, it's not like they are not going to finish it without it. (On the other hand, Kickstarter takes advantage as well by taking %, looks like in the end it is us gamers that either get screwed or end up getting a good deal. It's a gamble - more so than waiting for some Steam sale or whatever - especially when a game is most likely to be made anyway) I supported Wasteland2 mostly to give a signal, and also because at the time I really wanted it to reach the 900k (lol). After seeing all these project pop up, half the Codex news are games needing funding, I'm getting a bit more hesitant. Although Obsidian will get my money (almost) blindly.

 

[villain of the story]

These guys are basically doing the exact same thing as AoD at a probably very similar stage of development -- the difference being that last time I checked, AoD was somewhere below $8K after two weeks, whereas Grim Dawn sits on $34K after a few hours. That is a gap way larger than the difference between each subgenre's respective appeal (plus you have to factor in that people aren't exactly starved for hack and slash aRPGS) and shows the power of Kickstarter for this type of pre-ordering campaigns.

And people give me the retarded know-it-all fanboy attitude when I tell them that AoD is either still practically unknown even in niche circles or known but not given much of a damn about at the moment. Only 8K after two weeks? That's very disappointing. Where's your "starved niche looking out for games" god now?

To be fair, however, the fact that Kickstarter is a "timed quest" with a bit of inherent drama (it's all or nothing by the time the quest is over) probably gives people some incentive as well and may help explain the last minute overload of payments.

 

[Shannow]

Won't give one cent. They poison wells and eat babies. Only a tool would give money to someone so they can afford to strive for world domination.

What is this "AoD" KS project?

OT: They're not exactly raking in the dough. I thought 280k was manageable but if the donation dynamics behave similar to W2/DF/SRR then it's not looking good.

 

[villain of the story]

I don't understand the negativity where it's because the game is already in a supposedly advanced/late stage, like "what do they need our money for?" as if they are doing it as a charity work. FFS

If I could I would donate if only for the pain they had to endure from publishers:

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=37225#post37225

This is golden.

Of course, I was told we couldn't have snow on the summit because people might not realize it snowed in Greece

Didn't we have a news article about this? I mean it shouldn't be new to anyone here.

 

[almondblight]

Wish developers made D1 clones instead of D2 clones. The problem with most D2 clones is that they aren't as fun as D2.

 

[Brayko]

I do like the art direction on this as well, somehow reminds me of Myth - although it's a different type of game.

I got this impression as well. I've been dying for Myth combat physics for oh *looks at watch* 13 years now? Should be really fun for the type of game it's going for.

I don't know guys - I do think they deserve a chance, but it also seems a bit advantageous of them to use kickstarter, it's not like they are not going to finish it without it.

You help fund the game, you still get it when it's released, and all the money goes toward improving it. Win-win if it looks certain to be released in any case.

 

[made]

Well, their KS claims that they do not have a publisher, that it's just 2 guys working on the game with some friends providing art assets in their spare time, which is why it's progressing so slowly.

A flat-out lie, of course, as Knotanalt already explained how it really is.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Thanks, made I will put some of that stuff here because they gave a lot of good info in their latest update.

On the team and publisher stuff:

Just to clear things up, we do not have a publisher or really any funding at all right now besides a small trickle from our pre-orders, which has been very helpful but isn't near enough to pay even one person full-time wages. We aren't a big portion of the team from Iron Lore as some might assume, we're just two full-time guys and a few friends from Iron Lore who help us out as much as they can on nights and weekends. We all work remotely in home offices as we can't currently afford to rent a space. So, we're about as indie as it gets and definitely aren't double-dipping. As someone said below, Grim Dawn is sort of like a big, glorified tech demo right now or maybe more like a vertical slice and a half. We want to be able to deliver all the content everyone expects of an ARPG on release but building that requires more than just a full-time designer and programmer.

On the "need" of Kickstarter:

Finally, I just wanted to respond to a couple comments I've seen where people have expressed that they think Kickstarter should only be used to fund projects that couldn't happen otherwise. Grim Dawn couldn't happen if we weren't willing to start this project with no funding and work for the past 2.5 years without any pay. It also couldn't happen if the other developers who have contributed over the years weren't willing to donate some of their free time on nights and weekends to create art and animations for us. It is still true today that the only reason Grim Dawn can continue to happen is that we're still willing and able to keep working unpaid.

So, I don't think it is fair for people to say a project that isn't started, because no one was willing to put in any work on it without full funding first, is more worthy than a project that people had the dedication to start themselves without money. I'm not knocking on any of the other projects, I can appreciate that those other studios have employees to support and maybe can't afford to invest free time into a new project but I also don't think we should be penalized because we did.

You're a bro, Knotanalt, and I respect your and others opinion that it's going to be like TQ -> banal shit boring. That's cool, but in the TQ thread there are also a lot of people that did enjoy it. What I'm wondering about is why you say that it's/going to be a console game or that they seek funding for the xbox license ?

In truth, they are uncertain on their skills to provice mac/linux support, nothing about porting to non-PC platforms:

We've gotten several requests for Mac and Linux support. We have no Linux or Mac development experience and are building off the pre-existing Titan Quest engine, which would be a huge undertaking to port.

Finally, we have a long-standing passion and commitment to making this a hardcore ARPG for PC, guided by the best of old school design principles.

Clearly meant first and foremost (and only?) for the PC, unless you/anyone has seen something else stated anywhere on the subject ?

 

[Crooked Bee]

Update 2 is up and... apparently old school references are all the rage now?

For me, part of the magic of older games, thinking all the way back to stuff like the TSR AD&D Goldbox games (for those of you who were alive then) is that they often included mysterious locations and side-stories that were entirely outside the main story and areas of the game. I remember playing Pool of Radiance and thinking how cool it was that the town was surrounded by all this wilderness that the main story wasn’t directing you to go out and fully explore but yet, it was there, with tantalizing little features in distant parts of the map that could be nothing or could represent the location of some cool point of interest. I liked how developers back then weren’t worried about forcing the player to see all of the content they created; they were okay putting some stuff in that players might not get around to seeing. I tried to this on Titan Quest with the extra enemies in epic and legendary difficulty but I wasn’t too involved in the world-building, so I was limited in what I could do in that area. In Grim Dawn, we want to have a more open world that is littered with all kinds of hidden, out of the way locations that you can stumble upon. One of the most important aspects of this for me is that the world shouldn’t be crafted for the sole purpose of telling a single story. The main story shouldn’t take you everywhere in the world and the events taking place in it should go far beyond that. We really want to instill the game with that feeling of magic and wonder that I got out of games as a kid but haven’t experienced very often in recent years.​

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crateentertainment/grim-dawn/posts/212220

 

[Kz3r0]

Doesn't make anyone feel warm and fuzzy seeing all these developers wanting our money catering to Codex' interests?

 

[Metro]

Haha, seriously, they must be monitoring the Codex. While it's nice to see the developers appreciate why PoR had the best overland/world design of all of the Gold Box games I find it laughable that he claimed they tried to do it in TQ. TQ utterly failed in making even a passably engaging game world -- with Grim Dawn I will wait and see. At this point they have to prove it to me before they get my money.

Just to add I briefly considered buying it at the $35 tier assuming I'd be able to play it sooner rather than later but apparently that 'early access beta' is a whole two or three month window prior to release. Looks like you have to pledge $50 for 'alpha access' but who knows when that will be seeing as how they still classify it as 'pre-alpha.' No thanks.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Pledged for this.

 

[Grunker]

Wow. What the fuck is up with all these ARPGs lately?

 

[Metro]

I think the (relative) success of Torchlight a few years ago spawned a glut of developers/publishers to hop on the bandwagon. I'm sure it spurred Blizzard to get off their asses and actually start to develop D3.

 

[Achilles]

Doesn't make anyone feel warm and fuzzy seeing all these developers wanting our money catering to Codex' interests?

It's probably until they reach their goal, then they can go back to calling us nazis and assholes.