Legend of Grimrock

[Gambit37]

It'll be interesting to see how they solve the problem of a touch only interface for iPhones and iPads. There's no right clicks on those, so a whole different model is required. Perhaps developments from the touch interface might make their way back into the mouse interface!

[beowuuf]

Ah, one of Sophia's old games Dark Portal had me at that exact thing, so the momet I saw them in LoG I gave it a try And they have certainly added old school options like no automap and screen movement keys, so they might add an oldscool activations. Then again, perhaps part fo the editor will allow you to move or redefine GUI elements, so someone in the community could do the work?

[Bit]

That one already mentioned?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzIiXx-8 ... ure=g-vrec

The list of available videos is filling pretty fast. And they get the really best comments.
Still - I can't play it so far. Maybe a 'light' version with not so much requirements and a little lesser graphic would do it.
Even if the release would be later and the price the same... (it's the shader 3.0 that hurts me - it's a notebook here...)

[linflas]

Can't wait !!!!! http://www.grimrock.net/2012/06/27/dung ... neak-peek/

[beowuuf]

Wow, the editor looks very slick. Love the live play as part of it!

[ChristopheF]

I just completed Grimrock.
Great game with good balance between fighting and riddles.
A true homage to DM!

[Ameena]

I still need to finish this, lol. I'm still at the start of Level 8 .

[Gambit37]

Congrats, Christophe What was your favourite part?
Ameena, try and finish it, it's a worthy successor to DM (even if the final battle is a bit odd!)

[ChristopheF]

Overall I really liked all the puzzles, with some really new and fun, some similar to puzzles in original DM.
And I really liked the final battle, both stressful and fun. Why odd?
Just as in DM, you need a special weapon to get rid of the boss, in a rather large area with pits and minions who maintain the pressure. If fact there are so many similarities with DM in the game design: same number of levels, lots of similar puzzles, "Toorum" sounds a bit like Theron / Torham, ...

[Gambit37]

Yes, it's a real homeage to DM, I think they did a great job.
I mention the last boss fight as odd as I just didn't feel that it felt like the same game. While it was a very clever way to make use of the gridded nature of the game, the last two levels just didn't seem to mark any consistency and felt rather 'tacked on'. It's a minor criticism of an otherwise excellent game.

[ChristopheF]

You're right that the last levels have a different feeling. This did not bother me as it seemed to indicate that the end was near.

[isamuu]

I was reluctant to buy this game for the longest time, since to me, nothing could ever top FTL's masterpiece. However, due to steam's summer sale and selling Grimrock for $5.99, I caved in. And boy, am I glad I did!!!

I have only played Grimrock starting today, and only for about 20 minutes so far and I'm still only on level 1, but I have to say, this is a FANTASTIC homage to DM!!! I mean, my first impressions are that this is what a TRUE Dungeon Master sequel should be!!! Almost Human Games fucking NAILED the atmosphere, gameplay, graphics, and sounds! My God...this is a dream come true for DM fans. I'd always considered DM Java to be a nice psuedo-upgrade to DM, but this is DM truly taken to the next generation! It literally feels like something worthy of the name "Dungeon Master 2012"! Very very cool!

Anyway these are just my first impressions of the game having only messed around with it for a few minutes. I'm mainly just in awe of how they've managed to make Grimrock feel faithful to the original DM, while giving it that next-gen flavor.

Almost Human Games....My hat's off to you! Great job guys

[seebs]

I really, really, like this game. My sole real dislike is the XP system -- you get more XP for a monster if all four characters have hit it than if not all-four have. And to make this even more exciting, it's not actually all four characters, it's all four character-slots. So rotating around characters while having the same character cast AoE attacks can be more effective than playing more traditionally.

Not a huge deal, because the amount of difference is small, but come on, I have spent hours throwing things at walls to build ninja levels...

[Zyx]

I just finished it this Sunday. It's top quality. Monsters, sounds, atmosphere are gorgeous and immersive. Riddles are intriguing, combats all require some adaptation, the difficulty curve is entertaining. Time based puzzles were demanding, though!
Congratulations, Almost Humans, for bringing us this game! I'm waiting for the editor to flex the engine !

[Sealtiel]

I just finished this game this morning, and I wanted to comment about it while it's still fresh on my mind. I agree that the final boss battle was "odd", in the sense that it was wildly different from anything that I could have expected. The tension that was maintained throughout that battle was superbly done, just as it should be if you somehow found yourself in that predicament.

The balance between puzzles and combat was handled very well, and I absolutely loved the fact that there were no illusionary walls; about the only complaint I could come up with for DM. I had a tough time with a few battles, typically ones that put you in a small space with multiple critters; but that was until I realized that the game is forcing me to use tactics and not just power through everything. I also really liked how this same scenario was like a way of the designers gently pointing out that the circle-dance can't always help you.

I like the customization you're allowed to do with your characters, took me back to the old days of playing might and magic; where building your party was the best part of the game, even though the rest of the game was a total blast to play through. It seems like some skills are just plain more useful than others when building your party, which is always unfortunate; but perhaps unavoidable. It's good that the skills are so varied though, makes for high replay value; which is never a bad thing. There are times in the game that seem to punish you for not building your characters a certain way though, and that's not so good. Mages die extremely easily, and there are (admittedly optional) parts of the game that teleport you into a minefield where your mage stands no chance of surviving. This puts them behind in terms of xp, sometimes by quite a lot. The fighter's challenge is especially guilty of this. Yes, I realize the name and what it implies; I still find it wildly unfair that it's absolutely certain that your mage will buy the farm and there's nothing you can do about it. If anyone has any tips for surviving this with a full party, I'd love to know them.

As for the very few other negative things about the game, mostly it's what everyone else has already pointed out. The timed puzzles are irritating, although usually not all that dangerous; just frustrating to have to go back & forth after falling in the same pit for the 17'th time. The time and tide room and the pit room on level 5 (maybe it was 6) were especially obnoxious. Additionally, there were puzzles that my roommate had to help me with; as there was apparently ticks and other noises that you had to base your timing on. I don't generally mind things like this, but a message or something visual to help translate this to us deaf people would be massively appreciated.

The only other negative I can find is simply that the ice spell that the goromorg's use doesn't seem to behave like it should. As soon as they cast it, you get hit; even though the animation hasn't hit you yet. Their other spells behave normally, exactly as they do when you cast the same spells; but their ice shards hit you instantly for whatever reason. It's not overwhelmingly damaging, but it can be problematic and it just generally isn't something you should have to think about. This is especially true since you can get that same spell early on, and will generally be familiar with the timing of it by the time you encounter your first cthulhu-esque horror. Then again, this all may only happen because I played through it on hard mode the first time through. I'm honestly not sure.

These relatively minor negatives aside, this game was fantastic. I can't wait to get my hands on the editor, and also for expansions to be released. From what I've read, the game has done extremely well; which is refreshing to me as a long-time fan of the DM-style genre of games. It tells me that there exists a market for this type of game outside of the die-hard fans like our community here. Thanks and congratulations to those who made this game for a job expertly done, I can't wait to hand you more of my money for more content.

[beowuuf]

LoG editor has hit beta!

[ian_scho]

Thanks for the heads up... I Must buy a new computer!

[beowuuf]

It's internal beta, but that means good things can't be far away

[Crash.]

"The Dungeon Editor is now complete except for one thing. And we need your help with it. Yep, I’m talking about testing."

http://www.grimrock.net/2012/09/12/we-need-your-help/

Who's joining the public beta?

[Gambit37]

Petri invited me to the closed private beta, but unfortunately I was on holiday and did not have the time on my return. Now that it's public, I still have no time - it's all about my work life at the moment, I'm back in the 'finding work' situation... hopefully in the future when I'm sorted, I can play with the Grimrock editor as it does look very cool!

[Gambit37]

Wow, the trailer for the Editor looks pretty nice. And Cows!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb0GmwXu ... r_embedded

And some clever chap has already created a whole new wallset (independently of the Editor):
http://www.grimrock.net/forum/viewtopic ... 860#p30787

[beowuuf]

Although I bought though GoG, I also had a steam install code from somewhere (I htink GoG gave it to you) so I installed through steam for the easy beta update stuff. Quickly played with it, seems just as intuitive as the videos showed!

[Gambit37]

Yeah, I did just grab a few minutes for a quick play. The instant "play as you build" approach is fantastic. Sigh, another new tool to spend time on that I don't have.... there should be a National Lottery that pays out "weeks" or "months", rather than cash

[Zyx]

The editor is very powerful indeed, with the possibility to immediately test your design without even leaving the design window. Scripts are very powerful, they will allow most of what DSA can do in CSBwin. I'm currently wondering whether I should invest some years into a new dungeon or not. Maybe all our forum could team up to make a world connecting several dungeons, each designer taking care of his/her own levels, with some consensual rules about difficulty, rewards and graphic style.

[Gambit37]

Legend of Conflux? In the words of Google: "Don't be Evil"

I think the immediacy of this tool would certainly get dungeon builders active again. While I love DSB, it's taking me far too long to build the game I want to build, so I'm resigned to the fact it's gonna take me years. In the meantime though, I could bash out a Grimrock dungeon in a weekend...

I like the idea of a team dungeon, though I don't yet know the format of the dungeons. Not sure it would be possible to combine dungeons from different people into one big dungeon... might be worth asking about it on the Grimrock forum.

[beowuuf]

Oh crap, LoG's new editor has caused Zyx to leapt to the next level of evil! Bewae the new avatar!


*Runs*


I wonder if a new theme of 'what the explosion of Grimrock revealed beneath' could be adopted...

[PetriH]

I'm currently wondering whether I should invest some years into a new dungeon or not.

The answer is... a resounding YES!

[PetriH]

Oh, and dungeon files are pure lua so you can merge dungeons together by hand if you are careful. Absolute level indices should probably be avoided in scripts though.

[Crash.]

I hope the experts here, with all these years of dungeon experience, will show the whole LoG world how it's done.

[Torham Zed]

It really is a shame that Grimrock doesn't work on Linux.

I'd pay more for it.

Almost Human Ltd should at least look into a cost/user analysis and get an approximation of the porting costs. Pass the costs on.

Especially with Valve now getting into the Linux field. It's an ideal sales showroom to put it out there on.