Octopus Overlords

So.. Crate Entertainment, made from the remnants of Titan Quest developer, Iron Lore, have got a bunch of screen shots up for Grim Dawn. It's looking pretty cool. It's got a sort of post-apocalypse zombie thing going on.

They are also pushing a "pre-order" model to try and fund without a publisher.

http://www.grimdawn.com" target="_blank

What will happen when publishers start running out of [adjective] [noun] combinations for their games?

El Guapo wrote:What will happen when publishers start running out of [adjective] [noun] combinations for their games?

They will license previous [adjective] [noun] combinations from the copyright holders. Duh.

El Guapo wrote:What will happen when publishers start running out of [adjective] [noun] combinations for their games?

You seem to have forgotten [Adjective][Noun] [X] (where X = X of the previous title +1).

That means there are an INFINITE combinations.

Come next paycheck, I might preorder. You have to value the things you enjoy. Though I find Diablo 2, Titan Quest, Din's Curse all to be lacking a certain something (not sure what), I get plenty of hours of enjoyment out of them to make the purchase worth it. Grim Dawn is probably more of the same, but it looks nice and I'm sure it'll borrow a heck of a lot from Titan Quest. Perhaps the added features will finally complete this design genre.

Hmm Zombies + hack and slash, i like what i see.

El Guapo wrote:What will happen when publishers start running out of [adjective] [noun] combinations for their games?

Don't forget the inevitable expansion, [adjective] [noun]: [adjective] [noun].

At least the western clichéd titles make some kind of sense. Japanese titles are just nonsense from one end to the other, almost without exception.

They are using the Titan Quest engine which imho, is one of the prettiest out there.

don't forget changing the adjective tense, or changing the noun to a related noun

Grim Dawn
Grimmer Dawn
Grimmest Dawn

Grim Dawn
Grim Day
Grim Night

or combine them

Grim Dawn
Grimmer Day
Grimmest Night

And there's always the possibility of "going olde English"...

--> Ye grimmeth dawn

A little more on-topic: I'm not too excited about this. Titan Quest was quite ok but nothing special to me - but then again I've rarely been pleasantly surprised by hack-n-slash games and I can very well imagine how difficult it must be to innovate in this genre. I might pick this up at some point in the distant future though...

Just found out about this game yesterday.
There's a new environment tech video out now. Looks cool.
http://www.grimdawn.com/media_videos.php" target="_blank

Brain wrote:There's a new environment tech video out now. Looks cool.
http://www.grimdawn.com/media_videos.php" target="_blank

That is sexy.

Definitely pretty. Doesn't look horribly post-apocalyptic, though - magic sword and shield looks pretty high fantasy. Of course, that was a small snippet of pre-pre-pre-pre alpha, so that might not be indicative of where it will end up.

gbasden wrote:Definitely pretty. Doesn't look horribly post-apocalyptic, though - magic sword and shield looks pretty high fantasy. Of course, that was a small snippet of pre-pre-pre-pre alpha, so that might not be indicative of where it will end up.

AIUI it's Victorian era -- so probably a bit Steampunkish. If you check the screenshots page you'll see both swords and guns.

Arise, O thread

The Grim Dawn Kickstarter is now available. Note that if you have already pre-ordered, if you want to back it via Kickstarter this developer post from the forums describes what you need to do to "merge" your kickstarter contribution with your preorder.

The Kickstarter page has a nice set of feature bullet points, by the by.

I sure hope they make their kickstarter funding goal. They said on their forums earlier that without it the game will take them about 2 more years to complete. I think they are working on it in their spare time between their day jobs. They said the kickstarter would rally allow them to develop it much more quickly and have the extra content they'd like.

I'm really kind of surprised it's not doing nearly as well as Shadowrun or Wasteland did over their first day. I guess Titan Quest wasn't nearly as popular it it seemed to be.

Went back and watched their really nice kickstarter video. Wow, this game's features are even better than I thought. They are certainly ambitious lads. There's so much to look forward to on the PC gaming scene these days.

P.S. I *really* like the engineer class they were demoing in the video.

ColdSteel wrote:I'm really kind of surprised it's not doing nearly as well as Shadowrun or Wasteland did over their first day. I guess Titan Quest wasn't nearly as popular it it seemed to be.

They certainly seem to be doing all right in percentage terms - you shouldn't compare absolutes, they're not asking for as much money. After a day or so they are at 25% which is pretty good. I think they are a lock for getting their funding.

Grifman wrote: They certainly seem to be doing all right in percentage terms - you shouldn't compare absolutes, they're not asking for as much money. After a day or so they are at 25% which is pretty good. I think they are a lock for getting their funding.

Me too. Obviously, it helps for interested fans to pass the word along; RPS did a post on the kickstarter going live yesterday. I don't think it's getting near as much coverage as doublefine/wasteland because:

1. Wasteland is a huge name with a lot of big names attached to it
2. Tim Schafer is an even hugerer name (and Psychonauts was a much more recent critics - so to speak - darling).

I reckon "the kickstarter [project]" should officially be entered into the lexicon, by the by.

Backed it.

Let's not go into how many hours I've spent playing Titan Quest.

I backed it.

Backed

I'd already bought in through them before the kickstarter was started. Not sure how many had done that but it has to take away from the kickstarter a bit and I'm not sure I want to give them more after already buying in at the highest level they had before. Although I am tempted to tier up.......

Like they said, the Kickstarter isn't to fund the game, just to help finish it faster, so money from before helped before, and money now helps now. They're definitely not asking existing key-holders to pay more unless they want to.

Existing Grim Dawn Key-Holders - Please Read!

To ensure that you get the reward that you desire and are properly credited, you must carefully read and follow the instructions posted in the Official Kickstarter Project thread on the forum. It is important that you only pledge the difference between the value of your existing key and the tier you want. If you pledge more, we won't be able to refund you, so please pledge carefully!

Also, please note that the first 3 tiers on Kickstarter are identical to the 3 website pre-order levels despite the minor price differences. If you have a Legendary key, for example, you will get all of the stuff in the KS $50 reward and do not need to pledge any more money if you don't want to.

And I just bumped my pledge as they've added some new reward tiers there you can get multiple digital copies of the game without going into the really high amounts.

Crate just made their Kickstarter with 11+ days to go.

This should hopefully get them some more attention so they can meet the kickstarter stretch goals. I'd much rather see the larger game world with more environments to explore they talked about. The original scope sounded pretty small.

The first stretch goal is 450k. I think it's unlikely they'll hit it given that they got 50% of the funding in the first four days, though it's not impossible.

Jaymon wrote:don't forget changing the adjective tense, or changing the noun to a related noun

Grim Dawn
Grimmer Dawn
Grimmest Dawn

Grim Dawn
Grim Day
Grim Night

or combine them

Grim Dawn
Grimmer Day
Grimmest Night

What about Grim Dusk?

This new Gamespy hands on article can't be hurting their kickstarter any. Pretty glowing report.

Ok, I kicked $50 bucks their way. Titan Quest was pretty darn cool.

Kicktraq shows where Grimdawn is trending: 416k. Caveats apply, of course. I excited to have found this site, though.

I wonder if perhaps Crate might have been better off doing this piecemeal stretch goals originally instead of the jump to 450k or whatever. Hard to say.

Looking closer at Kicktraq, they've done >10k a day every day since May 7th, which was 3 days before the gamespy piece. And there wasn't an update the start any of that off. The 7th was the day they hit the initial goal though. They did 16k yesterday and had a huge weekend (14k, 11k, 16k Friday-Sunday). Kicktraq is showing 5.8k already today, so another double digit day could easily play out.

i am in for 1 digital copy. My first kickstarter. I really liked Titan Quest and zombies are fun, so combination should be excellent.

The kickstarter is really surging. 450k is a distant possibility. 425k is, IMO, a great goal to finish with (3 high level bonus dungeons).

On second thought, they probably make 450k. It'll finish over 430k today and a 20k final day seems well within the realm of possibility; kick starter projects frequently pick up steam late.

I was on the fence and finally chipped in for the $35 option. I never got really big into Titan Quest, but it was a solid game I played a good amount of and I like the sounds of this setting even more.

freaking kickstarter... in for the expansion level.

Almost too late but threw in 50 bucks. I heard about Grim Dawn a while ago....

Played a lot of Titan Quest and figured what the heck, looks fun. See what they come out with.

Peacedog wrote:The kickstarter is really surging. 450k is a distant possibility. 425k is, IMO, a great goal to finish with (3 high level bonus dungeons).

On second thought, they probably make 450k. It'll finish over 430k today and a 20k final day seems well within the realm of possibility; kick starter projects frequently pick up steam late.

They've rolled over $450,000 with 21 hours to go. Be interesting to see where they finish up.

They've got some pretty spiffy stretch goals lined up. Here are the ones that aren't funded yet:

$465k - Additional end-game boss (total of 3) to encounter in some dark and dangerous corner of the world.
$480k - New survivor town hidden in the remote wilderness for you to discover.* Will include a new faction group and new quest-lines to unlock once you've gained their trust.
$490k - 2 additional monster types (models and animations) and another 25 extra pieces of unique item art.
$500k - A new dungeon art-set with a choice of catacombs or sewers that you'll get to vote on.
$520 - SURVIVAL MODE! We'll create a new gameplay mode that will be free for all backers (KS or Website Pre-order). In survival mode players will fight to stay alive against increasingly difficult waves of monsters. It will release sometime after the game so as not to delay development.

ydejin wrote:$465k - Additional end-game boss (total of 3) to encounter in some dark and dangerous corner of the world.

Unlocked. 13 hours to go.