Legend of Grimrock - Dungeon Master Fan's !

http://www.rpgfrance.com/taverne/index.php/topic/10013-interview-legend-grimrock
English version
 1) What is the legend of Grimrock, can you introduce us to the story ?

Legend of Grimrock is a dungeon crawling game developed for PC, Mac and iOS. We intend to bring the spirit of good oldschool games to this day and age and combine it with todays technologies, graphics and gameplay innovations.Unfortunately we are not yet ready to reveal the secrets of the Grimrock mountain and the story within.

2) How works the gameplay ? Is it turn-based?

The game is built around grid-based movement and environments, and its corner stones are puzzle solving and realtime combat with melee, ranged weapons and magic. Combat tactics and timing are of essense. CRPG elements such as optimizing the party by character development and equipping the heroes are naturally very important.

3) How many and what kinds of monsters are there in the bestiary?

Currently we have seven fully animated 3D monsters in the works and we're planning to have between fifteen and twenty distinctly different monsters. The monsters don't only look different, they behave differently as well and the player needs to employ different tactics against them.

4) Will the player be able to make choices and will they have consequences?

Most of the player choices are strategic and connected to the character selection and development - which skills to pick at level up and what kind of overall party build are you aiming for. Will your party be magic or melee oriented, for example. However, there are no big moral choices for the player to make in the story.

5) Is there an alignment system good/bad in the game?

Grimrock universe does not have clearly defined forces of good and evil. Instead we aim for a more realistic sense of morality. The antagonist of the story is not the incarnation of evil as in many other games of the genre. Therefore we don't think that a traditional alignment system would serve the game well.

6) Will the dungeons be randomly generated?

No. We have experimented with randomly generated dungeons early on but they didn't fit well with our puzzle oriented level design. Good puzzles have become a rarity in modern CRPGs, a problem which we intend to fix.

7) What languages will be available ?

English is the only language we can promise at the moment.

8) What sort of engine did you use, is it yours?

We have a broad experience of writing game engines so it was natural for us to use a game engine that we have developed in-house and custom-fitted to the needs of this game.

The essential idea of our tech is to enable a small team to work extremely quickly by allowing rapid prototyping of new gameplay ideas and features.

9) Are you going to release a toolset (or SDK) and a character editor available with the game?

It's possible but this is a decision that will be made after the game is launched and if there's enough demand for it.

10) How do you manage to work as an independant studio with only 4 developpers ?

We have decades of combined game industry experience in the team and we have worked on many successfully released games. Also, we are lowering financial risks by doing consulting work and smaller projects for other game companies in Finland on the side. But still a lot depends on the success of this game project.

11) What are your ambitions for this project and for the future?

We have taken massive leap from well established positions in the game industry to become self-supporting independent game developers. Why? We took the big risk because this way we have the freedom to do the kinds of games that are close to our hearts.

The fans of dungeon crawl genre have not been served well in the past years and we think it's about time to give them what they want.We hope that Legend of Grimrock is successful so that we can expand the game and the universe even further, in sequels and expansions, and to possibly bring it to additional platforms as well. Obviously the most important goal for us is to make the studio profitable so that we can continue creating our dream games.
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I remember playing DM on my brother's Amiga - 2 floppy disks big it was!

When that first mummy roars and comes after you on opening a door - that scared the life out of me at the time! Nearly ran out of the room :)
 
- There will be no multi-classing; party based games do not really need multi-classing and single classing helps to differentiate the characters better. Single classing also adds more emphasis on character generation (a party with 3 fighters and a mage is very different from a party of 3 mages and a fighter). It also allows us to add new character classes later, for example Druid, without having to worry about how they mix and match with other classes when multi-classing.
- There could be ways to bring in some class features from another class at higher levels. For example, choosing a talent or equipping a certain item could allow a rogue to gain limited access to spells. This could be very cool but first things first, let’s see if we have enough time to implement all this!
- We are implementing three core classes for starters: Fighter, Rogue and Mage. More classes can be added later if needed.
- Fighters gain xp primarily by damaging opponents with melee attacks
- Rogues gain xp primarily by damaging opponents with ranged attacks
- Mages gain xp primarily by casting spells and using magic items
- The whole party gains xp by solving puzzles & finding secrets
- Each class has their unique set of skills. New skills can be learned and existing skill ranks can be improved when leveling up.
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Oh my god. Just noticed this.

Played Dungeon Master and it's expansion Chaos strikes back on the ST years and years ago and loved them. I've often thought since that it'd be nice to get something similar with more modern graphics.

Very much looking forward to this.
 
Aye, same boat. Plowed so many hours into this on the ST - Really enjoyed Bloodwych as well.

Unsure what to make of this to be fair. Ultima underworld 1 and 2 kinda took it all to the next level.

Be interested to see how it all comes together mind.

Cheers, Paul.
 
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For many older gamers who were around during the golden age of the dungeon crawl and old-school CRPGs, the modern role-playing market, though fun and exciting, can often leave something to be desired. Many of us have been yearning for the classic crawl experience, with grid based maps and a heavy emphasis on combat, dungeon puzzles, and surviving overwhelming odds coupled with a modern interface and graphics. Though some indie dungeon crawls have tried to fill this need, few seem as well polished and promising as Almost Human’s debut project Legend of Grimrock. With beautiful graphics, carefully developed lore built into the dungeon and atmosphere, and classic gameplay mechanics, the game has managed to draw a lot of attention from fans of the genre.
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http://bnbgaming.com/2011/08/23/interview-legend-of-grimrock-dev-team-on-their-upcoming-crpg/
 
Ill buy this for what ever they sell it. Probably have much more fun than Deux Ex 3 or Space marine. Ill also be happy to pay what ever they charge to make sure people keep making decent games.
 
- Is there a speed difference between weapons?
Yes.
- Do weapons display their DPS, or a dmg range when you pick them up?
No, but Attack Power (abstracted damage output value) and other special attributes are displayed.
- How dual wielding works?
Currently off-hand items give special bonuses to attacks. E.g. wielding a dagger increases your Attack Power slightly. Other items may add special powers. We also considering adding Ambidexterity / Two-Weapon Fighting talent which could boost dual wielding even further (like allowing multiple attacks, for example).
- Are there different damage types or at least some special ones? (for eg, piercing do half against skeletons, but bludgeoning adds some plus or silver do better agains certain undead…)
Yes but these have not been implemented yet.
- Will there be enemy types immune to different effects or spells? (If yes, it would be great to get some hints about those on the levels, or to make the characters notice it, after performing an especially succesfull/failed attack with a great counter/immune method against those enemies.)
Yes.
- And please create a lot of challenging puzzles!
Yes we will but we don’t want to spoil them by showing the solutions on the video
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To cast a spell you need to have three components:
You need to know the runes (scrolls help)
You need to wield a staff, wand or another arcane item suitable for spellcasting
You need to have enough skill levels to cast the spell (different spells use different skills)
After that you can boost the efficiency of spells by buying more skill levels.
Collectable runes would make the system more complex but not necessarily better…
We have only 6 spells implemented at the moment but of course there will be more in the final version. Creating new spells is fun
 
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/25/dungeon-mastery-legends-of-grimrock/
Despite the tile-based movement, as you’ll see you can still look around nice and easily – that’s the barrier that I find makes it so difficult to go back and play those games of yore. I’m desperate to replay Ultima Underworld II, but each time I try I bounce off the horrible lack of mouselook and find my modern brain is too rewired. Please, someone create a System Shock-style mouselook patch for UU2. Pleeeeeease.
But back to Grimrock – look, it even has spell casting! It’s like opening the cork on a bottle of my childhood happiness. Pressing the tiny button in the stone wall to open a secret passage! Oh oh oh, I want one. But I’ll likely have to wait until the end of this year when the game should be out.
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