Legend of Grimrock 2 - Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed

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j.peeba: Oct 25, 2010; Almost Human; Nap Ghost

Legend of Grimrock 2, by the Finnish indie studio Almost Human, is the upcoming sequel to the game that breathed new life to the - then somewhat stale - grid-based dungeon crawling genre back in 2012.

If you're not familiar with the first game, or classics like Dungeon Master or the Eye of the Beholder -series, what we're talking about here is a game that's a first-person party-based RPG game where you explore strange locations (this time both above- and under ground), solve a shitload of puzzles, fight monsters (our game has real-time combat but I would say it's a lot more tactical in nature than, say, Skyrim) and in general try to have a good time avoiding starvation and trying to gather whatever rags you can find to cover the bodies of four unfortunate heroes-in-the-making. The game is heavily retro-flavored but the execution is modern so it should be accessible enough so that no previous experience with the genre is required.

We've overhauled and improved bunch of stuff compared to the first game. Now there's height differences in levels and the environments are overall more varied and the structure of the game is less linear too. There's more classes, skills, races, items, monsters and puzzle mechanics. There's also improvements to spellcasting, enemy AI and user interface and the list goes on... A LOT has happened during the two and half years since the release of the previous game.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex8kDMKnLaE

Screenshots:

The game will be released for PC on October 15th and it's available for preorder now! Pre-ordering gets you both a DRM-free standalone installer and a Steam key and there's also a special 15% discount for pre-orderers. The game also includes modding support right away when it launches! The Dungeon Editor is both super accessible (making levels in grid is very easy!) but there's tons of depth, scripting and customizability there too if that's your thing.

I'm one of the developers of the game (I handle majority of the level design, do some game design and writing and I do all the in-game audio + some graphics too whenever I can spare the time) so feel free to ask me anything here.

You can also check out http://www.grimrock.net/ for more information. We post in-depth development stuff on our blog pretty frequently.

# ? Sep 18, 2014 08:55

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 23:06

herr: Jan 19, 2009

Out of curiosity, has the team ever considered a multiplayer component to the game? If the idea had gained traction at all, what were some of the possibilities that were brainstormed as to it being implemented?

# ? Sep 18, 2014 09:05

Tirius: Aug 16, 2007; A short, sturdy creature fond of drink and industry.

Do you have any plans to release additional campaigns as DLC? I loved the first game but none of the user made campaigns grabbed me the same way the main game did. I would love the opportunity to purchase additional professionally made campaigns. I think this game would really lend itself well to worthwhile DLC.

# ? Sep 18, 2014 09:11

j.peeba: Oct 25, 2010; Almost Human; Nap Ghost

herr posted:

Out of curiosity, has the team ever considered a multiplayer component to the game? If the idea had gained traction at all, what were some of the possibilities that were brainstormed as to it being implemented?

Yeah, we've talked, albeit very very briefly, about what Grimrock could be with a co-op mode. I think a Portal 2 -sort of approach would have worked well where there's a single player campaign and then a separate co-op campaign with levels (and the puzzles especially) specifically designed for two players. But you know, the upcoming game is an enormous undertaking compared to the first one as-is so we really couldn't afford to get too excited about MP. It's a nice idea (among thousands of other nice ideas) but it's an impractical one for our studio.

Tirius posted:

Do you have any plans to release additional campaigns as DLC? I loved the first game but none of the user made campaigns grabbed me the same way the main game did. I would love the opportunity to purchase additional professionally made campaigns. I think this game would really lend itself well to worthwhile DLC.

There's no plans for DLC at the moment. Grimrock 2 actually kinda started off as a DLC for Grimrock 1 but then we got ambitious and quickly realized that it's better if we just do a sequel.

# ? Sep 18, 2014 09:14

Red Rox: Aug 24, 2004; Motel Midnight off the hook

What are the improvements to spellcasting? It could be pretty fiddly to click the right runes, especially with a troll bashing your face in.

# ? Sep 19, 2014 08:39

SirKibbles: Feb 27, 2011; I didn't like your old red text so here's some dancing cash.

Disco De Soto posted:

What are the improvements to spellcasting? It could be pretty fiddly to click the right runes, especially with a troll bashing your face in.

On this note,how has the magic tree been changed? Earth was always kind of weak compared to the other one's. Is the way leveling and skill distribution works any different?

# ? Sep 19, 2014 09:11

j.peeba: Oct 25, 2010; Almost Human; Nap Ghost

Disco De Soto posted:

What are the improvements to spellcasting? It could be pretty fiddly to click the right runes, especially with a troll bashing your face in.

There's less clicking and accuracy involved now. Instead of clicking runes one-by-one on the grid, you just draw a "gesture" or a line over the panel. Each spell is just one line which can be either straight or segmented, depending on the spell. You can see a fireball being cast in this screenshot:

SirKibbles posted:

On this note,how has the magic tree been changed? Earth was always kind of weak compared to the other one's. Is the way leveling and skill distribution works any different?

The trees should be much more in balance now, we hope... Earth for instance now can cause a poisoned-condition for monsters and the elemental resistances and weaknesses (another new addition, btw) should be more fairly and evenly distributed among the different monsters now. Skill system has been pretty much completely overhauled and I think the system we have now, while it appears simple on the surface, offers some pretty interesting combinations and tactics with all the different classes and equipment.

Oh yeah, mentioning equipment, we now have power attacks for many of the weapons: clicking and holding on the weapon triggers a special attack which can do interesting stuff like hit combos, knockbacks, cause conditions and things like that

# ? Sep 19, 2014 10:40

Red Rox: Aug 24, 2004; Motel Midnight off the hook

The changes sound good! Looking forward to playing.

# ? Sep 19, 2014 11:17

Geomancing: Jan 8, 2004; I am not an egghead. I am well-read.

I've been looking forward to this for quite a while, following the updates on the website. Already got my copy preordered.

Will it have the same level of moddability? Custom portraits, builder's tools, and the like?

# ? Sep 19, 2014 11:42

Hesh Ballantine: Feb 13, 2012

Hey, I really enjoyed Grimrock and I'm looking forward to this sequel. Keep up the great work - when it comes to indie devs I consider your team "one of the good ones."

# ? Sep 19, 2014 12:57

Inspector Gesicht: Oct 26, 2012; 500 Zeus a body.

Will you be retroactively granted Health and Energy if you raise Vitality and Willpower through skill trees? It was annoying that it didn't happen in LoG, meaning that a Vitality bonus was less useful than a Strength bonus at higher levels.

# ? Sep 19, 2014 13:36

Gyre: Feb 25, 2007

How soon do you think the mac version will be out? I have a PC but if possible I'd want to transfer my save data to my mac at some point.

# ? Sep 19, 2014 14:41

j.peeba: Oct 25, 2010; Almost Human; Nap Ghost

Geomancing posted:

I've been looking forward to this for quite a while, following the updates on the website. Already got my copy preordered.

Will it have the same level of moddability? Custom portraits, builder's tools, and the like?

Custom portraits work similarly to the first game. Modding tools have improved a lot! There's much less hardcoded features so advanced modders who want to make new objects from scratch have much more flexibility in creating stuff (now we used an component-based system for defining objects instead of hardcoded archetypes) that's not dependent on how the original game was made. The control that scripters have over objects is also much more fine-grained, thanks to the component system, and there's plenty of new scripting functions and methods. The Dungeon Editor also has a handful of helpful features like zooming and entity search/selection. Of course despite these additions for the more advanced modders, the editor is still as accessible for newbies as it used to be in the first one.

We hope that these improvements will reflect on the quality and variety of the upcoming mods but it remains to be seen

Inspector Gesicht posted:

Will you be retroactively granted Health and Energy if you raise Vitality and Willpower through skill trees? It was annoying that it didn't happen in LoG, meaning that a Vitality bonus was less useful than a Strength bonus at higher levels.

Yup, vitality bonuses are now retroactively granted.

Gyre posted:

How soon do you think the mac version will be out? I have a PC but if possible I'd want to transfer my save data to my mac at some point.

I can't make any promises yet. We're still so busy with finishing the PC build so that we haven't even gotten around to checking out how much work it would actually even take to do the port. On one hand, we have a good basis for the port from LoG1 Mac version, but on the other hand this sequel is a much more complex and diverse game so there's plenty of new shaders and such that need attention when porting.

# ? Sep 19, 2014 16:03

Morholt: Mar 18, 2006; Contrary to popular belief, tic-tac-toe isn't purely a game of chance.

The obvious way to do multiplayer is to have each player control one character, with shared control of movement.

Twitch plays Grimrock.

# ? Sep 19, 2014 17:04

TheOneAndOnlyT: Dec 18, 2005; Well well, mister fancy-pants, I hope you're wearing your matching sweater today, or you'll be cut down like the ugly tree you are.

Hot drat, was wondering when this was going to come out. Looking forward to it.

# ? Sep 19, 2014 23:23

Gyre: Feb 25, 2007

j.peeba posted:

I can't make any promises yet. We're still so busy with finishing the PC build so that we haven't even gotten around to checking out how much work it would actually even take to do the port. On one hand, we have a good basis for the port from LoG1 Mac version, but on the other hand this sequel is a much more complex and diverse game so there's plenty of new shaders and such that need attention when porting.

That's understandable. I'm still really looking forward to the game, even if I have to boot into Windows for it.

# ? Sep 20, 2014 07:53

gschmidl: Sep 3, 2011; watch with knife hands

Are there any plans for a "special edition" of Grimrock 1 with the new UI?

# ? Sep 22, 2014 13:49

SolidSnakesBandana: Jul 1, 2007; Infinite ammo

I enjoyed the first game a lot. Did anyone ever make anything cool in the map editor?

# ? Sep 22, 2014 15:14

j.peeba: Oct 25, 2010; Almost Human; Nap Ghost

gschmidl posted:

Are there any plans for a "special edition" of Grimrock 1 with the new UI?

Nope, although I wouldn't be surprised if someone would recreate the first game with Grimrock 2 modding tools

# ? Sep 23, 2014 04:08

CobiWann: Oct 21, 2009; Have fun!

Is there a link to the old SA Grimrock thread (if there was one)? I�d love to see how goons reacted as they played through it. I just beat the game this past weekend after various playthroughs making me give up in frustration�

�but not because the game was flawed or broken. I would give up because I was stumped and refused to go to the Internet. drat it, we didn�t have walkthroughs when I was a child and I wasn�t going to use one until I beat the game and wanted to go through a second time and hit up every secret! So I would walk away, come back a few months later and try again with a fresh party. To me, that�s the sign of a good game, where the player doesn�t go �screw it, the game is cheating,� but �screw it, I CAN�T FIGURE THIS OUT.�

And it�s great to see that less than a month after I beat it, there�s a sequel! Between Grimrock and Wasteland 2, it�s like I�m reliving my childhood in front of my old 486x computer with 16 GB�s of custom-slotted RAM�

# ? Sep 23, 2014 13:24

j.peeba: Oct 25, 2010; Almost Human; Nap Ghost

CobiWann posted:

Is there a link to the old SA Grimrock thread (if there was one)? I�d love to see how goons reacted as they played through it. I just beat the game this past weekend after various playthroughs making me give up in frustration�

�but not because the game was flawed or broken. I would give up because I was stumped and refused to go to the Internet. drat it, we didn�t have walkthroughs when I was a child and I wasn�t going to use one until I beat the game and wanted to go through a second time and hit up every secret! So I would walk away, come back a few months later and try again with a fresh party. To me, that�s the sign of a good game, where the player doesn�t go �screw it, the game is cheating,� but �screw it, I CAN�T FIGURE THIS OUT.�

And it�s great to see that less than a month after I beat it, there�s a sequel! Between Grimrock and Wasteland 2, it�s like I�m reliving my childhood in front of my old 486x computer with 16 GB�s of custom-slotted RAM�

Great, that's just the right attitude for the game!

I'm afraid the old thread has already been archived.

# ? Sep 23, 2014 14:32

hambeet: Sep 13, 2002

I have had Legend of Grimrock sitting in my steam library since 2013 summer sale. I always intended to play it but it just kind of sat there and I kept on forgetting. Finally loaded it up two nights ago when I got nostalgia for Eye of the Beholder... Holy hell this game is fun, it hits all the right notes and really scratches that nostalgia itch I had.

Anyway, awesome job! I'll definitely be buying LoG2

# ? Sep 28, 2014 06:05

Geight: Aug 7, 2010; Oh, All-Knowing One, behold me!

I should try to beat the first game too, I gave it a shot one night way back and had some fun, and then I got stuck somewhere and just sort of forgot about it. I think I got a little stressed that one of my characters was speccing into a type of magic that seemingly every monster I was fighting was resistant to, as well.

# ? Sep 28, 2014 08:42

Section Z: Oct 1, 2008; Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?; Pillbug

Add another 'I really should beat this, I'm looking forward to the sequel despite never playing past two floors' person to the list.

I mean, stumbling through this with no idea what I'm doing can't be any worse than stumbling my way through most of Dark Queen of Kryn (my only goldbox game, Fighter/Thief/Rogue with a dragonlance means he can do everything good, right :downs:

) a billion years ago, right?

# ? Sep 28, 2014 10:45

goldjas: Feb 22, 2009; I HATE ALL FORMS OF FUN AND ENTERTAINMENT. I HATE BEAUTY. I AM GOLDJAS.

Oh neat, I really liked the first one. Looking forward to this.

# ? Sep 28, 2014 10:56

Renegret: May 26, 2007; THANK YOU FOR CALLING HELP DOG, INC.

YOUR POSITION IN THE QUEUE IS *pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt*

Cat Army Sworn Enemy

Oh man, this thread came at a convenient time.

I had so much fun with LoG1, but for some reason I never figured out, I just stopped playing and never beat it. Last night I remembered how much fun it was and I went back to start a fresh party and I'm determined to beat it this time.

Now I'm doubly determined to beat it by the time the squeal is released :woop:

# ? Sep 28, 2014 13:40

Bucnasti: Aug 14, 2012; I'll Fetch My Sarcasm Robes

I loved the first game, had a ton of fun making my own maps once. Will LoG2 have bigger maps?

# ? Sep 28, 2014 21:05

Brackhar: Aug 26, 2006; I'll give you a definite maybe.

Pre-ordered. Thanks for making such awesome games!

# ? Sep 28, 2014 21:09

Filthy Monkey: Jun 25, 2007

Just put down my preorder. I liked the original quite a bit, and am happy to plunk down the cash for a sequel. We need more modern games of this style.

# ? Sep 28, 2014 23:05

aas Bandit: Sep 28, 2001; Oompa Loompa; Nap Ghost

CobiWann posted:

Is there a link to the old SA Grimrock thread (if there was one)? I�d love to see how goons reacted as they played through it. I just beat the game this past weekend after various playthroughs making me give up in frustration�

As j.peeba said, it's been archived, but if you have archives, you can check it out here:
Legend of Grimrock: A shamelessly oldschool dungeon crawl game!

I've already preordered as well, and I pretty much never preorder games. LoG was pretty much the best "updated classic" I've ever played. There aren't very many games that have that old-school feel, but are still accessible, pretty, and overall slick enough to appeal to a broader modern audience. Almost Human did good, and I am greatly looking forward to the latest effort.

Edit: Fixed link so it points to the real thread. :downs:

aas Bandit fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Sep 28, 2014

# ? Sep 28, 2014 23:49

evilmiera: Dec 14, 2009; Status: Ravenously Rambunctious

Another one of those games I absolutely have to purchase, going to be a hard time the next upcoming months affording all this stuff. Looking forward to it

# ? Sep 29, 2014 00:08

Gobblecoque: Sep 6, 2011

I'm really excited to hear that this is nearing release. I loved the first game despite having had no prior experience with dungeon crawlers, so you guys did a hell of a job of bringing a seemingly dead genre to a new audience.

# ? Sep 29, 2014 00:12

j.peeba: Oct 25, 2010; Almost Human; Nap Ghost

Bucnasti posted:

I loved the first game, had a ton of fun making my own maps once. Will LoG2 have bigger maps?

The individual maps are still the same size but the maps can now be connected side to side, like jigsaw puzzle pieces, in addition to being on top of each others.

# ? Sep 29, 2014 05:32

Ahhpple: Dec 18, 2011

In the first game when I made an all female party and fell down a pit there was a male scream, which destroyed my immersion. Will this be fixed in the sequel?

# ? Sep 29, 2014 05:47

frajaq: Jan 30, 2009; #acolyte GM of 2014

This looks cool, I never played the first one. But the fact that this doesn't have pause during combat kinda sucks for me, since I like to take my time with things

# ? Sep 29, 2014 06:25

Ghostlight: Sep 25, 2009; maybe for one second you can pause; try to step into another person's perspective, and understand that a watermelon is cursing me

It's definitely the wrong kind of crawler for you then I think. Combat isn't a stats-and-decisions outcome, it's a frantic double-handed dance to the death among pits and dead-ends with enemies that hit harder than you ever can.

# ? Sep 29, 2014 06:47

ThePhenomenalBaby: May 3, 2011

Was earth really the weakest magic category? I found poison mist pretty useful in particular chokepoints. Though I guess that can't really beat freezing something pound for pound. Oh well. Anyway, pretty excited.

# ? Sep 29, 2014 07:21

Clever Spambot: Sep 16, 2009; You've lost that lovin' feeling,
Now it's gone...gone...GONE....

My biggest problem with dungeon crawlers (and thus the first grimrock) is that for some reason i don't like being confined to just a dungeon, so this game taking place on an island (even if the outside sections are arguably just a section of dungeon that looks different) really excites me.

# ? Sep 29, 2014 07:57

ymgve: Jan 2, 2004; Offensive Clock

j.peeba posted:

The individual maps are still the same size but the maps can now be connected side to side, like jigsaw puzzle pieces, in addition to being on top of each others.

I guess there are more maps this time around, or are they more densely packed?

# ? Sep 29, 2014 13:35

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 23:06

Jalumibnkrayal: Apr 16, 2008; Ramrod XTreme

Are there any mods to make LoG turn based? I can't stand real-time grid based movement, as every encounter just becomes about your ability to move backwards in a 2x2 square.

# ? Sep 29, 2014 13:58

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