A Grim Expansion is calling...

Grim Dawn Development Updates
62

Medierra 21.11.16:
"We do plan to keep working on Grim Dawn. How many expansions we produce just depends on how well the first expansion sells and how well GD itself continues to sell.

There is also a good a chance we’ll do GD2 at some point but, due to the age of the current engine, we either need to undertake some massive update work on it or start from scratch with a licensed engine, which would mean a massive amount of work writing all new gameplay code.

Given that we’re working on an expansion now, might do a second one and I’ve been working on ARPGs for 14 years now, I feel like I could use a bit of break before jumping right into GD2. Imagining exciting new features, systems and a whole new story arc take a lot of energy and passion. I’m happy continuing to work on and oversee content for GD but I feel like I need to recharge before I can give a whole new ARPG my all.

There are other genres of games I love and have always wanted to work on. I’d also like to work on something lower scope next, that requires less building of content and which won’t take too long to finish. I expect to be releasing this new project 12-18 months from now. Then after that, who knows, maybe it will be time for GD2. I won’t know until I get there. One thing I can say though is, I’d be a lot more excited to work on GD2 if we could get to a point where we had a lot more money to throw at it.

Someone mentioned that Banished / Anno town-builders were overcrowded but that looks like a wide open market compared to ARPG. Not only are there a lot of ARPGs coming out recently but players commit to a single one for much longer than games in other genres and it requires a ton of content and features to be competitive - more than almost any other genre of games. Then think about the fact that the ARPG genre has a franchise that is widely seen as “king” and is developed by one of the biggest, most well funded and widely respected companies in the industry. Everything is compared against Diablo and it’s hard to compete with a team that has virtually unlimited resources. Then Grinding Gear has around 5x the people we do and I doubt competing against a free-to-play game has helped our sales. Then there’s Torchlight (although it looks like their next game isn’t an ARPG), Marvel Heroes, Van Helsing, Victor Vran, maybe a TQ expansion or sequel from Nordic, Lineage Eternal (if that ever finishes), Wolcen and too many others to remember. Since the huge sales of D3, everyone and their mom seems to be making an ARPG these days. About the only thing worse would be deciding to make a MOBA.

Even with all that going on, I wouldn’t say it would prevent us from making GD2 but it certainly makes the level of competition in most other genres look a lot less daunting.

A big factor for working on something else though is that I don’t think it is good to keep all our eggs in one basket, as a studio. Our primary goal is to keep the company alive so we can keep being independent and making games. While it’s certainly possible to focus on one franchise and stay alive for a long time doing it, it’s riskier having all your future dependent on the continued success of one game property in one genre. Diversifying the types of games we can make and the IPs we own is a good way for us to better secure out future.

Beyond just branching out to work on other genres, it has always been a goal of mine to be able to work on concurrent projects. Not only do we not want to be pigeon-holed into one genre but I think it’s important for us to be able to work on multiple projects at time. That way, we’re not just counting on the success of a single big release to keep us alive, where if it under-performs, it could take years to course-correct and finish another project (years we likely wouldn’t have). This also helps to increase the efficiency of the studio, as we can shift people around based on the needs of a project at any give time, instead of having lulls at the beginning and end of a single project, where not everyone is needed at full capacity. Another factor is that people get burnt out working on one thing for too many years. When people get burnt out, they leave and look for something new. I feel like we have a great team and I want to keep them engaged with fresh new projects and not solely grinding away on ARPGs for the next 20 years.

Since we would like to keep making content for GD, we’ve brought on some new people for that, to keep up the level of energy and enthusiasm (or new old people in the case of Grava, aka Josh Glavine). We’ll keep making content for GD as long as it’s financially viable. GD2 is a definite possibility but whether / when that happens depends on how things progress in the ARPG genre and internally for us at Crate over the next year or two. We also have some ideas for GD related games that are set in that universe and will share some mechanics but are not quite ARPGs.

You’ll also be hearing about at least one totally new project in the next year though."

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48119&highlight=Crate+project&page=3

Medierra 03.03.17:
"We also are planning another “spin-off” game that is based on GD but a somewhat different kind of game.

The totally new non-GD project we’re working on uses Unity."

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51837&page=3

63

Wait, so the new GD sideproject is using Unity and that is a separate project from the Mountain Valley Town (which may or may not be using Unity). I get that much, what I don’t get is which one is the RTS/Town Builder?

64

No, the Mountain Valley town uses Unity (non GD project) which I believe is the city builder/RTS, but Medierra hasn’t confirmed one way or the other.

What the GD spin off is using for an engine I don’t know.

65

Unity is fine but I would really like a (potential) GD2 to be built in something like Unreal. So shiny. This whole top down view thing was thought of last millenium after all.

66

Top down gives a better view overall though. Straight ahead might work well for first person shooter games, but given that mobs can come at you from all sides in GD sometimes I’d rather be able to peer down on them. :smiley:

67

I’m so excited…can’t wait!!

68

I hope the developers haven’t forgotten to include a way for us to get Lokarr’s Shoulderpads and Karroz’ Armor.

69

Kind of an odd thing to say, Avyctes, seeing as we are playing a diablo-like, designed and best played top-down. If we go 1st person then we are playing something else, like Skyrim or DS, for example. While it may be a novel idea to go first person in a diablo-like you are going to have a hell of a time processing all of the enemies before you, on side of you, and behind you and all the effects flying about once you stumble on to a huge (and fast moving) mob and good luck finding and targeting that pesky healer in the back of the crowd.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem uses a shiny new engine (Cryengine) and is still top-down. That’s because it is still a diablo-like and it is an integral, defining trait of the game style. Take it away and the game becomes something else entirely and you have to change the game (in this case, drastically) to accommodate a different view.

And since when is 1st person anything new… what year did Doom release again? Mmhmm (psst… 1993). I was 15 and I didn’t even know the game existed until I was 19 (1997).

Plus, the United States military absolutely adores the top down view. That’s why they fly all them planes around and put satellites into orbit. Clearly superior for tactical warfare which, when you get right down to it, is what we are doing in these games.

70

Powbam crushed my dreams with sensible facts :cry:

Also cryengine isn’t exactly new either, when did crysis come out (hint, a decade ago)? :wink:

71

;):cool:

Somewhat true, but…

…it has also not only been actively developed over the years (unlike the TQ engine, Crates modifications for GD aside) it has also been entirely re-written/built from the ground up over time. (Go thru the Version section at the link).

It can effectively be said to be a shiny new engine. You can basically apply the same status and history to Unreal. It isn’t like that was technically “new” either. The difference being constant development. These engines were made to be pimped out to game devs for $.

72

Don’t you mean you were 13?

Also you echoed it perfectly, i’d also like to add that even first person RPGs are very old, not including the blobbers i’d say one of the earlier games that comes to mind would be the Heretic/Hexen Game Series. It’s not an RPG per se, it’s more like DOOM with some RPG stuff.
There’s also the lesser known ShadowCaster which was an RPG

73

and you think the engine has not been updated since ? All the major 3D engines were already around for years, that does not mean that any of them have not been updated and drastically improved / reworked.

74

I was born in Aug. '78 :wink: Great year for music by the way. Alot of cool bands started then. The Cars for example (well, their debut album released '78)

75

Oh yeah, sorry my bad.

76

Just 14 days to end Q3… So, when it will be released??? :rolleyes:

77

As usual, when it’s good and ready.

78

If we don’t get a release date tomorrow (Grim Misadventure), i’d expect the expansion to be delayed.

79

If we don’t get a date tomorrow i will probably start to insult everyone on the forum, possessed by delusional frenzy.

80

After watching the stream on friday, i’m 99.9% sure we’ll get a release date tomorrow.

81

@Chthon
In my opinion your logic is why we get dull and over populated with games and why great games die out and replaced with clones. So many games should be updated with DLC to keep them alive longer, and many I can name but GD is one and leaving a game with a solid engine that has room for 2 or maybe 3 total DLC that would open the full map even more would be god. The map is many areas left on it…