Grim Misadventure #106: The Fall of Port Valbury

medea_fleecestealer · November 22, 2016, 1:28am

Yay! Christmas is coming early! Great artwork again folks.

Skylla · November 22, 2016, 1:38am

Great artwork as usual. Thank you !

Aetherial · November 22, 2016, 2:32am

And, please, Wallpapers mutant Jarren!!! The first monster that the first photo!!! Thanks in advance.

BINARYGOD · November 22, 2016, 3:41am

Act 1, East half of map.

Superfluff · November 22, 2016, 3:48am

I like this a lot. I can’t wait for this update really.

That Harbormaster looks a bit like Doom 3 Hell knight.

PrinceXavieR · November 22, 2016, 3:51am

Mountain valley town

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.

reposting from general discussion…

The real misadventure…

Aetherial · November 22, 2016, 3:56am

Even if they come from then, for the second part games\Grim Dawn 2!!!
Pliz, pliz, pliz!!! Let’s have a poll people who are in the second part of the Grim Dawn\of the game, the story, and who no!!! Do Vote ON the FORUM, this is not difficult, and not sorry!!! Let them see!!! The developers, as the fans enjoyed their first game!!!

Still not too late!!! While they are generally in a year, the other, not abandoned the game and released some sort of kcal!!!

They in this genre at the moment, the KINGS!!! The fantasy they are generally pretty cool, they do not take her!!! Duck let’s support and vote, for the second part of the game, a sequel to Dark Dawn, let see what the fans of the game will not feel sorry for money and do not care for the game to continue!!!

I hope you will hear me, people, will, someone vote!!!

Ceno · November 22, 2016, 4:08am

The only people I want in the (potential) second game are those that Crate decides to include, as it’s their story and they seem to be doing pretty well with it.

Aetherial · November 22, 2016, 4:12am

That should do everything, that they began, for the development, the second part of the game, Dark Dawn 2!!!

PrinceXavieR · November 22, 2016, 4:14am

rto sum up… crate needs a lot more of our money… if not all of it to stay competitive…

i have already lured over 30 people to buy and play this game… but still there is a lot of room to improve in sales… and there is still a ton lot of people out there who have not pulled the trigger and some still dont know the game…

how could we help… let us know crate…

i could sell a kidney or two… but for sure it will not be enuf to appease lord zantai… . :o

Kojotek · November 22, 2016, 4:16am

Really, really, really can’t wait for it!
I love how much thought’s and idea’s have been putted inside this Aetherial rouge-like. Now SoT and BoC just look pale in comparsion to the lore of Port Valbury. Maybe now you guy’s should add a bit more flavour to them? BoC may not have much room for some intricate plot, but the deepest pit’s of SoT surely have room for something more

Chthon · November 22, 2016, 9:13am

You know it’d make more sense lore-wise if this guy is weaker than Shar’Zul. So this can be achieved by either buffing Shar’Zul or making him weaker

Xeilua · November 22, 2016, 9:36am

Thanks, it’s good to re-read that post from time to time. Honestly I’m hoping that Grim Dawn will have a bit of longevity as far as expansion content goes (see: world building of Cairn) on the side as Crate releases new IPs. There’s a lot of empty space on the world map, and I still want to know what lies beyond that third Devil’s Crossing bridge…

system · November 22, 2016, 12:09pm

This game released with far more content than I had thought. Wasn’t the original scope something like a 20-25 hour campaign? Lol

After a solid expansion the game will be huge.

Dargenus · November 22, 2016, 12:45pm

You and me both. We’re getting a lot of free content right now but I’d be willing to pay for many expansions. I think Cairn has a lot of potential.

system · November 22, 2016, 12:50pm

Oh, I owe crate money at this point for sure. I’ve never gotten so much time out of a game especially something that I paid like $20 for.

medea_fleecestealer · November 22, 2016, 1:20pm

Yeah it did grow … just a bit. I hope it keeps on growing.

Gina66 · November 22, 2016, 4:38pm

Ironically enough, my roommate and I ‘beat’ the main storyline this week and we were both wondering if an expansion would happen (it seems likely from Creed’s end message) and lo and behold…

Even if this isn’t an expansion per se, I’m excited. I haven’t felt this way about a game or been so very addicted since we all started playing WoW (something we can never NEVER go back to). Unlike WoW, however, I actually feel a part of the story as it happens.

I had never played the original Warcraft and when SWTOR came out, it didn’t really feel like the conclusion to KOTOR. This feels like I’m a part of a new storyline, right from the beginning, and I’m going along to see where it actually, truly ends (if ever:D)

Now I’m half tempted to just take a ‘vacation’ before Christmas when this comes out!

jeeeeohn · November 22, 2016, 6:24pm

This looks so cool

okami29 · November 23, 2016, 3:16am

Great update, and thank you medierra for your post.I think you are right doing only one franchise aRPG can be risky for a small studio, even if it’s successfull.
Also if one day you make GD 2, I really hope you will still give players modding abilities, even if using a licensed engine.
It allows to build a long term community with new ideas and content even years after the game is finished (see Titan Quest or Diablo 2 with medianxl).