Welcome mighty crate lord. I bow before you as I bowed before other crate gods in awaiting your holy voice.
Welcome! Good to hear someone dodged the 38 studios bullet. Maybe some of the other guys will make it over to Crate as well. So are you a programmer, animator, artist, or…?
Welcome to our lovely family.
It’s good to hear that some people from 38 already found new stuff to work on. Especially when it’s awesome stuff like GD. I am looking forward to your updates!
Also: McDonald’s or Burger King?
Welcome aboard good ser! We only hope that you won’t fall into madness with all the cultist around there.
Can’t wait for the stories!
Blasphemy! There is no madness in The Cult of Crate, you heathen.
We merely view the world in a different light. Namely that there are three types of people: True Believers, Offerings and The Lords of Crate. All heathens, novice cultists and disruptive elements to our order fall under the Offering’s list and may be subjected to blood sacrifice. evil grin
Thank you all for the excited welcome
In response to some of the very deep questions so far:
Did you work on Amalur?
I was working on the MMO “Project Copernicus” at the Providence office. Reckoning was developed in Baltimore.
Hey, Zantai, you were born in Poland,i guess?
Indeed I was. I moved to the US when I was 10 and had been here since.
Is that how you kids call it these days?
I think we call that slacking. I may also do some actual Game Design while I’m at it.
Congratulations on your new job, It couldn’t have been a more awesome one right?
It’s pretty darn awesome. I am a huge fan of the ARPG genre.
So are you a programmer, animator, artist, or…?
I am a game designer first, but as a former modder I’m a bit of a writer, programmer, designer, community manager, con artist, wizard, sith lord, and rubber duck.
Also: McDonald’s or Burger King?
McDonald’s, but really only for their fries and ice cream.
Welcome! To gain entrance into the cult you need to drink a tri-beer.
Welcome aboard! I can’ wait to see what adventures are dreamed up.
Glad you found a new home…very tragic what happened to 38 Studios.
I actually enjoyed KoA so was pretty bummed when the new broke. With that said I thought some of the design/mechanics elements of the game were poorly done. I understand you were working on the MMO, but I wonder if you had any thoughts on this subject? Any kind of insight on what, as a designer, you might have done differently if you were working on that project?
Well, I do love meself some rubber ducky.
McDonalds… for their fries?
The last madman isn’t born yet.
I certainly can, and it’s sad that many qualms I had with the game were being fixed in the sequel, or even the upcoming patch!
All of these changes are a “perfect world” situation. Not everything is always possible in a development cycle. I’m sure many things on this list were on the list at Baltimore as well that just didn’t quite make it in.
1) You could not jump over the smallest of obstacles making exploration frustrating at times
This was already being reworked for the sequel to allow true open world exploration. Jumping was being handled by allowing you to press a button to jump down ledges and such, adding more exploration without jeopardizing the combat.
2) The game was too easy, even on hard
This was a matter of tuning for the most part.
3) The camera follow was not very well done
Optimized tech, was coming in the patch I believe.
4) Gear itemization was not as extensive as would be preferred and crafting was too strong
I would have added more weapon procs, chance on hit effects on armor, and generally more ways to gear out your character that were viable.
5) Quests too frequently de-evolved into repetitive tasks and all too often a dungeon would be locked, or a quick exit be blocked, because you were not on a specific quest
Grim Dawn secrets for how I would fix this.
I would fix the blocking of content by…not blocking the content! (only exceptions would be heavily story driven content)
6) Not enough enemy variety
That one would be a matter of development and time constraints so it would not necessarily be feasible. In a perfect world, I would have had more monsters with more variety in their attack patterns. I would also try to have more randomization to monster spawns (if tech permits), making returning to past areas more exciting.
Zantai
Do you like beer?
Hi and welcome might Crate Lord, I bow before your awesomeness
The cult of Crate, founded by DragonWolf is strong, and we follow the cult code, and unbelievers will be dealt with harshly, and those that not in the higher ranks of the cult may indeed end up been sacrificed to appease our Crate Lords
but anyway, welcome to the forum Zantai, can’t wait to see what you come up with, and hope you do show updates of your work from time to time. and its good that you have found a new home here with us
so Hi from me, and welcome, make yourself at home
Not blocking content? And what if I walk into something I’m not ready for and I die there. The cost of therapy will be billed directly to you, I assure you. I think you’d be better of playing some Battlefield 3 so you can see how to handle blocking content.
And welcome.
Thanks for response…all of those points cover pretty much all of my criticisms of the game
Good is beer, but not all beer is good.
When creating an open world environment, if content is blocked with no immersing explanation, you become disconnected from the world, possibly annoyed.
If an open world has places you are not prepared for, there should probably be ample warning for you heading into a dangerous space. Is that not better than a conveniently placed fence that later disappears?
Not that there isn’t room for gated content, it just needs to be used judiciously.
Some clarification, since I managed to confuse myself just now, Grim Misadventures will be posted every 2 weeks, which means the next one is coming on 6/24/2012!
That doesn’t mean that there won’t be sporadic updates in the meantime or that I will not post anywhere else.
can’t wait for your next update
I have recently been blessed with a DVD copy of The Whisperer in Darkness. Any plans to add Mi-go to Grim Dawn?
I can’t wait to read the misadventures, I’d say welcome to the forums but I’m new too :D, I’m sad to hear the latest news about 38 Studios as I enjoyed Amalur a lot.