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[Morbid Angel]

The new screens look great.

Will Grim Dawn be based in history / mythology?

No, Grim Dawn will be set in a unique fictional world that is loosely inspired by the Victorian Era but is not meant to actually take place on Earth, mythological or otherwise. A lot of effort has gone into the development of a deep story-world with a rich history, unique characters and intriguing subplots. The setting will be “thematically” darker in terms of mood and environment but, don't worry, unlike many games set in post-apocalyptic style worlds, Grim Dawn won't be a burnt out, gray wasteland.

Nice :O

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

I love Titan Quest. So I hope this is successful.

Also, I hope it's like Torchlight and has a reasonable system requirement so I can play it!

 

[koji]

So looking forward to this, I'm all for lootwhoring games, recently picked up TQ on steam (allready had it but I went ahead and bought it on steam, moar games in the list ftw!)

Anyway, I toyed around a bit with TQ defiler and Grim Dawn was mentioned in the MOTD thingy;

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grim-Dawn/133782576636279?ref=ts

Shame the devs for these games always seem to get into trouble -> Ascaron (Sacred)...

Armor/details in this screen are looking pretty good!

I'm such a sucker, just bought/pre-ordered/supported the "Legendary Fan Edition". :lol

 

[thetrin]

I'm going to be that guy: I hope there's a mac release. :S

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

I'm going to be that guy: I hope there's a mac release. :S

It'll be on Steam. You're covered!

 

[koji]

Pretty interesting interview about that crowd funding/donating model Grim Dawn is using @ the escapist.

Not all PC-gamers are pirates. ;-)

"It never dawned on us that so many people would be willing to support us in this way before even seeing anything of substance. Even more surprisingly, most of the pre-orders have been for the most expensive version," Bruno said. "We priced it thinking that only a small portion of fans would buy it and that would help keep our alpha release from being too large. So that didn't quite go as intended, but I can think of worse things to complain about."

 

[Salsa]

I want this so bad. Love Titan Quest.

 

[Morbid Angel]

A nice interview with the developers http://news.bigdownload.com/2010/07/14/interview-crate-entertainments-co-founder-talks-about-grim-daw/

Some info about TQ sales.

How did the idea for Grim Dawn come about and did the idea for the game originate at Iron Lore or at Crate?

Grim Dawn was an idea that developed after Iron Lore and after we had met with defeat while trying to pick up where Iron Lore had left off pitching Black Legion. In retrospect it is such an obvious idea and one we probably should have thought of much earlier but there were reasons that it was not obvious to us at the time. After Titan Quest debuted to poor sales in North America and THQ subsequently declined a TQ2 citing lack of interest in a PC-only ARPG, many of us felt disappointed in what we had invested years of our lives to create and demoralized by the state of the PC-market in general. We questioned ourselves, lacked confidence in our creation and generally just wanted to move on in a different direction.
Then something funny happened. Those low initial sales that were supposed to rapidly drop off to nothing never dropped off. The monthly sales never increased to anything impressive but they just kept going and going, longer than anyone could have imaged. After Iron Lore had shut its doors and Crate was struggling through its first year in existence, sales of Titan Quest just kept rolling.

According to the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research Institute, only 20 percent of games that are released onto store shelves ever become profitable. At the end of 2008 I found out that Titan Quest had managed to claw its way into that 20 percent. The game had not only reached profitability for THQ but it was very close to surpassing a million copies sold. It became obvious that we needed to make another game for this audience. Our good fortunate was that Iron Lore had retained ownership of the engine, tools, and other technology it created while developing Titan Quest. We knew these tools well and frankly, were very excited to get back to doing what we knew how to do.

About the game

We have seen action-RPGs before. What will make Grim Dawn stand out from the rest?

We're not really trying to stand out so much as we're trying to make an exceptional game for an existing audience that improves upon their previous experience. That said, we have added quite a few new features. Most of them though are just tried and true mechanics that have existed in the RPG genre since I was kid but just weren't in Titan Quest. I would say our top two goals are to make the combat more satisfying and the questing / fictional world deeper and more robust.

For combat we've created a new hit-effect system, added blood and dismemberment death effects for some enemies, and improved the physics. On the questing side we now have a faction system a new quest system that provides the ability for the player to make choices that could lead to different quest paths. We've also spent a lot more time developing the fictional world of Cairn, in which Grim Dawn is set; its history, conflicts, and characters. There is both an older history that provides a backdrop for the game's events and gives the world character but also a newer history that the character can pick up on and become involved in through questing and the collection of journals.

What other features do you think are important in Grim Dawn?

The big one would be randomized undergrounds. We haven't finished the tech yet, so it isn't 100% but it is looking very promising so far. Allowing for some "dungeon" areas of the game to be randomized would be a big win for replayability. We realize that our audience is split with some people desperately wanting randomization and others hoping we'll stick to hand-crafted environments. I think we can find a compromise that will keep most everyone happy with outdoor environments and some undergrounds being hand-crafted and most undergrounds, especially optional areas, being randomized. We're also looking to add in some level of quest randomization but we don't have details on that yet.
The completely new quest, conversation, and faction systems are also very exciting. I think these will mesh together to create a much wider array of questing possibilities and more interesting world interactions. This will also be important for modders who will find the new system, which includes a quest wizard, much easier to use. We will be releasing more details about in the next couple weeks on our forums.

I don't know that it is an important feature but I love our new dynamic weather system. It really adds an unexpectedly huge amount of atmosphere and life to the game. The way the system works is that designers paint regions of the world with different climate types. The climates are controlled by climate files where designers can add different weather patterns and set probabilities for each to occur. The weather patterns, in turn, are built out of individual weather effects such as wind, fog, thunder, dust, etc, that can be set to varying intensities. I have to admit, I get a bit of a tingly feeling when I'm running through a wheat field and then the sky darkens, rain starts to fall, gently at first but then it starts pouring, the wind picks up and blows the grass around and then there is a sudden boom of thunder. Dynamic weather changes really make me feel like the world is alive.

Any plans for downloadable content for Grim Dawn after its release?

Our plan is to continually update the game with small expansions that provide new regions to explore, new quests, equipment, enemies, etc. We'd like to be able to put out small expansions every 6-10 months so players always have something new to look forward to.

 

[Ashodin]

Looks really hot. Will buy.

 

[Teknoman]

Im just hoping the sound effects and actual attacks pack more punch than they did in Titan Quest. Also great music, kinda reminds me of Diablo I at the beginning, then goes into a mix of Silent Hill/ Resident Evil.

 

[thetrin]

It'll be on Steam. You're covered!

Well yeah, if they release it on Steam for Mac as well (which many games never do).

 

[CryingWolf]

It is no exaggeration to say that I am just as excited for this as I am for D3. Possibly moreso. If I wasn't so broke, I would buy one of their fancy pre-orders.

I unequivocally believe in these guys.

 

[Max]

Really enjoyed Titan Quest. I hope this turns out well.

Will buy on Steam

 

[matmanx1]

Would love a "new" Titan Quest and I have several friends who will be very excited to hear about this project. Consider this thread bookmarked!

 

[Klorox33]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqGP4LT_cYo

Looks awesome!

 

[jaundicejuice]

Where can I buy Grim Dawn and how much will it cost?

We plan to release Grim Dawn on Steam and through other digital distribution sites for about $20. In addition to this, you can also buy the game now from our website and download it directly from us when it releases. By purchasing directly from us now, your money will help fund our development and make Grim Dawn a better game. We may also release a box-copy to be sold in stores at some point but we have not yet worked out all the details.

Hrmm. I really like what I've seen of and read about the game and the studio making this. I bought into Minecraft at the Alpha but the core underlying experience was there, it could be played. I like the idea of giving my money to the developer directly but I think I need to see more, or perhaps be able to play a demo before committing. But then again it's only 20$.

 

[Boerseun]

I hold out hope for a high quality boxed copy with lots of extra content.

 

[ShdwDrake]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqGP4LT_cYo

Looks awesome!

Nice! Will buy!

 

[Dakota47]

Looks like Crate knows what it is doing.

We’re busy making Grim Dawn more complex and probably casual-player hostile. (...) While the casual market is certainly large, the hardcore gaming audience has also grown tremendously over recent years. As the heavyweights of the industry move to grab a piece of the massive casual market I think this creates an opportunity for a smaller company like us. I believe many in the more traditional, core gaming audience are starting to become frustrated with the changes they’re seeing to their most beloved games. They say you can’t please all of the people all of the time and I think this is certainly true. Our belief is that we can perhaps better please some of the people most of the time by catering Grim Dawn more closely to the desires of that traditional, core audience (and ourselves).

Moar

 

[Anno]

God I can't wait for this game. Titan Quest is right up there next to Diablo 1/2 in my eyes. Good to see that Crate is staying true to its roots. Does anyone know if the maps will be random or structured like TQ?

 

[KKRT00]

They will partially procedurally generated.

 

[Commanche Raisin Toast]

i asked Arthur Bruno some questions yesterday about the game, and i'm even more excited about it than ever.

when i asked him about the unfinished patch(es) for Titan Quest and if those fixes would roll over into the Grim Dawn build:

We've made several improvements to the engine and added a bunch of new features / gameplay improvements. You can read more about it on the forum but the two problems you mentioned should be fixed. The stuttering was largely the result of a bug + performance issues and we've fixed the major bug and made a big effort to avoid the type of performance drops that occurred in some areas of TQ. Perhaps better news is that we're not currently tied to a publisher, so we are free to release patches whenever we feel the need as opposed to having to get them approved as we did with THQ. So, if problems pop up after release, we'll be here working hard to fix them. This is our game, not a publisher's, so we have a big vested interest in making sure it meets everyone's expectations.

On the other hand, Crate is also a small indie company, so you have to expect that the game will be a little rougher around the edges than a big-budget AAA title released by a publisher. Hopefully over time, if the game is successful, we can grow, continue to improve Grim Dawn, and move forward to some more ambitious releases!

this makes me happy. TQ was beautiful (IMO) and it was disappointing when i suddenly had music skipping issues and frame rate slowdown after a hefty PC upgrade. applied all of the community-brewed fixes and tweaking with no luck. that's when i found out about unfinished fixes Iron Lore was working on when they shut down.

..........still need to finish that game. :x