Steve Blakemore & Grimoire - clarification needed...

[20mithrandir]

Hi there!

I followed the development of "Grimoire" for a while. RPGDot actually had a preview of the game and in the latest newspost the status of the project was Beta-Close-To-Be-Published. That was *tryingtoremember* about 18 months ago. Since then Steve seems to have had a little fight with RPGCodex and put online and offline a few homepages (very poorly ones as I remember) about his games.

So what is the status of the project once called "Grimoire" (in development since soo many years)? Is there still the slightest chance that Cleve will bring the game to public sometime?

bye, Peter

[dteowner]

Steve's brother Cleve hasn't done anything with the game for a while. The beta test finished about 12 months ago, and the game was playable at the point. There were plans in place to revamp the NPC conversations, which was needed IMO. Beyond that, the game was largely ready to go. The majority of bugs we had found were inconsequential-- spelling and grammar, a few empty chests, that sort of thing. Nobody's heard a peep out of Cleve in several months, so we don't know what the future of the game might be. It's a shame, really, because the game has a chance to be very, very good.

[20mithrandir]

Hi!

Shame on me for confusing first names...
:rolleyes:

But what you say is that the game really was in a presentable state (let's say beta) already (with some flaws that could've been sorted out easily). So does Cleve talk to anyone nowadays? I would be happy with any kind of oldschool rpg. In the meantime I should go back to Wizardry 8 (I saw the party tips thread and just have to try something)...

bye, Peter

[dteowner]

With any other indie game, it could probably be released as-is and gamers would accept the bad with the good. Given the loooong painful history behind Grimoire, I don't blame Cleve for wanting to get it "perfect". Last thing I heard, Corwin was going to try to give Cleve a phone call and see if he was still alive. I'm not aware of Cleve making contact with anyone in several months.

For us old-skool gamers, it's Wiz8 and MM7 for now. Eschalon looks very promising, but is still several months away. I've heard good things about the Avernum and Geneforge series, but haven't played any of them myself.

[crpgnut]

As far as Avernum and Geneforge go, you can just play just one game in each of those series. Every game in the series is so similar to the others that you'll just feel like you're playing the same game over again, if you play more than one.

That said, do yourself a favor and play one of each. They are very well done.

[cutterjohn]

I wish that he's just release if it's anything like Wizardry 7, say, I'd just be dying to get my hands on it... Especially if it was LONG like those old games.

e.g. Devil Whiskey was nice in that old school RPG sort of way, but WAY WAY WAY too short...

[Dhruin]

I agree with dte...from what I saw, anyone else would have released it as-is a looooong time ago.

[Corwin]

There was ONE game killing bug in the first section which Cleve was trying to fix. The first real shopkeeper you find has an ABSOLUTELY essential item in his inventory which he gives you for completing a quest. However, if you buy and sell with him, his inventory get over-written by new items and this essential item is lost forever!! To fix this, he needed to implement an entirely new scripting system and this was the holdup. Apparently he has also been swamped with RL work. Other than this, I currently have nothing else I can add. Maybe a threat to release the Beta would stir him up!!!! :biggrin:

[Role-Player]

Last thing I heard, Corwin was going to try to give Cleve a phone call and see if he was still alive.

Does he get phone calls in that bunker of his?

[Corwin]

Hey, I've been in that bunker; it's very well equipped!! :)