Grim Dawn - Interview @ Big Download

Dhruin

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Crate co-founder Arthur Bruno speaks to Big Download about the closing of Iron Lore, establishing Crate and, of course, Grim Dawn. Here's a snip on the game itself:
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.
More information.
 
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Titan Quest is an example of a game where generic Diablo 2 gameplay was made interesting thanks to amazing level design and some really sexy next-gen graphics. Game still looks great and I replayed it just to see the great mythical creatures in action over and over in some amazingly detailed levels.


PS: Also, fuck THQ. Piece of shit publishers.
 
I found this very interesting and somewhat encouraging (with regards to prospects of mid-tier and indie development:
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.

What it shows is that non-blockbuster titles can become quite profitable as slow-burn titles. I think Jeff Vogel reports a similar pattern for his games, but its the first time I heard of this sales pattern for an AAA game.
 
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