Legend of Grimrock - Weekly Update

As usual, Von Paulus has been watching the Grimrock site and sends news of the latest update. There's a rather nice screen of Goromorg Temple and a list of the latest works. Here's a partial snip:

Another week and another update (despite the fact that we forgot to do one last week, oops)! The game is really starting to feel like a complete game, we are this close on having a game that you could install and then play all the way through! And the whole thing would feel pretty much like a real, complete game as well, instead of some strange unfinished prototype. I think next week is the week we can proudly call it alpha. But the real work is about to start: after alpha we can start concentrating on improving all the aspects of the game and put in some extra polish and implement all sorts of new fun little things! More spells, skills, monster special attacks, some new monster variants, level and puzzle improvements but, most important of all, a lot of testing and balancing!

More information.

16 types of monsters in the game ?

Thats all

Hi, I think 16 is just the current number, they mention that "We’ve got a few more in the pipeline at the moment too" (I'm not sure if they mean fully new monsters or just variants). By comparison, I think the first Eye of the Beholder game had about 20 creature types.

And DM didn't have also much monsters.

Originally Posted by JaakkoPeltonen
Hi, I think 16 is just the current number, they mention that "We’ve got a few more in the pipeline at the moment too" (I'm not sure if they mean fully new monsters or just variants). By comparison, I think the first Eye of the Beholder game had about 20 creature types.

It was a long time since i played EOTB1 ;P

I am just crazy about variety of enemies. The more the better

I'd say at least two new monsters per level of dungeon plus the always present rats, zombies, slimes, skeletons, wolfs…. I think, in a real dungeon, the "normal" encounter should be a long dead prisoner (zombie or ghost) or the personification of pain or hatred (a shadow, possessed objects). Perhaps The walls and rusty iron cells could be evil living things.

Originally Posted by Gragnak
The walls and rusty iron cells could be evil living things.

If well differentiated, 16-20 monster types is sufficient for me, though I support the evil walls idea .
Personally I´m more interested in how significant role traps and puzzles have, this kind of game presents a good opportunity to go nuts with these.
I also hope there´s some non-linearity when it comes to traversing between levels, doesn´t have to be of Chaos Strikes Back grade, but levels being linked with more than one staircase would be nice. In Dungeon Master, freezing the dragon under a pit and then going up one level and falling through that pit was a cool dispatchment possibility.

16 monsters are more than enough for me in a game of this kind.

I, too, am much more interested in mechanics and the intricacy of the level design.