Grimrock

I spent a year making my own dungeon crawler... from scratch! Not many people know about it yet.

You could say that it's a dungeon crawler with a twist; it mixes first person gridder type exploration with a top down battle system. It really is quite innovative and that isn't the only innovation in the gameplay; the economy is gem, not gold, based, armour is wreckable in combat and there are other unique things about the system as well.

The basic story is to overthrow a terrible tyant and save a small town from an evil fate. There are 19 levels in the game, 5 different classes to pick from, hundreds of items and dozens of spells. And lots of secrets to find!

If you're looking for something new, innovative and an RPG that works a little differently to what you may be used to, please check it out.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/506840/

kingius wrote:You could say that it's a dungeon crawler with a twist; it mixes first person gridder type exploration with a top down battle system.

Sounds a little bit like 'Realms of Arkania' [FPP crawler with isometric combat], and mixed with Gauntlet [top-down RTS]. The video teaser looks interesting.

Thanks. I never played Realms of Arkania but the comparison has been made to me before so I assume that's probably about right. Less gauntlety though as each fight is a self contained scene and exploring levels is done back in the first person gridder mode.

I think that the combat in a lot of first person gridders is the weakest point in the whole experience (often, but not always) and so that's where I've tried to innovate; amping up the battle sections so they get a lot more exciting and also more tactical. The battles run in real time but positioning becomes important for things like avoiding area effects or not getting tied up by too many foes at once.

If you do check it out let me know what you think. I'd be interested to also hear if the Realms of Arkania comparison holds up as well.

kingius wrote:If you do check it out let me know what you think. I'd be interested to also hear if the Realms of Arkania comparison holds up as well.

RoA plays like a cross between Eye of the Beholder and Pool of Radiance. It is a first person dungeon crawler with abstracted overland map travel, and with turn based isometric combat. An interesting feature is that the party can divide into sub-groups and explore [fpp] in different directions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLalZ5168GU

https://www.gog.com/game/realms_of_arkania_1_2

It's a bit heavy on the RPG side where character creation is concerned. I like it, but it might be overkill for many.

I see, thanks for filling me in on that. The Dungeons of Castle Madness is similar in that the combat switches out from first person but very much its own beast as well. It owns its space. It's not party based which opens up the possibility of more Diablo-esque (or as you said, Gauntlet-esque) battles taking place where you have to not just react to incoming threats but predict and nullify them. Part of this is achieved through the enemy design so that the player cannot simply use the same tactics in every fight, part from the battlefield and part from the idea of 'ambushes'. In short, if the player moves onto the enemy then they get an advantage in the enemy placement whereas if it happens the other way then the player gets surrounded and must break through the enemy lines to move to a more favourable position. It really has to be experienced to understand the effects that all this has on the battles. As you can probably imagine, some fights are quite straight forward and some make you go 'oh sh-'! Throw in the destructable armour, dozens of spells, hundreds of items, as well and you've got the possibilties of some very dynamic combats which still have a tactical element to them.

Rest assured if Isaac is saying it's like Realms of Arkania, that's a blessing in my book! Will give it a look.

**I have not had a chance to play it yet; it's just that it seems partly similar in concept from a mechanical standpoint. I doubt [but of course don't know yet] if it shadows RoA character depth... But that's not necessarily required for a good crawler ~I think.