Grimrock

seems to be a common topic atm. I would like to counter this with the following.

To Almost Human.

Thank you for making a great game. It was a brilliant combination of old school nostalgia mixed with modern tech.
A challenging game requiring actual problem solving and intellect as well as keen reflexes.

I would like to congratulate the guy on making a complete game experience and one I will be revisiting many times.

There were a few design and implementation choices I wouldnt have made, but the direction you took worked great and obviously offered the game play and focus you were aiming for. Everything works well together and all aspects of the game gel very nicely.

So as a 35 year old and admittedly cynical gamer you have proven that staying true to your vision and focusing on a specific game style is a successful way to make games. Appeasing the masses may lead to popular games, but it will seldom lead to a game that fans will remember for years to come. Something I feel you have done here.

I see a few of ungrateful gamers begging, asking or arrogantly demanding changes to the game you made. Some even have the audacity to suggest their proposed change is superior because you failed to make the game as they wanted.

This arrogance I find repugnant, and the fact that the ones proposing changes cant seem to have a civil discussion without becoming abusive seems to indicate a high level entitlement which has seemingly become the norm to a lot of people.

To all the people wanting changes I would ask that you respect the decisions made by the devs as they have spent years designing and making the game. It is the game they wanted to make, and was made to be the game they released. If you have an issue with something they did thats nothing more than your opinion and while you are more than welcome to express it perhaps you should think about what you're doing before spouting your vitriol when someone (like me) disagrees and thinks the game should be left as the Almost Human made it (patches to fix glitches/bugs not withstanding).

If you are unhappy with an aspect of the game thats fine, but wanting these things changes to better suit your subjective evaluation is nothing short of entitled arrogance.
If the issue is technical (as in bugs, glitches, and/or performance) thats fine as those are objective issues that should be resolved (assuming your rig meets the system requirements... if it doesnt then you have no right to demand any technical fixes as the issue is your outdated tech not the game).

The monsters, combat, magic and puzzles are all designed to work as they do. It was a conscious decision made by Almost Human over months and years of design and development. The game is supposed to be hard (also a design decision). If you are asking the game to be made easier then you should not be playing the game. The difficulty and challenge were part of what the game was designed to be.

In closing.

To the complainers if the game is too hard and you're frustrated by the game or aspects of it and as a result have less enjoyment then this game was never meant for you. Asking it to be changed to suit you is the worst sort of gamer entitlement. To clarify if the game is too hard for you, you have no right to complain as you were never the intended audience.

Thank you Almost Human for providing a challenge and real sense of achievement when I completed my initial crawl. I enjoyed my time in the dungeons and cant wait to see what follows.

I agree.

I do not agree

Hear Hear, i completely agree with everthing you said there and ? hark is that the sound of a thousand Cynical Brit Stardestroyers warping in to lay waste to the army of trolls that seem to be already plauging these hallowed forums? I for one do hope so.

Emphatically disagree, cryo, your comments are nothing more than arrogance. Just because you think the games fine does not in any way translate over to how others feel. How dare you even try to impose your will on those who have different feels about the game and other players that have a completely different game play style? Your comments are offensive. For every comments you defend, could be countered. How about you try thinking about others and not just yourself for once?

Kind of agree, the people who don't get it just make me lol really.

Most of them are really just requests for cheat features from people finding the game too hard. I think that was always to be expected given the direction cRPGs have taken since the mid 90s.

dark wrote:Emphatically disagree, cryo, your comments are nothing more than arrogance. Just because you think the games fine does not in any way translate over to how others feel. How dare you even try to impose your will on those who have different feels about the game and other players that have a completely different game play style? Your comments are offensive. For every comments you defend, could be countered. How about you try thinking about others and not just yourself for once?

then make a counter argument rather than trying to insult me and offering no valid counterpoint, and please look up the definition of arrogance as you are using it incorrectly. I do not think I am better than anyone, in fact unlike the people wanting changes I also dont think I know better than the people who made the game.

Obviously this is my opinion, but the majority of people wanting changes are no different than someone going to a horror movie and complaining it was too violent, and should be toned down so more people can enjoy it.

My comments were never about having cheats in the game or cheating in anyway. Mine are about balance and how others have issues with the timing puzzles. I find it very arrogant for anyone to insinuate that just because some people have gotten through an area that others should also be able too. That is absurd thinking. I know for a fact that when developers are testing an area out that they fall into a false sense about how that puzzle works.

They tend to forget that when you have tested a puzzle over and over to the point that it could well be 200 times of testing until they feel that the timing is right. What happens is that devs tend to forget that just because they went through it and tested it many times over, that that does not mean that someone with a lesser skill can get through that area too. There are many aspects that fall into place with something like this.

Their pc, maybe it’s a lesser machine, maybe someone is not as dexterous as some. Or how about people in general don’t feel that grinding out a puzzle 100 or more times is not fun at all? Also, what I find very disturbing in general is the community sense that if someone can’t get through an area or are having issues with it that this and to quote many here “This game is not for you" That comment really pisses me off to no end. I really enjoy the game, but no one, and I mean no one here should ever suggest or state in any way that this game is not for them.

While gamers often don't know what they want, they certainly know what they don't want. While LoG is a good game, it's riddled with poor design decisions - both in the gameplay and the UI. To point out these flaws is not only good but necessary so that AH can make a better game in the future that doesn't have the same problems. For a first game, people are often willing to overlook flaws. If they keep releasing more and more things with the same flaws, people will become less and less interested.

dark wrote:Emphatically disagree, cryo, your comments are nothing more than arrogance. Just because you think the games fine does not in any way translate over to how others feel. How dare you even try to impose your will on those who have different feels about the game and other players that have a completely different game play style? Your comments are offensive. For every comments you defend, could be countered. How about you try thinking about others and not just yourself for once?

Gameplay is part of what makes a game what it is. With the exception of games that are designed to accomodate multiple gameplay styles (and even with the inclusion of some of those) you'll never have a game that's everyone's cup of tea. This does not make the gameplay mechanics broken, or deficient, or mean that altering it for one group of players will improve it, or even broaden it's appeal. I have to defend the OP insofar as to say that this is how the game is meant to be, and how it is meant to be played. End of story. We seem to live in an age where everyone feels entitled to be able to do everything, understand anything and have everything delivered to them in whatever way they want. It's refreshing that a studio like AH have had the focus to deliver a game that is quite wildly different from all the others in its genre in recent years and I think they have every right to say "this is our game, we think it's great, take it or leave it" In fact I think that's a necessary part of maintaining that focus on their vision. Not everone liked Mozart but he didn't change his music, nor did he release alternative versions with fewer notes

I say this as a programmer for a games developer who released a game recently which was too difficult on release due to bugs and bad design. We had to release a LOT of patches to fix it and to make it more playable/enjoyable for people. Grimrock is nothing like that, it has the gameplay mechanics spot-on and is extremely enjoyable.