Legend of Grimrock sales have covered dev costs, patch coming

Almost Human's retro-inspired dungeon crawler Legend of Grimrock more than covered its development costs within a few days on sale, and now there's a patch coming too.

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Amidst all this hullabaloo over Kickstarter projects reviving beloved vintage gaming franchises, Finnish indie Almost Human released its own original classic genre revival last week, Legend of Grimrock. Evidently there's still plenty of interest in ye olde gamese, and the retro-inspired dungeon crawler earned back far more than its development costs within two days. So what's next? First of all, a patch.

"The development costs of the game have now been covered many times over so the future of the company seems pretty secure," Almost Human said in a blog post. "So, everyone who has bought our game and supported us, you have our gratitude!"

The team's working away on a patch, which will bring fixes for bugs, exploits, and other issues.

If you buy Grimrock now, the 10% launch bonus is still in effect, so it'll only cost you $13.49. It's available on Steam, direct from Almost Human (who'll also give you a Steam key), and on GOG.

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  • reply
    April 16, 2012 6:30 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Legend of Grimrock sales have covered dev costs, patch coming.

    Almost Human's retro-inspired dungeon crawler Legend of Grimrock more than covered its development costs within a few days on sale, and now there's a patch coming too.

    • reply
      April 16, 2012 6:44 AM

      Woot! Hope to see more from them in the future that's for sure, I think it's still like 20% off on a steam sale right now too.

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      April 16, 2012 9:08 AM

      Sweet! Game looks awesome and ppl seem to really love it, gonna get it as soon as I get a few of my older AAA games finished.

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      April 16, 2012 9:10 AM

      im glad it sold well, this game really is awesome.

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      April 16, 2012 9:14 AM

      What's with all these PC games turning a profit after only a couple of days?

      Haven't they heard of piracy?

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        April 16, 2012 9:19 AM

        If only they had included DRM!

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        April 16, 2012 10:07 AM

        I know you're being facetious, but it's worth noting that the recent examples of this (Alan Wake, Legend of Grimrock) were digital distribution-only affairs with little traditional marketing. They don't have to buy commercial time or ad space Best Buy's spread and they don't have to share the cost of the game with Walmart (although Steam and GOG sales do take a cut).

        Perhaps as a result, the games are cheaper. Alan Wake debuted at $30 and Grimrock here is $15 at most. And so people like me are more apt to buy them since they're not a whole lot of risk.

        This is a tremendous advantage for the PC over game consoles. Game consoles are absolutely married to retail. When a AAA game comes out on a console you have to go get a copy at a store, face retail shortages, travel somewhere at midnight if you want it on release, etc. since I don't think any of the consoles do DD day-and-date with the disc release. With Steam and DD you can get it day one, no shortages, and it unlocks in your own home at midnight.

        Steam pisses off GameStop and so GameStop stops carrying many PC games. Which just means you go to Steam to buy the game and stop setting foot into GameStop. Win/win. If Sony or Microsoft piss off Walmart then Walmart stops carrying their consoles in the store and they're fucked.

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          April 16, 2012 10:36 AM

          Naw, all Sony and MS would have to do is keep shipping the consoles to Walmart's competitors(Target, ToysRus, Best Buy, etc). Videogame players would not stop buying PS3s and 360s if Walmart stopped carrying them.

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          April 16, 2012 11:02 AM

          While it's true that digital distribution is generally more convenient than retail, it seems kind of sill to think that Walmart can stop or really seriously dent the sales of consoles or that GameStop stopped carrying PC games because Steam pissed them off.

          In the first case, there are a myriad of places to buy consoles and gamers will simply go there instead. In the second, GameStop doesn't carry PC games and especially Steam games because they can't be resold the same way console games can and GameStop's profit comes from reselling used games.

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        April 16, 2012 10:11 AM

        Obviously games at $60 is still too cheap.

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        April 16, 2012 11:01 AM

        "All these PC games" = One indie game

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          April 16, 2012 11:43 AM

          Dear Esther, Amnesia, Witcher, I could go on. PC games do well, and their development and marketing costs are potentially lower. If you're not going to be Madden or CoD, console sales take a ton of capital for quite the gamble.

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          April 16, 2012 1:37 PM

          Alan wake is not an indie game but thanks for your post

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          April 16, 2012 2:27 PM

          Come on, there are a ton of examples of this happening over the last couple years.

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            April 16, 2012 6:39 PM

            Yep, I just bought Sword and Sworcery and Legend of Grimrock just now. I love indie games a lot.

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      April 16, 2012 9:19 AM

      6 hours in and I've just gotten to level 6. :S Haven't cheated yet tho!

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        April 16, 2012 10:44 AM

        how do you cheat? I haven't played the game

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          April 16, 2012 10:58 AM

          He means just looking up guides and faqs. I strongly recommend avoiding both.

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            April 16, 2012 12:10 PM

            It's all static loot right? not dynamically generated.. ?

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              April 16, 2012 12:26 PM

              Almost entirely static. Food dropping from mobs is random. There's also a couple instances where mobs drop keys as well. All the real loot is static though.

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                April 16, 2012 12:28 PM

                Hrm, wish I had known that going in. Guess I'll keep going anyway.

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                  April 16, 2012 12:29 PM

                  thnx for the info

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                  April 16, 2012 1:08 PM

                  For your first playthrough, there's really no difference between a static and a randomized dungeon, might as well go through it at least once.

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                    April 16, 2012 1:25 PM

                    yup. and only $13, so not a big deal. Still, I'm an old school Eye of the Beholder player.. still have the boxes somewhere I think. <3 me some DnD. So multiple playthroughs would be keen. But I'm sure DLC will be nice.

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                  April 16, 2012 1:32 PM

                  This game is not designed at all for randomized content. The levels, puzzles, secrets, and loot distribution are all obviously meticulously crafted. You can literally spend hours on each floor and constantly find new areas to explore.

                  More dungeons will no doubt come in the form of new content releases from the developers, and I've heard murmurs that they are going to release a map editor at some point.

                  Not every game needs randomization, especially not this game.

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                    April 16, 2012 2:16 PM

                    I like this game as it stands but I think some clever randomization could work out in its favor.

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      April 16, 2012 9:20 AM

      Seriously love this game.

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      April 16, 2012 10:01 AM

      This game is excellent, well worth a look.

      Glad to hear they covered their costs looking forward to more from them

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      April 16, 2012 10:12 AM

      Fucking awesome, they deserve it. Looking forward to future games by them.

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      April 16, 2012 10:16 AM

      Bought the game yesterday, ended up playing til 2am. This is how old school games should be brought to the present tech. Same addicting gameplay with polished and detailed graphics. No need to overthink a successful game design and 'innovate', just clean it up and refresh it with today's graphics tech! This game is FUN to play. Imagine that!

      • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        April 16, 2012 11:10 AM

        Yep. So many EoB flashbacks. Love it.

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        April 16, 2012 12:35 PM

        so what they should have done with Diablo III?

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          April 16, 2012 1:18 PM

          Ironically, I've had friends ask me what Diablo 3 offers over a game like WoW, which has a more tangible progression and end game, and my response was that Diablo 3 was actually fun to play.

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            April 16, 2012 1:37 PM

            WoW was insanely fun to play 6, 7 years ago.

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              April 16, 2012 2:19 PM

              It was... Kinda. If anything there are more buttons to press these days, in fact a lot more. I don't know why it feels so mechanical, except that it's just totally played out and uninteresting and..... Easy.

              The absolute and complete lack of challenge in all the questing content is probably the biggest issue. It's like they spent literally all their time trying to figure out how to make a more cinematic game experience in an MMO.

              Anyway, so far I think D3 is much faster paced and variable, I like very much!

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      April 16, 2012 10:35 AM

      This game gets a lot more serious when you step down into level 4. I've had a few fights were I had one guy alive, keeping the enemy on a diagonal, and swinging and moving when the enemy moves so I get and attack and am gone before he gets turned. I've also had to cheat and consult guides a couple times - all (all) the good loot is behind secrets and I'm getting concerned that I'm going to be fucked later for missing secrets and just sucking at video games in general.

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        April 16, 2012 10:57 AM

        I am zealously avoiding all guides. So much of the game is about having a keen eye and being a good investigator/problem solver. I find the mental aspects of this game incredibly satisfying to discover and conquer. Seriously one of the best experiences I've ever had with puzzles and secrets in a game.

        I feel like reading guides and just following the steps someone wrote is the exact opposite of what this game is all about.

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          April 16, 2012 12:46 PM

          I didn't even know guides existing and I have no desire to even seek them out. That's pretty much the whole game to me.

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        April 16, 2012 1:07 PM

        The beginning of level 4 is kicking my ass :(

    • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      April 16, 2012 11:08 AM

      Fuckin' A, man.

      Fucking' A. :D

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      April 16, 2012 11:23 AM

      I may need to pick this up and stream it after all. :)

      I hear pretty nasty things about the spiders on the poison front though. Ah hell, it's only $13.50, lets do this. :P

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        April 16, 2012 11:43 AM

        It's worth noting that when you buy it from the developer, the backend is being run by the Humble Bundle guys, so it appears to be pretty good in so far as downloading/redownloading/steam keying.

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          April 16, 2012 1:04 PM

          Interesting. I assume you mean buying off of http://www.grimrock.net/buy/

          I may just grab it from there instead then!

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            April 16, 2012 2:55 PM

            yeah, purchasing through there ultimately lands you at a humble-bundle page for Steam Key retrieval + some direct download links

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      April 16, 2012 11:51 AM

      I'm always curious about the details of reports like this. I wonder what they consider to be development costs? Are they including the human labor, or just out of pocket expenses?

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        April 16, 2012 12:06 PM

        Well for that matter, is Almost Human a developer with an office and a payroll or is it a bunch of dudes programming in their spare time? i.e., ere there even labor costs yet?

        I would think that in the case of Remedy's claims about Alan Wake's PC success they are considering labor costs.

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          April 16, 2012 12:10 PM

          I thought when Remedy did the press release they were pretty deliberate in stating that it covered the cost of porting the game, not necessarily any share of development costs and such.

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            April 16, 2012 12:46 PM

            Right, that's what I meant - the porting costs, not any of the sunk costs in making the Xbox version.

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          April 16, 2012 12:54 PM

          Yeah, exactly; it'd be nice to know approximately what their "costs" were so we know how successful this is.

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          April 16, 2012 2:20 PM

          It's four Finnish guys that worked on the video games industry and quit last year to create Almost Human. So I guess it generated four year worth of wage + cover costs + taxes. Not too shaby.

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        April 16, 2012 4:11 PM

        Someone asked this question on their blog. This was their response:

        "It’s the salaries, rent, hardware and any other costs that have cropped up during the development Legend of Grimrock. That being said our salaries have not been astronomical and the development time has been comparatively short which has helped keeping the costs down but regardless we are very very happy with the sales regardless."

        Hope this answers your question.

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          April 16, 2012 4:23 PM

          That last sentence was from the department of redundancy department.

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          April 16, 2012 4:44 PM

          That exactly answers it! It includes their salaries which was mainly what I was wondering. I wasn't sure if they were a "in our spare time" type outfit where they don't actually value their time

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            April 16, 2012 5:11 PM

            You can't really make a game like Legend of Grimrock in your spare time. Not really. And definitely not in the year or so they've been kicking around.

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              April 16, 2012 5:27 PM

              Not in one year like they did, but lots of indie games started as a "in our spare time" project and they only went full time during the final months

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      April 16, 2012 12:24 PM

      I'm terrible at these games now. I can't even get off of the first floor.

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      April 16, 2012 12:28 PM

      I just got buttfucked by a room full of spiders. I love this damn game.

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      April 16, 2012 12:48 PM

      This is great news to hear. They definitely kicked ass on this game. They made all the right choices and the game is a blast to play. I can't wait to see what they come out with for this game. Considering the size of the world map... I'd say they have many plans for the future!

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      April 16, 2012 1:37 PM

      this is good news. i am so loving this game.

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      April 16, 2012 2:50 PM

      Just getting ready to head down to level 10. Some of the puzzles are infuriating on level 9.

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        April 16, 2012 9:39 PM

        heh the room with 4 alcoves around the crystal? wracked my brain for a bit, but happily got them before too long :D

        the pillared hallway was a bitch for a while too! Q: have you left about 90% of level 8 empty? I can't get in to it, but figured you must loop back later on..

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      April 16, 2012 2:53 PM

      shacknews is cruel to my wallet.

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      April 16, 2012 3:25 PM

      good for them!

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      April 16, 2012 4:13 PM

      [deleted]

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      April 16, 2012 4:57 PM

      how do you ressurect a player?

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        April 16, 2012 5:20 PM

        Save at one of the crystals.

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        April 16, 2012 5:20 PM

        Use one of the blue, standing crystals which also restores your entire party to max health and autosaves your game in an autosave slot

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      April 16, 2012 6:05 PM

      Okay I fucking love this game, but have not really played this genre and have looked up ZERO info other than the in game tutorial, but don't want to spoil more than necessary.

      1. I started playing on easy because of all the comments on how hard it is. Is normal so hard that that you could potentially get stuck?

      2. How many types of crafting are there? Can I make bombs?

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        April 16, 2012 9:37 PM

        Fuck that, just got to level 4 slimes sticking to easy

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      April 16, 2012 6:38 PM

      Such an awesome game. I'm sick of RPGs with tons of redundant junk loot. Everything you find in this game feels useful. Love the puzzling. Fuck those spiders. Word to the wise: you can sleep poison off. Don't waste your anti-venom too soon.

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        April 16, 2012 7:20 PM

        Really? I slept for a while past full health but it didn't go away... Do you just wait it out?

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          April 16, 2012 7:40 PM

          Yeah, it goes away during a good long sleep.

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            April 16, 2012 11:10 PM

            Now I'm running out of food though. And you can't sleep if you're hungry =oO

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      April 16, 2012 7:14 PM

      I bought this game because I saw a few people hyping it, and the fact that it only cost 13$. Its awesome. Even though I'm seriously too dumb to figure these puzzles out.

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      April 16, 2012 7:21 PM

      Know what I love? Re-usable flasks. FUCK YEAH!

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        April 16, 2012 7:56 PM

        yea i love that, they really nailed the "use everything you find" feeling. i love how you start with a shitty mace and most of your dudes are just throwing rocks at shit, then ever so slowly you start gearing up your party and every item feels useful.

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          April 16, 2012 8:18 PM

          Haha yeah I fucked my Mage builds a bit, and they literally were throwing pebbles for their first level, lol

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      April 16, 2012 8:20 PM

      I made a mess of my Rogue 8-(

      For some reason I pumped points into Assassination to get the "hit from back row" perk, then didn't put any points into daggers :( I started pumping up missile weapons for some reason, but found throwing stuff was awesome, but it's impossible to change from bow/arrows to daggers during a fight. I think it would have been amazing to have assassination + daggers + dodge + throwing. Dagger in one hand, shurikens/throwing axes in the other.. hit from range and backstab up close without having to change any weapons. As it is, missile weapons + dodge with wastes assassin skills = my rogue.

      On the other hand, my bugman chitin filled hand-to-hand brawler is f'ing awesome :D

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        April 16, 2012 9:43 PM

        huh how about that.. the devs originally did a different early concept game, called "Escape from Dragon Mountain" which was originally called "Dungeon Master 2000"!
        But it actually didn't have grid movement.. wow
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Put6IOUUYLI

    • reply
      April 18, 2012 3:09 PM

      there is a list of spells for legend of grimrock here:
      http://bit.ly/grimrockspells

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