The creators of Grim Dawn say the project is still moving forward.
For those not in the know, Grim Dawn is an action-RPG being created by Crate Entertainment, an indie studio founded in 2008 by veterans of defunct Titan Quest developer Iron Lore. Work on the game has been ongoing for at least a couple of years now and while progress is slow and an actual launch date is nowhere in sight, things are happening.
Gameplay is fairly solid, with balance, physics, pathing, and other underlying systems needing polish but in “reasonable shape” at this point. It runs reasonably well for an alpha version, which Lead Designer Arthur “Medierra” Bruno described as meaning he “can often play for 30 minutes or more without any problems,” and it’s nearly feature-complete, although multiplayer still needs a lot of work.
On the downside, the game world is still in very preliminary shape, with only about two to four hours of finished gameplay on the table, and while the game economy is functioning, with all common items in the game at normal difficulty, almost no unique items have been added. With current resources, an alpha test release is probably six to eight months away.
“The time between alpha and beta will depend on whether we want to shoot for a real content-complete beta or more of a Minecraft or Path of Exile style beta where the game is more complete than alpha but still in development,” Bruno wrote. “I’m thinking we’re probably going to want to go with the work-in-progress style beta. I think we would still want to aim to have a more significant level of content built out though and this could take some time. With our current resources, it might 4-6 months from the start of alpha but we won’t know until we see how alpha goes.”
More information about Grim Dawn, including Bruno’s full and far more detailed “State of the Game Address,” can be found at grimdawn.com.
