Grim Dawn - Interview @ PCGMedia

PCGMedia interviews Lead Designer Arthur Bruno to talk about Grim Dawn.

What made you decide to create an old-school style action RPG?

What we really wanted to do was capture some of the sense of magic that exploration of both world and gameplay systems had in older games like Goldbox AD&D games produced by SSI. In terms of the combat and other elements, we’re trying to be contemporary or even innovative. Even as we’re working on Act II content, which we hope to release in the next couple months, we’re also always going back and trying to add to and improve what we’ve done. There is still a lot of lore and unique side content we want to add and players can expect to see more of that as we progress. In fact, our next build will add two new sidequests and two lore sources to the first act that can be found through exploring the world.

Grim Dawn is an action RPG that takes the genre back to its roots. Do you think its closeness with more nostalgic mechanics can hinder its potential for innovation?

Not necessarily, I think it is just important to carefully consider changes and innovation and be sure that they align with the vision for the game. I think the biggest danger when trying to innovate is changing things just for the sake for change. I think the best thing is for ideas to evolve organically through the process of development as opposed to just deciding you’re going to come up with a new way of doing something for the sake of it.

Grim Dawn is the “spiritual successor” to Titan Quest. How do you think the action RPG genre has evolved since Titan Quest? Do you like what it has become?

It’s funny, when TQ came out, it was really kind of  a low point for the genre. There weren’t a lot of good ARPGs coming out and, probably for that reason, there didn’t seem to be as much interest in the genre as there is now. It is great to see that the genre has undergone somewhat of a revival. There is certainly a lot more choice now in terms of high-quality ARPGs to play and I think that benefits everyone. The only negative I’ve seen is that in some cases, it feels like interesting, complex mechanics and player choice (with the potential to make mistakes) has been done away with, in favor of simple systems that are more accessible to casual players. There are other games though that learn toward the hardcore end of the spectrum, so it seems like everyone is being served.