Former Titan Quest Devs Seek Support for New Game

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Former Titan Quest Devs Seek Support for New Game


Crate Entertainment has taken the wraps off of a new action-RPG for the PC called Grim Dawn and is asking for help from the community to get the game finished and launched.

Formed by two veterans of the defunct stay small [http://titanquestgame.com/] while taking advantage of digital distribution to keep the project viable.

The new studio's first game has now been revealed to the public: Grim Dawn, an action-RPG set on the dark world of Cairn, where the human race is on the verge of extinction, caught in a cataclysmic war between two other races who see humanity as nothing but a resource to be exploited or destroyed. But there's a bit of a twist to this project: In order to avoid surrendering control of the IP to a publisher, Crate is seeking financing directly from gamers in the form of very early preorders.

"The greatest impact of preordering now is that it will help save us, the developers, from having to give up the intellectual property rights to Grim Dawn in exchange for additional funding. This is not only important for us as a company but it has benefits for you, our audience, as well," the company said on the Grim Dawn [http://www.grimdawn.com/] website. "It means that Crate will be able to continue interacting openly with the community and freely sharing information. Post-release we will be able to decide when to work on updates for the community and what to include in them. Most importantly, you will be giving us control over the future of our creation; allowing Crate to produce expansions and sequels without having to pitch each new project to an IP-holder that could potentially decide to discontinue the Grim Dawn franchise."

Given the way Titan Quest worked out, it's not too surprising that Crate is a bit gun-shy about handing over control of its new IP to a separate publisher. On the other hand, asking gamers to assume a similar risk is a bit of a dicey proposition too. Three levels of preorders [http://www.grimdawn.com/contribute.php] are available, ranging from $20 to $50, but is it realistic to expect the community to respond to pleas for support when not even a single screenshot is currently available?



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Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Yeah, I like Titan Quest. But no so little about this. There is no game that I'll buy just on developer name alone.

Not even Valve.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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I've seen people seek to finance games like this before, I think a couple of MMORPGs tried it at differant times and it's never ended well.

Basically if you do it, and not enough people respond to get the funding, they will have spent your money and it will be gone (as opposed to getting preorder money back or transferred to another title at Gamestop when a title is cancelled). In the end, no matter how much you complain, chances are you won't be able to get it back. The amount being too small to make legal action viable, and even if it was they simply might not have the funds to refund all the money they received and you just can't get blood from a stone.

Interesting news, and I kind of liked "Titan Quest". I hope they can find a regular type of producers.

Also to be totally honest "Titan Quest" was pretty unique and atmospheric at the time. The title "Grim Dawn" and "The World of Cairn" just sound like a really generic attempt to appeal to a certain kind of fan. As does the insertsion of the buzz word "Dark Fantasy".
 

Jebusetti

New member
Jan 12, 2010
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I just put $20 down on this; its worth it to me. TQ and its expansion were truly awesome games that fell through the cracks for most people, and I would LOVE to see what these guys can put together. I understand that a lot of people would be dicey on this, given the fact that there are no screenshots etc out yet, but really, $20 is fuck all nowadays; I spend more than that every day on smokes and beer FFS! Give these guys a shot, lets see what they can do!
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Tis true...would have been nice for a Screenshot to be seen.

...but, if it can help get it released and it dosnt really hurt. if the community is there and wants to help, wheres the harm?
 

Calobi

New member
Dec 29, 2007
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I may do this. Even if this game is terrible, if this method of gaining funds prove to be viable perhaps other smaller companies will do it and (possible) help make games more geared toward what the players want, preventing major overhauls that remove interesting looking features for the sake of a funding company saying "Make it so". Seems worth a chance to me.
 

Nalgas D. Lemur

New member
Nov 20, 2009
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I saw this a few days ago on the TQ forums and have been considering it. Titan Quest (and Immortal Throne) was pretty fun and probably my favorite hack-and-slash/loot whoring game, and at least one of these two guys stayed active in the fan community/forums for a while (which is still fairly active itself these days, with mods and fan-maintained patches to fix bugs in the original game all still being worked on).
 

Aloran

New member
Oct 9, 2008
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Tom Goldman said:
I would love to help these guys, but I'm no Richie Rich.
You mean...The Escapists people aren't rolling around in money every day?

Well twist my nipple nuts.

OT: I would love to, but living off christmas money and allowance at the moment. No dice.
 

Christemo

New member
Jan 13, 2009
3,665
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this better work out. if Grim Dawn sucks, its gonna ruin the reputation of the best RPG of the decade (screw Dragon Age, i loved Titan Quest WAYYYY more).
 

Andy_Panthro

Man of Science
May 3, 2009
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I might help out... if there's enough concept stuff on the website to indicate that they have a decent idea, and if I think it might actually work.
 

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Aloran said:
Tom Goldman said:
I would love to help these guys, but I'm no Richie Rich.
You mean...The Escapists people aren't rolling around in money every day?
I guess I just feel like the project isn't at a stage that I would spend money on it yet. I did like Titan Quest, though it got old by the time I was in the desert.
 

Void(null)

New member
Dec 10, 2008
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I posted info on this 2 days ago... Sadly no one gave a shit. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.169398]

Ive been over at the Grim Forums ever since, the Devs are amazingly neat chaps and are taking in a lot of community input.
 

Asehujiko

New member
Feb 25, 2008
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So they are saying "we bankrupted ourselves with DRM and we have a rough idea for a new game and one low res piece of concept art and we want your money or we are never going to release it"?
 

DRADIS C0ntact

New member
Mar 26, 2009
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If I had an extra 20-50 to spare I would definitely give it to them. Titan Quest was an amazing game and I wish to see the former developers maintain control of their new IP. Unfortunately I just don't have enough money to spare at the moment what with Mass Effect 2, Aliens vs Predator, and Final Fantasy XIII all coming out at roughly the same time. But whenever I get some extra dough I will pre-order this. I don't need to see a screenshot. It's a Diablo-type RPG, which I love. And these guys have made the best Diablo clone to date IMO.
 

f0re1gn

DON'T PANIC
Jan 21, 2009
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In words this looks very promising. And I'd surely contribute if I had the ability. And money.
 

Jandau

Smug Platypus
Dec 19, 2008
5,034
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Titan Quest was a mediocre Diablo knockoff at best, so I'm not too excited to thear that the devs of that game have a new action RPG project going...