HardcoreGamer tells us why they think Legend of Grimrock 2 is an incredibly underrated title.

Just a little over a year ago, Almost Human Games released Legend of Grimrock 2,  a follow up to 2011’s Legend of Grimrock. In a sense riding that first wave of gaming nostalgia that produced so many throw-back platformers and roguelikes, Legend of Grimrock 2 and its predecessor instead attempted to re-create the look, feel, and playstyle of early RPGs like The Bard’s Tale, Wizardry or Dungeon Master, albeit with more contemporary graphics and a few concessions to more recent mechanics.

Legend of Grimrock 2 is a dungeon crawler in which the player controls a party of four characters, either pre-rolled or crafted by the player, and of course a big part of the fun is taking the time to build the ultimate, flexible party that can handle any situation. The tutorial introduces the basic and not especially compelling story set up:  you are washed up on a beach and must explore, eventually finding and defeating the elusive Island Master who has both trapped and guided you. The opening few hours introduce the player to the game’s basic movement controls and combat, previewing the kinds of environmental puzzles and secrets that will form the core of the game. Like the first Grimrock, Grimrock 2 uses a square-based system of movement, instead of a true free-roam mechanic. It takes some getting used to.

As in RPGs both old-school and recent, there are special armors, items and weapons to find, crafting and secret areas to discover. There are many enemies — humans and magical creatures and monstrosities — and it’s easy to wander into an area that is far too difficult. Those early RPGs were difficult and opaque, and while we’ve had several generations of games since, Grimrock 2 reminds us of the pre-Bethesda days when role-playing games were truly for the hardcore enthusiast. Character creation is deep and satisfying and so is combat when it’s dialed in and the party is functioning well, but going into enemy encounters without a strategy usually ends in disaster and a party wipe.

Graphically, Grimrock 2 is a huge step forward from the humble (i.e. ugly) looking Grimrock. It’s still a low-budget enterprise, so you shouldn’t expect anything approaching Skyrim or Witcher 3 level visuals. There are some very nice lighting effects and the dungeons are appropriately creepy and forbidding.

More information.

A 15+ hour mod for Legend of Grimrock 2, named Isle of the Deranged can now be donloaded for free.

Isle of the Deranged developed by Slayer 68 has been in development for an impressive 5 months, and in that time he has really pushed forward a feature filled experience for the avid dungeon crawler gamer. From a non-linear approach to dungeon crawling, open-world exploration to engaging memoirs of a fallen participants this is a mod to impress. What's more you'll come across new creatures such as the slime, new tile sets/assets from Skuggasveinn, new armour and 21 stages of dungeons to look forward to. Certainly worthy of a play through!

Thanks Lostforever.

Almost Human announced that Legend of Grimrock 2 is now available for Mac OS X,and  included a new video in the press release I received today. Here is the information.

Legend of Grimrock 2 OS X Version Released

ESPOO, FINLAND - MARCH 18, 2015. Indie game developer Almost Human Ltd. is proud to announce that their critically acclaimed dungeon crawling role playing game Legend of Grimrock 2 is now available for Mac OS X. "Our fans have been eagerly waiting to play Legend of Grimrock 2 on their Macs, and to meet the fans' expectations and our high standard of quality, we have been hard at work to craft a native OS X version of the game" says Antti Tiihonen, a co-founder of Almost Human. In addition to bringing the game to a new platform, the Windows version is updated to expand and improve the powerful modding capabilities and enhance the performance of the game. To celebrate these important milestones, the Legend of Grimrock games are now available for a special 40% discount for the remainder of the week on the developer's website at www.grimrock.net as well as on Steam, GOG.com and Humble Store.

Destructoid Contributor Patrick Hancock posted a new review of Legend of Grimrock 2, and gave the game a score of 9.5/10. He also called the game a perfect sequel.

Legend of Grimrock 2 will consume your mind in many ways. The puzzles will slowly tear away at your brain until they are solved, and the amount of focus needed for just about every combat encounter is through the roof. Grimrock 2 can forever be referenced as a "perfect sequel." It doesn't go nuts adding idea after idea to make things more convoluted, but instead refines what already made the experience amazing while expanding those ideas noticeably enough.

RPG Codex has posted their review of Legend of Grimrock 2:

When the first Legend of Grimrock came out, it took me by surprise. I'm pretty sure the first I'd heard of it was on the Codex, a reliable go-to source for games that tend to slip the mind of the mainstream press. It was a pleasant surprise, precisely because it ticked for me all of the boxes that had not been ticked in a long time: A slow-paced, puzzle-based, RPG trek through a dangerous dungeon, with a good dose of combat, a fairly interactive environment, an interesting story, and an unapologetic learning curve.

The Legend of Grimrock II, then, is a continuation on these elements, and in almost all cases the sequel improves upon the original. There are some hiccups here and there, but for the most part Almost Human is well on their way towards building a strong, enduring franchise, but also a rock-solid approach to game design in general.

And in conclusion:

When you put it all together, you get a hell of game. Challenging combat, an interesting skills mechanic, great visuals, terrific music, intelligent level design, and an overall feel for developing a living, breathing, dangerous world, puts Legend of Grimrock II quite high on my list of favorite RPGs. I will have to play it a few more times to be sure where I rank it, but it is probably in my top five of the last 15 years. Which means I will have to move Dragon Age II off of my list.

Steven Carter of GameBanshee posted his three page review of Legend of Grimrock 2. For those short on time I will quote the articles conclusion below.

Overall, I enjoyed Legend of Grimrock II pretty well.  It's a satisfying game with an equal balance between thoughtful puzzles and frantic combat.  It's also well-constructed with a fine attention to detail, and it looks like a real game now rather than just an indie production.  Plus, it's challenging, even on the normal difficulty setting.  So if you're looking for a way to spend some of your free time, and if puzzles are a plus rather than a negative, then Grimrock II is a good way to go.

Almost Human announces that a new patch is ready for Legend of Grimrock 2.

Grimrock 2 Update 2.1.17

The second patch for Legend of Grimrock 2 is now out! The patch will update the game to version 2.1.17 and fixes several issues and also extends modding capabilities.

Steam version: the game should automatically update soon. If the game does not update in a few hours, restarting the Steam client should help.

Standalone version: if you are playing the standalone version, please download the patch that updates the game installed on your computer.

GOG version: The patch also works with GOG installations but there is a slight kink. When a dialog appears saying that an existing installation can not be found and the patcher asks “Abort Installation?”, select No. You have to then navigate to the installation location of your GOG version of Legend of Grimrock 2.

We have sent the patched version to GOG and Humble Store and it will take some for them to process and make the new version available through their channels.

Here are the full release notes:

– tweaked a treasure instruction hint
– improved sewer pentomino puzzle reset logic
– fixed some cosmetic issues in levels
– mods: improved support for custom classes, races, skills and spells
– mods: added lots of new scripting functions and hooks
– bug fix: burnt out torch deal fire damage
– bug fix: ghost item appears on the ground when spawning an item into champion’s inventory
– bug fix: game can crash while digging in cemetery
– bug fix: saving the game while falling crashes
– bug fix: magma golem’s spit attack crashes after loading a save game
– bug fix: block puzzle in sleet island can get into unsolvable state
– bug fix: minor ceiling shaft visual glitch in Ruins of Desarune
– bug fix: fixed typos in item descriptions
– bug fix: an item on a magic bridge sometimes does not fall when the bridge disappears
– bug fix: healing crystals slowly drift from their initial position during the course of the adventure
– bug fix: dungeon editor crashes when ‘[‘ is typed into asset browser’s find box
– bug fix: dungeon exporting fails if dungeon contains script entities with external scripts
– bug fix: audio volume is not correct when changing current level immediately after waking up

Hooked Gamers has the next review that I could find for Legend of Grimrock 2. The site awarded the game with 9.2/10, and it's safe to say they enjoyed the game.

Legend of Grimrock II is better than the original in every regard: more freedom, better character progression, better enemies, better puzzles and better environmental variety. Those who liked the first one will definitely love the sequel!

Cheatmasters posted a new review for Legend of Grimrock 2 that gave the game a final socore 7.5/10. Here is the short conclusion of the review for the TLDR crowd.

It’s a lot like its predecessor, but it also improves upon some things as well. For instance, it looks really good and plays quite smoothly as well. If you’re into dungeon crawlers and most computer role-playing games for the most part, then you may want to check this game out.

Brandin Tyrrel of Gamespot played Legend of Grimrock 2, and wrote a new review where he gave the game a final score of 9/10. Here is the conclusion to the review.

Legend of Grimrock II is similar to one of its many well-designed riddles: While solving it may be a long, arduous process, approaching each obstacle with newfound understanding and hearing the victorious click of gears finally turning gives you a feeling of profound pride and accomplishment. Legend of Grimrock II is another glorious glimpse of the past, a window to a genre dead and buried and brought back to life with care and respect, and I urge you to peek through it.

Hardcore Games Al Jackson notified me of another review on his site for Legend of Grimrock 2, and the game was given a final score of 92/100.

Here is a small sample why.

Packed with puzzles and secrets and sporting a smart and enjoyable combat system, this is more than just a worthy sequel to the first Legend of Grimrock. It’s a beautiful game that measures up to its spiritual predecessor, Dungeon Master, and a master class in how to make RPGs.

Almost Human announces that a new patch is ready for Legend of Grimrock 2.

We have just released a patch that updates Legend of Grimrock 2 to version 2.1.13. The patch fixes multiple issues, including some crash bugs, so it’s recommended that everybody updates to the latest version.

Steam version: the game should automatically update soon. If the game does not update in a few hours, restarting the Steam client should help.

Standalone version: if you are playing the standalone version, please download the patch that updates the game installed on your computer.

GOG version: The patch also works with GOG installations but there is a slight kink. When a dialog appears saying that an existing installation can not be found and the patcher asks “Abort Installation?”, select No. You have to then navigate to the installation location of your GOG version of Legend of Grimrock 2.

We have sent the patched version to GOG and Humble Store and it will take some for them to process and make the new version available through their channels.

Eric from leviathyn is back with ten tips once agin this time for Legend of Grimrock 2.

Like the first Legend of Grimrock, the sequel is filled with brutally difficult puzzles, harrowing monster battles and cruel traps. It’s also incredibly fun.

While individual puzzles and walkthroughs can be combed through via wikis, forums and guides, these tips are more generalized and spoiler-free. Knowing is more than half the battle in Legend of Grimrock 2, and even veterans of the first game will find lots of useful new information and tactics to utilize while adventure on the island of Nex.

I have a few more reviews to share for Legend of Grimrock 2 that I found today.

Leviathyn - 9/10

 As a fan of the original game the sequel was on my radar but Grimrock 2 quickly became one of my favorite games of the year. If you’ve ever been a fan of classic first-person puzzle-RPGs you owe it to yourself to play this game. For fans of of the first game, Legend of Grimrock 2 is everything you could’ve wanted.

Softpedia - 5/5

Legend of Grimrock 2 is a great improvement over the original, a fantastic journey with a distinct old-school vibe, with a lot of heart and with a glossy modern veneer. Even if you haven’t played the first one, it’s a proper standalone, self-contained experience.

IGN - 8.6/10

The Legend of Grimrock 2 marks a significant improvement over its predecessor, which was already a formidable RPG in its own right. Its stylings and conventions might spring from a simpler time, but its presentation and the panache with which Almost Human delivers it as allows it to stand toe-to-toe with some of its big-budget contemporary cousins.

Here is the next round of reviews for Legend of Grimrock 2 this week.

Ill Gaming - 8.5/10

Legend of Grimrock 2 achieves what it was supposed to be: A great old school dungeon crawler. Compiling great ambiance, smart level design, well polished interface, improved skills system and rewarding exploration while you slowly unravel the islands mysteries.

Gamefront - 80/100

Gameplay itself largely consists of the same puzzle and combat focus, but with the added bonus of exploration. Legend of Grimrock 2 is no open-world game, but the overworld is accessible enough that you encounter obstacles and monsters before your party is actually ready to surpass them. While you might unlock a few of these puzzles by chance, more often than not you’ll need to backtrack and find the right clue or key to proceed. It lends the game a kind of Metroidvania-In-Myst kind of feel, and encourages you to explore areas you might otherwise have avoided.

Gameskinny - No Score

Overall, LoG2 brings nothing new to the table. Whether or not that’s a bad thing depends on you. What it does bring is an old school RPG with all the elements a fan would want, which is sure to please retro-RPG enthusiasts. Others, like myself, might be disappointed that such a passionate and talented approach to development didn’t really deliver to a wider audience. LoG2 is nothing if not by the fans, for the fans.

Gamer Headlines - 8/10

At its best, Legend of Grimrock 2 feels a lot like Myst (except with the added bonus of getting to shoot magic missiles at armoured skeletons), you’ll even have to whip out the old pen and paper from time to time. The game is tough, and you will have to be very careful with your equipment, items, and character abilities in order to survive the world, and when you’re successful at it, it feels great. Where it suffers is that in exploring a three-dimensional world you are stuck in a two-dimensional paradigm which does not allow you to interact with the ceiling or floors of the game’s beautifully crafted world, and that the learning curve for even the most seasoned dungeon explorer is quite high, as I was having difficulty in combat even while playing the game on the easy difficulty setting. That being said, if you’re into old school dungeon crawlers or like the challenge of complex puzzles and riddles, this is the game for you.

Alright lets get started with a huge update for Legend of Grimrock 2. As most of you  know the game in available on GOG, Steam, other online retailers.

Legend of Grimrock 2 is a dungeon crawling role playing game with a modern execution but an oldschool heart. A group of four prisoners have shipwrecked on the secluded Isle of Nex. The island is filled with ancient crumbled ruins, mysterious shrines and a vast underground network of dungeons and mines. If the prisoners wish to make it out alive, they have to overcome the challenges devised by the ominous mastermind of the island.

Not that that's out the way here are a few reviews for the game this week.

Pixelrelated - 9.5/10

It’s abundantly clear that Legend of Grimrock 2 had a lot of work put in to making it more than just a pallet swapped version of the original Grimrock. While the combat remains the same, adding an open world to it creates a feeling of immersion in the world that the original was sorely lacking.

Saving Content - 5/5

Legend of Grimrock 2 is not perfect, but the immersion and wonder that can be found on the Isle of Nex is incredible. From the moment you step foot on the beach, you are left to your devices. And this is where Legend of Grimrock 2 really excels, being a game about exploration and discovery at your own pace without being too punitive with the puzzles and combat that you have to endure. With elements of survival, makes this an absolute gem for 2014, and a surprise for anyone who doesn’t have this game on their radar.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - No Score Given

Everything in this sequel is bigger, more elaborate, more detailed, and absolutely better. Which, after such a lovely first game, is quite the thing. You will be able to sink days and days into this, and still come away with secrets undiscovered, doors unopened. And I think a real respect for a game that is not only itself phenomenally smart, but one that thinks you are too. It’s a joy, so splendidly crafted, so stuffed with original ideas and surprises. This isn’t nostalgia any more – it’s a massive step forward.

RPG Fan - 95/100

The original Grimrock had a child with Myst and it was kidnapped by Dark Souls II in its infancy and raised to adulthood in the graveyard of forgotten CRPGs. That's Grimrock II. And yet it has its own puzzling, riddling dungeon crawling magic. It's an intricate puzzle box hiding needles beneath its surface. It's a frightening force of nature, a storm of darkness and the things that crawl in it. It's a sphinx with starry eyes. The Legend of Grimrock II is a work of genius.

I'm sure more will be available and I'll be sure to post another roundup.

Almost Human's next blog post for Legend of Grimrock 2 shares information on all the races, and classes you can choose to play in the game.

Only two days left before Legend of Grimrock 2 lauches, so we figured it would be a great time to reveal the various character creation options now, so that you can start planning for your ultimate adventuring party.

The first thing to choose is your race. The races are:

Human: Humans are very adaptable and can excel in all professions. Humans gain experience points 10% faster.

Minotaur: Minotaurs are bulky, simple and quick to anger. Their incredible stubborness is tolerated by others only because of their incredible prowess in combat. Minotaurs have the following modifiers to attributes: Strength +5, Dexterity -4, Vitality +4, Willpower -3. Minotaurs are always hungry and their food consumption rate is 25% higher than normal.

Lizardman: Lizardmen are a social outcast and are mistrusted by other races because of their capricious and deceitful nature. What they lack in social skills they greatly make up for in stealth and dexterity. Lizardmen have Dexterity +2 and Willpower -2. In addition their thick scales protect them from the elements (Resist All +25%).

Insectoid: Insectoid’s thoughts are completely alien to other races. Insectoids come in many shapes and sizes but most often their bodies are covered with a thick shell. Their knowledge of the arcane is unrivaled. Insectoids have Strength +1, Dexterity -2, Vitality -1 and Willpower +2. In addition their hard shell protects them from being wounded (-50% chance of getting a body part injured).

Ratling: Ratlings may seem weak and disease ridden on the surface, but they are actually one of the most adaptable and hardy creatures in the world. Ratlings are hoarders by nature (Max Load +15kg) and greatly enjoy fiddling with mechanical contraptions. Ratlings have Strength -4, Dexterity +2 and Evasion +2. Ratlings are immune to effects of diseases.

Each race has special traits that can be chosen in character creation. For example, some Lizardmen have Fast Metabolism which makes them regenerate health and energy 30% faster while some Lizardmen have even thicker scales which makes them very protected against elemental damage (additional +25% bonus to resistances).

Classes in Grimrock 2 are more flexible than in Grimrock 1. The classes give the characters a starting point and nudge towards a path without forcing it upon them. Every class can advance in the 16 available skills as they like. For example, nothing is stopping your Fighter to learn some magic as long as you advance your Fighter in the spell casting skills.

Almost Human's next blog post for Legend of Grimrock 2 shares information they need help testing out the Compatibility of the game on various computer setups.

Do you want to help us test the compatibility of Grimrock 2 on your computer? Great! Here’s a Torrent link to the Grimrock2 Compatibility Test Installer (50 MB) that will fire up the Grimrock 2 engine and display a 3D scene while the new Grimrock 2 main menu music plays in the background. We don’t have the necessary bandwidth to distribute the installer on our servers, so that’s why we are using Torrent for distribution.

The executable will write a log file to Documents/Almost Human/Grimrock2 Compatibility Test/grimrock.log. In case of an error please email this file to feedback@almosthumangames.com so that we can have a deeper look at the issue. Before sending please make sure that your system meets the minimum system requirements .

Note: if you’re running on AMD Radeon and your screen is black but you can hear the music, please check that you do not have antialiasing forced on in your Catalyst driver settings. This is a known issue on some AMD graphics cards.

If you are so inclined you can also play around with the various graphics settings by editing the config file at Documents/Almost Human/Grimrock2 Compatibility Test/grimrock.cfg. You can delete the file in case you accidentally mess up the file and the test refuses to run.

Almost Human's latest blog post for Legend of Grimrock 2 shares information,, and a new video about how Mummies are animated in the game.

Hello folks! The first thing I want to say is, big thanks for the fantastic feedback on the Pre-Order Trailer! You guys truly deserve a full blown sequel and we are going to squeeze our best to deliver that for you on October 15th!

These are the final days before we freeze content creation for the game and focus entirely on bug fixing and other release related technicalities. In the mean while, we animators have finally decided to break the silence and expose some of the black magic we use in our animation for Legend of Grimrock 2. Well, to be honest, actually there is nothing too sophisticated, just bare to the bone simple and robust stuff. But in case you have been wondering what’s going on in the animation department of the mysterious and secluded Isle of Nex, this is your chance to sneak in. Please, let me show you around!

Seems the clock from yesterday is now over, and the good news is you can now pre-order Legend of Grimrock 2. They also announced the new release date.

Pre-ordering:

If you pre-order now, you get the game for a special -15% discount and both a Steam key and a standalone installer when the game is released on October 15th. Buying directly from us is the best way to support the developers!

You can also buy both Legend of Grimrock 1 and 2 for a special bundle price. Gain immediate access to Legend of Grimrock 1 and get the sequel on October 15th.

Key Features:

• Explore the wilderness and the dungeons of Isle of Nex: walk in ancient forests riddled with mysterious magical statues, fight the denizens of poison fuming swamps, dive in the Forgotten River in search of treasure, uncover secrets hidden deep below…
• More than 20 hours of pure blooded dungeon crawling gameplay with grid-based movement and thousands of squares filled with hidden switches, pressure plates, secret doors, riddles, deadly traps and more.
• Cast spells with runes, craft potions and bombs, fight murderous monsters with a large variety of melee-, ranged and thrown weapons, as well as firearms.
• Create a party of four characters and customize them with 7 character classes, 5 races, and numerous skills and traits. Collect experience to hone their skills and discover improved equipment and magical artefacts.
• 42 different kind of monsters including 30 new foes unique to Isle of Nex.
• Play custom adventures created by others or make your own with Dungeon Editor.
• More depth, variety and open ended exploration than in Legend of Grimrock 1. Enhanced AI, spell casting, puzzle mechanics and skill systems.

The Legend of Grimrock website has a countdown timer that looks like it should be over by tomorrow. I have no clue what it could be so take a guess everyone.

Maybe it has to do with the Beta I covered that was announced a few weeks back?

Almost Human has posted another update for Legend of Grimrock 2 that talks about the games art side, and includes a few new images to look at.

There is a saying that one shouldn’t judge book by its cover. But hey, let’s be honest, everyone checks the cover first . That means that whether it’s a book cover, a movie poster or game box art, the cover is really important piece of the first impression you get from a new product. Even though LoG2 probably won’t be published in physical form, it still needs “box art” that will be used everywhere from web page, digital marketplace and game reviews to desktop backgrounds. In game business box art is also sometimes called key art. That means that the one image should reflect pretty much the whole game, its mood, story, setting, characters and on top of it all it needs to look really good to stand out of thousands of other images. Not so easy huh? The key art was finished about a half a year ago, so it’s about time to let it see the day light.

Almost Human has another update this week for Legend of Grimrock 2 that talks about the Level Building Blocks used to develop the game.

Creating graphics for games can be quite technical at times. A game artist needs to keep in mind that there’s a finite amount of memory available for graphics in the game. In essense the less an individual art asset takes memory, the more of them you can have which results in visual diversity. Basically that means more varied wallsets, monsters, items etc.

Textures are real graphics memory hogs. That’s why in game art we use all kinds of tricks to keep texture count and sizes low. In this post I’m going to be talking about a method of using the same pieces over and over again to create multiple different assets without any new textures. Sometimes this is called kitbashing.

Almost Human announces Legend of Grimrock 2 is officially in beta. Don't get your hopes up though as it's a closed beta, and they are not accepting applications at this time.

Here is a new teaser trailer to help us all cope in the meantime.

Big news indeed! Oh boy we’re super-excited to tell you that we are now officially in BETA! And it’s about time! We have been burning the midnight oil for so long that all our dreams are now filled with visions directly from the Isle of Nex. The game, a raw diamond which we have been carefully chiseling and polishing so long, is now finally coming together and it’s starting to feel really good. That doesn’t mean that the work ends here. Beta is actually a beginning, a beginning to make the game meet all your high expectations. It’s time to balance all the thousands of gameplay parameters and finetune the gui and optimize the game, and… You get the point! All the features we’ve planned are in and just waiting for some TLC.

But before you mail us offering to kindly join the beta-test team… It’s going to be a closed beta again, sorry. Closed beta worked really well with LoG1 and we’re looking to repeat the process. By giving beta access to a carefully selected group of people, we can personally interact with the testers much better and thus get better and more accurate feedback.

The game has been playable from the beginning to the end for some time now and now that we have had one complete playthrough and several cheated speed-throughs we have some idea about the length of the game. It’s looking like Grimrock 2 is going to be around 25% longer than Grimrock 1 but more testing by us and our betatesters is still needed to confirm this.

Like mentioned, all the features of the game are in, but there’s still much work to do. Our Venerable List of Things To Do is constantly getting added with new entries even as we are hammering on the things at the other end of the list. But we are fighting hard to empty the list before the launch. Btw. on top of the list we have things like memory and performance optimizations and tutorial. Below that lots and lots of smaller tweaks and fixes and then of course testing, testing and more testing…

The Legend of Grimrock 2 website has a new update from Almost Human about a new race in the game called the Ratlings. Here is a small sample of the update.

As some of you may know, we’re introducing a new playable race in Legend of Grimrock 2. There is no place in the Northern Realms without them scurrying around. They have spread all over the lands as they seem to wander around endlessly and seldom stay in one place for a long time. Those creepy rodents are sometimes hated and feared for their scruff looks and contagious diseases they bear. But hardly anyone denies the fact that they find their way around the realms and that they are known to be some of the most seasoned creatures there is.

When you pick a ratling in the game’s character generation section, you get to choose your looks from the portrait gallery, done by our friend Emile Denis. Read more about the creation of the new portraits in here. In game terms ratlings have Strength -4, Dexterity +2, Max Load +15kg and are immune to diseases. Ratlings also get a chance to pick a special racial Mutation trait which boosts one randomly chosen ability score by 1 at level up.

The Legend of Grimrock 2 website has a new update about music production.

We are getting nearer to the finish line and one of the remaining things on our todo list for Grimrock 2 is music production. Like in Grimrock 1, in-game audio will only consists of ambient sounds and sound effects. This is a deliberate design choice and we think it really helps immerse you as the player to the world we have created. In Grimrock 1 we only had the Grimrock theme playing in the main menu, but this time we also have intro and outro cinematic videos and for those we need a cinematic score.

Enter Scoring Helsinki. Scoring Helsinki is a group of four music industry professionals with a studio conveniently located in Helsinki just a fifteen minute ride from our office. The guys approached us a few months ago and simply blew us away with their demo tracks. It did not take long for them to convince that they were the perfect guys for this job. Simply put, Perttu, Hannu and Henri of Scoring Helsinki are super-talented and the most hardworking guys we have had the pleasure working with. We can really recommend these guys, should you need Hollywood grade music for a movie, or soundtrack for a game, these guys can do it.

The Legend of Grimrock 2 website has an update with information from Almost Human that development will be slowing down due to summer vacation.

According to Rock, Paper, Shotgun Almost Human has issued a new statement that Legend of Grimrock 2 will not be released on Steam Early Access.

“We are kind of old-fashioned and want to release the game in a polished condition, so Steam Early Access is not planned. We are going to have preorders though.”

Good news to me but what about the rest of you?

Legend of Grimrock 2 has gone into alpha yesterday, and at such an event it is important to emphasize what alpha actually means to the devs.

We sneakily went past a very important milestone just a while ago. Legend of Grimrock 2 is now in alpha! The definition of milestones of course varies from one company to the next but I think our alpha is, relatively speaking, a “strong alpha” (since we don’t have any publishers or investors who we have to deliver to to get money for progressing in development, we can use terms that are actually useful and descriptive ). Alpha in our case means that the game can be completely played from beginning to the very end and that all the planned features exist. The last missing piece from the alpha we had was the ending of the game but now that we got that done, the deal is sealed. Of course at alpha, there are still features and content that lack polish and refinement, and balance and progression of the game is not complete, but in a sense the game is now “whole”! To celebrate the milestone, we have a new screenshot for you… The herders are back!

Almost Human has posted a new update for Legend of Grimrock 2 that talks about automaping, skill systems, and other miscellaneous topics.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode in the acclaimed “Hey, Look at What We’ve Been Up to Lately” -series! It’s been a while since we’ve had one of these posts so there’s been a lot of stuff that we haven’t covered. So sit on tight because there’s gonna be a lot of text!

Alright, let’s jump right into the deep end and start with the skill system! I’m not going to go into too much detail here since it’s still a little work-in-progress and the details can change once we clock in some more testing hours with it, but finally we seem to be reaching an equilibrium where we feel comfortable with how the skills and character traits work. Now we have a system that’s easy to approach but which still offers plenty of depth, tactics and replayability for all players and which should be more extendable and flexible for modders (and us too). It’s so nice when everybody wins! 

Character creation screen also got a much needed makeover, partly due to the ripple effects from the improved skill system, and it’s looking very slick now. Even though a lot of players will only see the screen just once (or not at all if they opt in to go with the default party), it’s still super important since it’s a major part of the first impressions that the game will give.

We’ve also redone the automap. The automap in Grimrock 1 was pretty good but since the sequel features outside areas and a less linear level structure (levels are side-by-side as well as on top of each others), the old way didn’t really work anymore. Now we have a smoothly scrolling and zoomable map which handles the environments of the new game much more elegantly. It’s not 100% complete though since it’s missing the ability to write down notes, some of the icons are still placeholders and a few interface elements are missing but hey, we’re almost there!

One major milestone that we’re also rapidly approaching right this moment is getting the end combat done. We have a very interesting prototype brewing and if it proves to be working the end fight is gonna be one hell of a ride! As a matter of fact, the end fight is really the only major missing bit I can think of that we still need to make the game whole (which, mind you, is not the same thing as finished).

The latest update on the Legend of Grimrock 2 webpage we get a look behind the scenes at Almost Human, and get more information on a creature called a Zarchton.

It’s time to shed some light behind the dusty curtains that cover the massive art department of Almost Human and take a look at some behind the scenes action. A lot of new shady creatures have been creeping around the studio walls and this time we’ll try to catch one of them. Be very, very quiet, we’re hunting Zarchtons. Zarchtons are one of the first monsters you’ll come across in the beaches of the Island. At first you’ll hear their croaking calls and before you know what hit, you realize you’ve been ambushed.

Zarchtons are amphibious creatures that are as home on dry land as in water, but they never leave too far from water, because they are dependent of water and need to dampen their skin from time to time. That’s why Zarchtons are usually seen around water, but that doesn’t limit to natural water sources. Overflown dungeons are also perfect environment for them too…

In an update on Legend of Grimrock 2, the performance optimizations they have been working on for the last few weeks, are discussed. If you are not a programmer, nerd or a geek, you might not find this too interesting....

Some might think that optimizing is boring and tedious because the work is very time consuming and nothing seems to happen to the game on the surface. To help with this I’ve turned opimizing into a sort of game for myself. Whatever I’m optimizing I first come up with some metric, usually a number whose value I can track and try to make it as small as possible. I set up a challenge for myself to see how low I can push that number. Some things are easy to measure like memory consumption of the process with Windows Task Manager or the time needed to process a single frame. But to really dig deep into performance issues it’s necessary to breakdown the measurements into smaller bits to get a better idea what to optimize. Therefore I built a performance profiler directly into the game that I can summon with a press of a button.

The profiler shows milliseconds and percentage of frame time spent in each subsystem of the game and various other statistics. To run at 60 frames per second the computer can spent up to about 16 milliseconds to process each frame, including updating the game world and rendering the view. The profiler also shows amount of temporary memory allocations (Malloc column) during the frame — more about that later.

Almost Human has a new blog post for Legend of Grimrock 2 with some new screenshots, and a feature list.

Information about Grimrock 2 has been a little scarce lately so it’s about time we unravel some of the mysteries. Let’s get going!

The events of Legend of Grimrock 2 will happen on the Isle of Nex, a secluded island faraway from civilization. An island is a perfect place to setup an unforgettable dungeon crawling experience because we can mix indoor and outdoor locations seamlessly while still maintaining that atmosphere of mystery and danger, and the density of interesting things that is at the heart of Grimrock. If you think about it, the island is the perfect microcosm, where the party may explore dark woods, misty swamps, underground tunnels and ancient ruins without need to travel great distances. For us, an island is the perfect “dungeon” with a welcome variety of different types of environments.

At the start of the game, a party of four prisoners has ended up on the island against their will and start to explore the island. Pretty soon they will realize that they are not alone on the island and that the island is not an ordinary island at all… What are the mysterious towers on the island and who built them? Why is the island full of puzzles and traps? The story of Grimrock 2 will not be a direct continuum to Grimrock 1, but will be a completely new story with new characters that will expand the Grimrock universe.

A big part of Grimrock is, of course, the brain-teasing puzzles and for Grimrock 2 we have been busy developing new types of puzzle mechanics. Talking about puzzles is a tricky subject to discuss. We believe that the less you know about them in advance the better. So without ruining the surprises ahead, let’s just say that you’re not the only one stuck in the puzzles…

Almost Human has posted a new development update for Legend of Grimrock 2.

Hello everyone, it’s time for another status update! Features and content keeps on pouring on in the game at a steady pace and the point where the entire game would be playable from the beginning to the end is sooo close: there’s just two or three levels (that I actually started working on today) that need to be done to make the game “whole”. Of course, the game is not by any means finished at that point but reaching alpha is a mighty fine milestone nonetheless! Other gameplay things we have also tackled recently were prototyping some new spells and adding a completely new character class. We’ll keep the new class under covers for a while but once we get it to a more complete state, we’ll tell you more about it!

Almost Human talks about rivers, hangovers. and laplands in a developer update I missed last month for Legend of Grimrock 2.

’ll have to apologize that this post will lack the focus that the previous ones have had but there’s a very good reason for it: I also lack focus today! I lost the focus yesterday when I was out for a couple of beers with other Finnish indie game developers (and had a great time as usual) but despite that, my current state of being is actually good for writing. Usually when I’m a little hung over I have pretty good flow, in more ways than one, so we thought why not exploit my misery to type one of these “what we’ve been up to recently” -posts.

So now that we have that disclaimer out of the way, let’s start from the big picture: Legend of Grimrock 2 is starting to really shape up. I mean now it actually has a shape instead of being scattered all around in little bits and pieces that don’t connect with each others in any meaningful way. Our first levels are in alpha and we are closing in fast towards the state where we have more or less the whole package and can switch to “iterate and polish” -mode. But we’re not quite there yet: we still have time to experiment with new features!

One of those new features we tried out is rivers. Of course they are not only for looks so that you can go for a refreshing dip in them if you want to. A nice byproduct that we got from it is that now it’s possible to create terrain where there are bigger differences in elevation so now we can add small canyons or ditches into the wilderness or add “verticality” to some dungeon rooms as well.

Almost Human is back with another development update for Legend of Grimrock 2 explaining how the skill system works.

Goals of the new skill system

When we started throwing around ideas about the new skill system, a few things came up often in the discussions. Firstly, every character level gained should feel special. Essentially this means that every skillpoint spent should improve the character in some way. In contrast the skill system of Grimrock 1 was designed so that you get a benefit every time you crossed a threshold in a skill. If you spent points in multiple skills, or otherwise didn’t reach the threshold, the character did not really advance at that character level. Combined with the fact that skills were very deep (maxed out at level 50), this resulted in a situation where optimal strategy is to pump all skill points into very few skills. Especially with magic skills, this resulted in mages specializing in one or two schools of spells, which resulted in fewer spells to be available to mage. Fewer spells = less fun to the player. Also at higher levels, spending skillpoints became almost automatic and there was less decision making involved

Shorter skill trees

In LoG2 when you gain a level, you are rewarded with only one skillpoint. To counterbalance this the skill trees are much shorter. This way, every skillpoint spent matters now and there aren’t any intermediate skill levels. In fact, most skills are only 1-3 levels deep and there are many on/off kind of perks that you can buy. Some skills have other skills as prerequisites. For example, the Shield Expert skill requires that you have spent at least one point in Armors.

Technically speaking, the skills available to your character form “a forest of short skill trees”. Shorter skill trees mean that you can max out a skill with a few level ups (assuming that you meet the prerequisites), so this should encourage spreading points in multiple skills.

Almost Human is back with the second update to Meet the Team. This time we are introduced to Jyri (Jykä) Leppänen the animator of Legend of Grimrock 2.

Please introduce yourself!

Name is Jyri (Jykä) Leppänen and I’m the latest addition to this awesome humans crew and hoping to be equally awesome someday. My primary objectives are to make coff…to make these cool monsters animatable and then animate them to life, hopefully in a cool manner too. Ok, flattery behind, coffee is getting colder and thoughts are getting older.

How did you end up at Almost Human?

I was working very hard on updating my animation reel since the old one was heavily outdated. At the same time I searched for some open positions and work possibilities from anywhere and everywhere. Well, fortunately I sent my animation reel to Almost Human even there wasn’t any open positions mentioned at the site. Grimrock naturally appealed to my nerdiness and I decided to give it a try. For my great joy they called me to an interview and hired me. I can say that was quite a happy day.

What is your role at Almost Human?

My main tasks consider character rigging and animation with and under the guidance of Olli. He has the experience and knowledge what kind of animation style and rigging tricks work best in this kind of grid based game. Also the large variety of monster types makes things interesting because there actually isn’t any types. Every monster is it’s own case. This is all new ground for me. When the character starts to be playable, we usually think about some new ideas for it with Petri & Olli. Our coder Petri has better picture of how the character should work mechanically to be balanced difficultywise and so on. Usually this means new approach and new/additional animations for the character.

Almost Human has a new developer post talking about the new GUI for Legend of Grimrock 2.

Almost Human has a new development update for Legend of Grimrock 2 talking about the creation of the games puzzles.

Almost Human has a new post introducing us to one of the team members named Jyri Ullakko.

Almost Human has a new development post that introduces Emile Denis the maker of the games new portraits.

"Couple of months ago we posted to our blog that we were looking for an artist that could help us create brand new portraits for the LoG2. We received tons of applications, 234 to be precise, and I went through all of them. One artist stood out pretty early on. He had just the right style we were looking for and his communication was great and with reasonable rates, it wasn’t that difficult to select him to do the work. So, without further ado, let me introduce Emile Denis to everybody." -Juho

Several months ago, I heard about The Legend of Grimrock via some websites and several reports on tv. I was immediately intrigued by this game with an old-school and Modern side. After testing it with a friend, I really enjoyed it!

Then, last April, a friend who works in the the video game industry sent me a link saying “hey look!, I saw this and thought you would be interested in it!”: It was an advertisement from Almost Human who was Looking for a freelance portrait artist for the Legend of Grimrock 2!

I didn’t think twice and immediately sent an email with my portfolio, then, after a few days, Juho Salila give me the definitive answer: I am selected! It’s such a pleasure since I love everything related to portraits and characters! I was even happier when Juho gave me as a reference the Baldur’s Gate’s portraits (one of my favorites games)!

Almost Human has posted a new update for Legend of Grimrock 2 talking about weapons, and combat mechanics .

Back from the holidays and already busy at work, it is time for another development update! In this update I’ll talk about changes to the item system that ended up having a pretty big effect on the combat mechanics as well. Did I get your attention?

There's a new development update for Legend of Grimrock II. It includes a brief in-character snippet, a humorous screenshot, and an update on the team's latest progress.

Hello all! We have been pushing hard on the development of Legend of Grimrock 2 and now we are going to have a brief but sweet summer break. But before we go a recap of what has been happening is in order!

The focus of work recently has been on the building blocks of the game, the monsters, puzzles, and environment assets. After the holiday break we are going to start putting the pieces together and building the (final) game world. (I put “final” in parenthesis because I know we are going to polish and tweak the levels to the very last moment before the game ships.)

With the added musclepower of Jyri and Jyri, we have been able to push an impossibly large amount of 3D models, animations and textures out of the oven in a very short time. For example, we have 16 complete new monsters and more is coming. Combined with the monsters from Grimrock 1 we have something like 40 unique monsters, although many of the old monsters won’t make a come back in the new game. The monsters of Grimrock 2 are also much more complex, many with multiple types of special attacks and unique AI behavior.

On the wallset side, we have seven completely new environments, more than double what we had in Grimrock 1. The amount of model files, material definitions and scripts is getting really tough to handle!

On the tech side, we have implemented water rendering and integrated a video player. After carefully evaluating our options we chose to use an open source WebM/VP8 video format. Being open source means that mods can also contain cinematic videos without licensing limitations. This was very important to us. The cinematics can also be played whenever needed, no longer just at the start and end of the game.

Legend of Grimrock 2 has another development update posted. The posts topics talk about a new animator who has joined the team, new levels, items, and monsters.

Olli has been helping out Jykä to get up to speed and he’s also been active on the business side by filling blanks on obscure documents for our new accountant. Sometimes the business side of things feel like solving a cryptic Grimrock puzzle and Olli’s getting pretty good at it. Olli’s also found time to complete animations for the very first monster you’ll encounter in LoG2.

In another news, Jyri #1 has been working on new items graphics. We need at least a hundred new items for LoG2 so this will keep him and a few other people rather busy for some time! Jyri has also been modeling new environmental assets and a new puzzle object that Antti will be putting into good use.

Talking about Antti, he’s been working on the levels and we now have about 30% of the playable area in “pre-alpha state”, i.e. mapped out with puzzles and initial placement of monsters. I’ve also helped Antti by creating the first version of the very first introductory level.

Juho has been working on a new monster concept and has also been modeling assets for the first level. He’s also gotten his eyes shot with a laser and he had to take a few days off to recuperate. His new laser-cut eyes will hopefully make him even better as an artist (if that’s even possible!).

On the tech side the refactoring work for the component system is finally done. Some other notable changes are: a new quite deadly trap, and lifting off the restriction of levels having to be 32×32 squares in size. Levels can now be any size up to 64×64 and also non-square. Levels can now also be connected in north-south and east-west directions as well as vertically.

Almost Human has posted a new blog entry for of a new position on their team for a talented freelance artist to create new awesome character portraits for the upcoming Legend of Grimrock 2.

Almost Human has a new update for Legend of Grimrock 2. The update focuses on the state of the game, and its plans for the near future.

The codebase has been in quite a bad shape after working so furiously on the first game. So I’ve been doing a lot of code refactoring which is a bit unthankful work because I’m rewriting a lot code and on the surface nothing seem to be changing. But still it’s very important and will speed up development in the future tremendously. Almost everything is now component based (except for the Party class which is a bugger to refactor because it’s so tightly connected to many places). Also I have rewritten the save game system, so that it’s easier to add new components that store their state automatically in save games.

I’ve also worked on the AI and as a result some critters are now noticeably harder to deal with. A completely new AI behavior has also been added. You can tell the difference immediately when this new behavior is activated but I don’t want to spoil the fun by revealing all the secrets yet!

Here is a first screenshot for Legend of Grimrock 2.

Thanks Lurking Grue.