Before anyone jumps on me for saying it, don't worry, I'm totally aware that the community can make dungeons of their own for players to use.

What I'm feeling however is that this game would benefit so much from some form of randomisation, what currently comes to mind is something similar to the old Diablo games, where areas with the amazing 'unique' items would be added in as standard, but the surrounding dungeon and little bits of loot would be mixed up.

How about you duders, do you think that the game has covered itself enough with opening up for community content? Or are you hoping for continued dev support to implement this kind of feature?

I would have liked it if the game was a bit random, yes. Actually, I thought it was at first, until I watched a Let's Play and saw it was exactly the same. I just hope that community content is varied and interesting enough to keep people entertained.

About how long is it? I've been sort of itching to buy it but haven't, yet.

@RockmanBionics: I finished it with 9:22 played and only 53/71 secrets found.

As for having randomized levels, I just don't think it would work well. It could work for like just straight up action dungeon-crawling, but the puzzles requires very specific finesse. Making sure the right items are available, not allowing for easy work-arounds and just the general map outlay. Sure it could work if you just clunked in the same puzzles like big set pieces, but after beating them once doing it again isn't that great.

Having that said though I agree that I want more content, it just needs to be costum-made. And considering the already great price-deal I got with the original game, I could definitely see myself buying DLC.

The thing is, it's going for a very specific feel, namely as a throwback to Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder. Without handcrafted puzzles or encounters, it starts falling apart very quickly. That's exactly what Dungeon Hack was, and that game is kind of bad. I feel like throwing in random loot would undermine the kind of tone and pacing that they're going for.

Interesting to hear that the game is quite good & still looking forward to getting this over the next big steam sale. Too bad that they didn't follow with what worked well in Dungeons of Dredmor where the corridors & room locations were randomized along with the entrances/exits to the rooms but overall the maps were always different enough to keep it challenging on not knowing what you'll run into until you open the door.

This game interests me, though I have little experience with dungeon crawlers.

@fox01313: They are completely different styles of game though. Dredmor is a rogue-like where the entire point of the game is to relish in the randomness and whatever crazy things that leads to. Grimrock is all about intricate puzzles and secrets.

@Ares42: 9 hours sounds like an ok lenght for a game these days, I'll probably check it out and hope that new dungeons will eventually pop up.

@RockmanBionics: Well, considering it's a $15 game I'd say it's pretty good :P

The puzzles are what make this game really shine and I don't know how you would do it otherwise. It seems the randomness comes in a bit with the the enemy's AI. The combat, while often a whole lot of fun tends to come down to getting an enemy in a 2x2 room and keeping them running in circles.

I'd love it if the released expansion packs for this game. I'm only playing it an hour or two at a time but it's very good and going by very fast.

Asking for more randomness in Grimrock makes about as much sense as wanting Call of Duty to have turn-based combat; we're talking two different kinds of gameplay experiences here. Diablo-style randomness only works in "roguelikes", i.e. games based almost entirely around combat with no puzzles at all or at the most some very basic ones (such as having a bunch of keys as random drops etc.). By contrast, Grimrock is structured around increasingly complex puzzles which are hardwired into the hand-crafted dungeon design itself. There's no way you can replicate that level of detail in the puzzles using randomized variables.

@Egge said:

Asking for more randomness in Grimrock makes about as much sense as wanting Call of Duty to have turn-based combat; we're talking two different kinds of gameplay experiences here. Diablo-style randomness only works in "roguelikes", i.e. games based almost entirely around combat with no puzzles at all or at the most some very basic ones (such as having a bunch of keys as random drops etc.). By contrast, Grimrock is structured around increasingly complex puzzles which are hardwired into the hand-crafted dungeon design itself. There's no way you can replicate that level of detail in the puzzles using randomized variables.

A turn based Call of Duty would be awesome....but nevermind.

I accept that it is a different kind of gameplay, totally valid. However, alongside the main story I would just love a big 'random dungeon' button, meaning you could have your well thought out and crafted experience or simply throw yourself into the complete unknown.

When the engine for this game looks so good and runs perfectly, its hard not to want it to be expanded upon.