Okay, so it’s not “the date”, but it’s one of them! Namely, the date we’ll open up for pre-orders!

Ready? Ok, here it is:

Wednesday, April 16th

And there you have it! This Wednesday, on April 16th, we’ll open up for pre-orders! More specifically, we’ll open them up sometime in the Swedish afternoon of April 16th, which means in the morning for Americans, and night for Aussies.

In preparation for that, we’ll share some specific information regarding the pre-orders.

First, let’s talk about updates! We’ve decided to split the beta into two branches: Stable and Frontline. You’ll automatically have access to both with your Steam key.

The Stable Beta will be updated episodically. Updates can take everything between 1-3 months. The Stable Beta is for people who want an absolute minimum of bugs. It’s mostly recommended for streamers and YouTubers, or if you don’t really care about update frequency.

The Frontline Beta is, essentially, a beta of the beta. This will be updated whenever we damn well please, which probably means around every 1-2 weeks, like the Steam beta up until this point. People who play this version will help us out a lot by testing and giving feedback on new features and balance.

When enough content and features have been amassed in the Frontline version, we will feature freeze and bug fix for a week or so, and then do a new Stable build. So, in short, if stability is more important to you than update frequency and helping us with bugs and feedback, keep it at Stable.

Second, we’d like to remind everyone that this is in fact only a beta, and that you should think twice before purchasing. If you want to support us, then it’s an easy choice, but if you only want to pre-order to play the game, please be aware of the state of the game: it’s not finished!

And finally, we’ve gotten a lot of requests regarding the purchase tiers! We’ll have something for poor students and rich philanthropists both. Below is a full list of all the tiers we’ll have available:

$15 – Slime Tier
* Full game on release (Steam key + DRM-free version).
* Instant beta access (Steam key + DRM-free version).
Also available as 4-pack for $45.

$20 – Rabby Tier
* Full game on release (Steam key + DRM-free version).
* Instant beta access (Steam key + DRM-free version).
* Unique hat only available through pre-orders (Picture | GIF).
Also available as 4-pack for $60.

$30 – Jumpkin Tier
* Full game on release (Steam key + DRM-free version).
* Instant beta access (Steam key + DRM-free version).
* Unique hat only available through pre-orders (Picture | GIF).
* Full Soundtrack by Andrew Riley of Lucky Lion Studios on release.

$50 – Snowbacca Tier
* Full game on release (Steam key + DRM-free version).
* Instant beta access (Steam key + DRM-free version).
* Unique hat only available through pre-orders (Picture | GIF).
* Full Soundtrack by Andrew Riley of Lucky Lion Studios on release.
* Digital Production Booklet (.pdf) with behind the scenes design decisions, step-by-step art, early concepts and much more! Available on release.

$100 – Bottomless Bag Tier
* Full Snowbacca Tier.
* Design an equipable item (not visible) that can be found in the game!

$200 – Carpenter Tier
* Full Snowbacca Tier.
* Design a furniture item for the housing part of the game!

$300 – Fabulous Hatter Tier
* Full Snowbacca Tier.
* Design a hat or facegear that can be equipped in the game!

$500 – Master Sculptor Tier
* Full Snowbacca Tier.
* A statue in the game will be made to your likeness (or the likeness of whoever you chose)!

$750 – Legendary Blacksmith Tier
* Full Snowbacca Tier.
* Design a weapon that can be equipped in the game!

$1000 – Collector Tier
* Full Snowbacca Tier.
* Become or design an NPC found in the game!

$2000 – Master Collector Tier
* Full Snowbacca Tier.
* Become or design an NPC found in the game!
* Design a sidequest for the game!

That’s all for now! See you on Wednesday~

This week we have so many announcements to make that there’s not even room for game progress to be shown! So let’s dive right into it.

First off, after over two years of development we’ve finally opened up an official forum. Yes, it’s true! We’re using the XenForo forum software, and so far everything is working really well!

The forum is all-compassing and have sections for both general discussion and feedback from all our followers, beta testers or not! Get over there, register and hang out!

Even more exciting – and who thought something could be more exciting than a forum – is that our plans for Early Access have finally taken enough form to be shared!

We’ll be taking pre-orders through the Humble Widget, which means everyone who pre-orders the game will get both a DRM-free copy and a Steam key.

There won’t be a separate beta tier. Instead we include instant beta access in the base price of $15 (about €11/£9). In traditional crowd funding fashion, we’ll also have several reward tiers if anyone feels more money needs to be thrown around!

No, you’re not dreaming. We have a hat as a reward!

Our hopes with this funding drive is to get enough income to replace our student loans, letting us entirely focus on the game 100 % without having to (barely) pass courses! There’s also been a huge community demand to open up the gates to the beta. There are over 3500 posts in the beta application thread, and it’s still growing faster than we require new testers!

Now, people will be able to try out a demo to get a feel if this is a game for them, and then decide whether they want to support the development to get beta access or not!

The exact date for the opening of this pre-order is not set in stone, but it will happen in the next 2-3 weeks!

And so the last piece of news is that we’ll invite 40 new testers later this week! There are some adjustments to the story mode we want some fresh insights on before the Early Access goes live.

The testers will be, like always, selected at random form the IndieDB thread. You’ll receive a message asking if you’re still interested in beta access, and if you are, we’ll send you a Steam beta key!

Hopefully, you’re as excited about all this as we are!

PS: Check out the forum!

Although we have gotten some work done this week, there won’t be a regular recap! Instead, we’ll just leave five beta keys lying around!

US680-8BL1X-J9SUF-CU0QH-INFD3
H4MS0-Q173B-F8HRD-FQ5GE-9BDY1
V1OKC-W9NAM-VE26C-47BCE-8LU74
P6H5H-FU063-7C66G-SUC4X-OS2PO
WUJYZ-ZT7YY-UAHPQ-R388Y-J8X6V

If you have a Desura account, you can redeem a key here~

Even though this handout is kind of random, we’d love it if you still treated it as a regular beta invite (that means giving us some feedback)!

Within 24 hours of redeeming the key, you’ll receive a message on Desura with some information about the beta, as well as an invite to a hidden forum on IndieDB where you can give us feedback or bug reports :)

Best of luck, and Happy Holidays!

Starting tomorrow (Thursday), and for four days straight, Secrets of Grindea will be shown on Gamex, a Swedish video game trade fair taking place in Kista, Stockholm!

The game will be running all days, in the HGO Game monter (E34).

On Thursday, Teddy will be there, and on Saturday both Teddy and Fred will man the booth (when they’re not shredding GuitarSmith or blowing up scrubs in Mario Kart). On Friday and Sunday, our good pals from the school will keep an eye on things!

If you’re in town and going to Gamex, don’t hesitate to stop by and try it out!

More information on Gamex can be found here

It’s been a long time coming, but the beta is finally in sight!

The post below should straighten some things out regarding the scope and how it’s all going to work!

What the beta is

It’s a way for you to help us make a better game, by finding bugs, annoyances, and sharing your thoughts on what can be improved upon (and the things we’ve got right).

What the beta isn’t

The Minecraft Alpha, where you could already do a ton of stuff, and where its open ended nature meant that the alpha version was pretty much a complete game in a sense. So, if what you’re yearning for is the final product, a beta might not be for you!

How long is the beta?

For the average player, a playthrough where you disregard everything but the main quest would probably take about 30 minutes.

If you complete the side quests, around 60 minutes.

Getting 100 % completion (side quests, rare drops, cards, crafting, fishing, challenges, etc) would likely take a few hours.

The game isn’t very long yet, as we’re still in a phase where we add new features, and we want to be somewhat done with the basic framework before going into full content crunch.

How many people will be invited?

In two weeks, we’ll invite 5-6 people, mainly to test out the system. A week after that we’ll send out more invites. How many sort of depends on the amount of interest shown, but a majority will probably get in. Since we want new ”first impressions” between each major update, we want to keep a portion of potential beta users on standby.

After the beta has begun, older applications will be picked first, so if you post before the start of the beta, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get access within the first few updates.

Do I need Desura?

Yes, you’ll need Desura. For those not sure what it is, it’s basically like Steam (but more lightweight). We use this platform because it makes it very easy for us to gather the community and manage invites etc, as well as providing some convenient features like auto updating.

Enough with the info! Where do I sign up?

We’ve created a forum over at IndieDB with a registration thread! Log in with your Desura/IndieDB account and post whatever. If you’re someone we might know from the blog/Facebook/Reddit etc, feel free to mention that in the post! You absolutely don’t need to write a pitch or anything – apart from some veterans the picks will be random.

When you get invited to the beta, you’ll also be invited to a top secret forum where you can discuss the game with us and other users!

You might’ve seen us mention the Swedish Game Awards quite a few times already, and here’s the closing chapter of that story:

We won Game of the Year!

The trophy above, which to the uninitiated looks like an ice cube with limes, is actually a hand made glass decoration inspired by the Swedish Game Awards-logo. It weighs enough to kill a bear with, which is great since bears drop high quality fur you can use to craft sweet hats!

While many of you loyal fans believed we’d enjoy an easy win and a free meal, we can assure you it wasn’t a dominating victory by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the more games we tested on the show floor, the less certain we felt of victory — after all, the only way we could win was that nobody else would, and that seemed downright unlikely. Now don’t get us wrong here, we have the utmost faith in Grindea and certainly feel it deserved to win, but so did all the other games!

You guys already know pretty much all there is to know about Grindea, so here are a few shoutouts to some games we adored:

Build & Break won Gamer’s Choice, which in our eyes might as well be a second ‘Game of the Year’. It’s sort of a multiplayer, 3D Angry Birds where players build their own forts and try to demolish the other player. It’s great fun, looks awesome and plays very well. Since it’s made in Unity3D, it could end up on pretty much every platform if the developers decide to continue development (which you should!!)

Forlorn is an amazing iPhone game that not only conquered Best Mobile, but also became nominated for Game of the Year! Its core mechanic is an Ikaruga/Outland-inspired elemental switch, with which you change your element in order to pass obstacles (become fire to resist fire) or kill certain enemies (burning enemies can only be harmed by ice). When this bad boy becomes a fully fledged game it’s going to be one of the highest quality mobile games out there.

Runners Grinders is a cool Android game designed to trick your mind into exercising by turning jogging into an exploration Action/RPG! Pretty genius idea if you ask us, and since it won the Serious Game-award, the judges seemingly agreed :)

A Story About My Uncle was our showfloor neighbor and they were nominated to Game of the Year as well. It’s a gorgeous 3D skill jump platformer, where you’re equipped with a special suit that lets you traverse large gaps by pulling its wearer towards objects. Due to a prize deficit rather than a lack of quality, it didn’t win an official reward, but it certainly deserves an honorable mention.

Honestly, all nominees were amazing, so do check them out!

All in all, the Swedish Game Awards show was great fun, had lovely games (arguably best lineup in an SGA yet) and was an amazing experience. Apart from the prize, we also got a lot of great feedback from people playing it on the floor. The whole event has left us greatly revitalized and optimistic! A huge thanks to everyone who attended the event, and a super special hug to the organizers for the truckloads of blood, sweat and tears that went into making SGA the awesome thing it is.

Long live the pixels!

Secrets of Grindea has survived its first appearance at an exhibition!

GGC ended yesterday, and the response was indeed amazing. Since it was the first time we let people other than our close friends try the game out for real, we did not know what to expect – but we were positively surprised.

We would like to thank everyone who played, your excitement is truly a huge inspiration :D

Thank You!
Tack så mycket!

Hello and welcome! This is Secrets of Grindea’s brand new devblog. Here the progress we make will be recorded as the game makes its way to release. As you may have seen or read already, Secrets of Grindea is a 4 player co-op RPG in pixel graphics meant as a tribute (and perhaps parody) of the old SNES games, but with modern features (see the main page for more information).

After this update we’ll try to make a new post every Friday with a list of what we have made and how things are progressing in general with the game. We’ll also include a forecast of what’s next to be done! If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below or contact us through one of the communitites: Facebook, Twitter or Google+ :)

(Also, in case you didn’t see it already, we recorded a video of the co-op in our latest area here.)

Next Time: Graphically creating the next area, making a recoloring shader, the first boss?!