Greetings Gravebound
Another dev blog! As promised (admittedly one week late) Welcome to our first developer Q and A! I managed to grab Andreas one of our leads at Gripjaw to answer some great questions we got across our socials.
Q: What is your take on the dynamic social aspect of this here social multiplayer game? Any mechanics to promote replay ability, rivalry and emergent gameplay through social interaction? A: We always aim to create gameplay that feels fresh, memorable, and naturally social, with plenty of room for re-playability. Proximity chat plays a big part in that. Hearing a friend shout for help in the next room only for their voice to suddenly cut out creates great tension. Were they taken by a monster, or did another graverobber turn on them? While we don’t currently have betrayal mechanics in place, it’s something we’re actively exploring, because we love the idea of players questioning who or what they can trust. We’re also looking at ways for players to earn experience based on how well they perform each run. Another system we’ve been experimenting with is ghost communication. If you die, you can still hear the living, but they can’t hear you. Instead, ghosts have to guide and communicate by flickering lights, lighting old chandeliers, or carrying objects with their ghostly arms. It’s a fun layer of chaos and cooperation we’re excited to refine.
Q: What’s the funniest bug you’ve encountered during development? A: One of the funniest bugs happened during a late-night playtest with Robin (Grimmcore). A monster surprised us around a corner, so we bolted, but it didn’t chase us. My curiosity got the better of me, so I went back to investigate. There it was, floating in the air, endlessly jumping in place as if it was desperately trying to hop up a wall. I was laughing so hard I cried, even though it was also a bit tragic since I had no idea what was causing it. Thankfully, that one has been fixed.
Q: Can I wear cool hats? A: Yes, absolutely. You can wear cool hats, outfits, and masks! We have more on the way, and we’d love to add rare cosmetics that players can collect to make their wardrobe feel truly special.
Q: Why did you decide to make a game like Lethal Company?
A: Honestly, because we had an amazing time playing Lethal Company when it released. Ever since then, the idea of “Lethal Company, but fully medieval” stuck with me. In fact, the original working title was Medieval Company. Very on the nose, I know. To be clear though, it's not just Lethal Company reskinned as a medieval game, but we are obviously inspired by that game, among others!
Q: Is there lore in the game? What is the story?
A: Yes, there’s quite a bit of lore. We actually keep a dedicated lore document to track everything. Players can find books in the game that reveal more details as they explore, and we’d love to add even more lore fragments hidden throughout dungeons. I’m not the best at explaining lore out loud, but we put a lot of care into giving context to every character and location.
The core setup is simple: you play as a graverobber working for the Shopkeeper, who runs a seemingly innocent storefront called Trinkets & Baubles. By day, it’s a charming jewelry shop; by night, it caters to those willing to break the law, explore dangerous dungeons, and scavenge the dead. As for where all that beautiful jewelry comes from… well, players might uncover that themselves.
The land, Goria, isn’t an easy place to make an honest living. Graverobbing is risky work, but for many, it’s the only way to earn enough gold to survive.
Q: What do the tiny ghost creatures do?
A: They follow you around to light your path and keep you company. They used to help players locate nearby treasure, but we had to remove that feature for now because getting the Lulus to navigate the dungeons reliably was proving trickier than expected.
Q: Is it hard working on two games at once?
A: No! It’s definitely challenging, but we’ve found a good rhythm. During the day, working on Valheim we keep things organized and professional, and at night we let our Begraved creativity run wild. Sometimes it gets a little chaotic, but we’re having a lot of fun with it.
Q: What is Mr Gibb’s favorite song? A: He does say “Dii di, did Di duh” and “ghihi, dudududu”... I am afraid I do not understand what he's trying to tell me, but a wild guess from me would be.. could it possibly be sometimes his version of Darude by Sandstorm we be hearing?
Q: Will this game have content locked behind DLC? I know if there would be DLC it wouldn't be soon at all?
A: It’s a great question, and while I can’t give a final answer yet, we’ll continue to be open about our thoughts as development goes on. A lot depends on how Begraved performs at release. If there’s a dedicated player base enjoying the game, we’d love to keep adding content. Ideally, we’d follow a model similar to Terraria and release updates for free whenever possible. If we ever reached a point where a very large post-1.0 update required funding to keep the game and studio sustainable, we would consider our options carefully. One thing we can say for sure is that no DLC will be sold before version 1.0. Everyone supporting us during Early Access will receive everything we create on the journey from EA through the full release.
Q: What are the minimum system requirements goals of the game?
A: While I can’t provide definitive minimum system requirements at this stage, our goal is to ensure the game runs as smoothly as possible across a wide range of devices. Because we’re using Unreal Engine and lots of lights at times, optimizing performance for lower-end systems will be challenging. That said, I am a strong advocate for high frame rates, and I prioritize smooth gameplay over visual fidelity locked at an unsatisfying 30 FPS.
Whenever we encounter frame drops, I actively investigate their cause, as delivering a fluid experience is extremely important to me. That being said, we still have a significant amount of content to develop, so I can’t dedicate all of my time exclusively to optimization. Still, we consistently monitor performance and continue looking for improvements throughout development.
Q: Will there be achievements?
A: We'd love to add achievements for the 1.0 release of Begraved!
Q: Will there be more monsters added later on after the release?
A: Each dungeon area will have different types of enemies to spice up the gameplay. We have a vague idea of what type of monsters we will have in each area already, but throughout development we will continue to iterate and listen to players thoughts and suggestions, especially when it comes to monster types! If we'd feel there's a monster missing in any area after release, I don't see why we wouldn't investigate and figure something out!
Thanks to Andreas for sharing so much and thank you all who asked some great questions! We did want to show and talk more in a dev vlog this week but decided to leave it to cook a little longer as we will have even better clips and stuff to show, so make sure you're subscribed to our Youtube page, but for now a little tease to finish with...
As always, thank you for the support, Until next time, Laters Groobers,
Jade - CM