It's pretty difficult to take Blakemore seriously. Of course, it's a good thing he can see the humour in spending 17 years in doing a game, but at the same time the way he presents the project he manages to make it look less serious. And I agree, the numbers he's using do seem a tad questionable.

lol, I read this in a thread linked here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/why-did-sir-tech-go-bankrupt.53695/#post-1460723 No idea if there is any truth to it, but he sure is full of himself... his attitude is even more apparent in the thread over at rpgwatch. And who knows if the game will really be finished... not sure who would back this.

edit: to avoid posting again, I'll edit this stuff in here: read a bit more on Codex, and this guy is a caricature, nothing more. Not exactly trustworthy :-D

It's questionable to what degree Blakemore actually believes the Neandertal otherkin stuff and how much of that is just trolling RPG Codex, but there's no question about him being certifiably crazy otherwise. He's got a huge bomb shelter that he's spent countless hours on, he brags endlessly about how amazingly strong he is (lol), and he has a very long history of saying really inflammatory stuff to various people for seemingly no reason whatsoever. There's a reason his former co-workers put a parody of him into one of their games.

There's also some question about the degree of support he has from the Codex, and how much of it is just counter-counter-counter-trolling. I find it rather interesting that several folks have actually put more than $100 into the campaign but comparatively very few people have pledged at the lower tiers.

It's trollings within trollings!

While I wouldn't be surprised that Grimoire's advertised scope is exaggerated, I wouldn't mind a wacky kitchen sink fantasy game. I grew up playing the roguelike that had all sorts of [url=http://www.zangband.org/docs/charattr.txt]crazy races and classes (Beastman Chaos-Warrior were always interesting), so this kind of approach appeals to me. But the project direction...eh.

I guess, since Grimoire is on too much shaky ground, we have only one option: GOG must get the rights to Wizardry 6-8.

From reading his posts, I'm pretty sure he does suffer from some personality disorder. I've actually known some high-functioning autists who feel similarly frustrating to communicate with.

"600 hours of play possible in a single game"

I have been looking forward to this game for quite a few years now, but while the above statement is meant to interest people, it is actually a kind of turn-off for me, 'cause I do not think I will have 600 hours to play one game. Now, I still want to give it the benefit of a doubt and am curious about what will be the *realistic* quickest hours possible to finish it.

Well, Cleve is a bit of a strange character to say the least (seriously, read the "Why did Sir-Tech go bankrupt?" thread on RPGCodex, beware though you might start sinking into the horrible abyss of madness.

The guy he mentioned in the pitch video, Michael "Shams", who designed the engine for him, is backing the project as well and said he would answer questions on the indiegogo page, if anyone is interested. I've followed this game for a while now so I'm interested in this. Just so you guys know, the $250,000 (according to Cleve on the Codex) is what he has personally spent over the years making the game, the game according to Cleve is coming out in May regardless of whether it reaches the goal (it's flexible funding).

There's also a number of videos on youtube he put up reviewing Grimoire gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx9XO24DuuEjagFfU4tNnNtqjd3tQAdaz&feature=plcp

Looks Kool. I hope it gets funded.

Are Cleveland Blakemore and Derek Smart related???

I don't doubt it's a good game. I don't even doubt if he could release the game regardless, since apparently it's nearly done already. I'm just not sure how much one can trust that guy's word. I do hope the game makes it.

I'm not really convinced about the high-functioning part in this case. His output doesn't seem impressive... but I do agree that he likely has some mental problems.
Doesn't really matter, though, as I'm not interested in the game anyway. Let's see how the drama unfolds!

Jagged Alliance 2. (See the image attached in the first post)

http://jaggedalliance.wikia.com/wiki/Calvin_Barkmore :p

That thread is one the strangest things I've ever read. It just makes you wonder if there's any truth in it, or Cleve was just trolling.