Torment: Tides of Numenera

[Great Rumbler]

It's hard to say, given that this Kickstarter probably reached peak awareness during the first day. Previous major Kickstarters [like Wasteland 2, Double Fine Adventure, and Project: Eternity] came earlier in the Kickstarter boom, and in some ways helped to get it started, so awareness didn't necessarily peak as early in their life. Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if this hit $4 million before the end, but $5 million is probably a stretch.

[Himu]

Good god this is my most anticipated game now. When can we expect it?

[mjemirzian]

100% friendly fire damage, remember?

No.

You hatin?

[Great Rumbler]

100% friendly fire damage, remember?

No.

You hatin?

Yeah, I am. Dragon Age II is a terrible game, in just about every way possible.

[Himu]

Torment: N sounds like it has the most progressive alignment system I've ever heard.

God really want this.

[mjemirzian]

Yeah, I am. Dragon Age II is a terrible game, in just about every way possible.

I thought the combat was better than DA: Origins. More balanced, more challenging, more team synergy. The plot and characters are pretty awful though. What realtime w/ pause team games did you like?

[Steve Contra]

Going to be 2 million in 2 days

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, I am. Dragon Age II is a terrible game, in just about every way possible.

I thought the combat was better than DA: Origins. More balanced, more challenging, more team synergy.

The combat in DA2 didn't interest me in the slightest. Making it faster-paced and more-action oriented didn't make me like it more and having a terrible encounters system [such as having enemies pop up out of the ground in front of you AND behind you] made me actively dislike it.

What realtime w/ pause team games did you like?

Dragon Age 1?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Going to be 2 million in 2 days

At this rate, in 30 days we'll have (does quick math) $30 million dollars! Good jon everybody.

[Joe Molotov]

Going to be 2 million in 2 days

At this rate, in 30 days we'll have (does quick math) $30 million dollars! Good jon everybody.

Shenmue III kickstarter, here we come!

[Great Rumbler]

Two new areas get added at the $1.5 million and $2 million marks:

In strange and distant worlds, life flickers toward awareness even amid the most brutal landscapes. For instance: massive mountains of crystal heave from the land and pierce the sky under pale suns, their light refracting and bending around cunning spires never touched by human hands. The infants of this land are giants, vaguely humanoid crystalline monsters torn from the land itself and given shape and purpose by the elders, who share the light and heat from their ever-diminishing bodies, chipped and worn by age.

The erupting volcanoes and surging lava fill the air with acrid smoke and choking fumes. The bones of an enormous beast lie sprawled across the obsidian fields, its ribs splayed open as if it had been torn open by some unimaginable predator. The ossified bones have been hollowed out as homes by some intrepid or foolish citizens, and the wind howls through the openings in a mournful whistle like a giant flute. In the wastes beyond, creatures of flame and focused minds trawl the lava and skim its valuable nutrients.

And this stretch goal starts at $2.5 million and goes from there:

"Death is the end. That's what they say. But that's not entirely true, is it? When Death crashes over you like a looming wave, you don't die. Your body knits up fast and your eyes stare off. You move and twitch. So what is it you're seeing? Where do you go when you die?"

When you open your eyes, you're in a chamber with four... no, six... make it five walls. Call it five. It's almost definitely five walls. Each of them has a door of different material, each of them wavers before you, but they become more distinct the closer you approach. The chamber is dark and dripping, a faint tremor like a slow pulse shaking the floor on a long timeline. You put your hand to the door and it opens for you, and before you lies a crumbling stone walkway over fathomless mists. You can see no roof above you, nor stars nor moon. The mists curl and lap at your feet, broken occasionally by stray eddies of wind.

There is a feeling of recognition deep inside you. You know this place. And ahead, across the span, you see a familiar face.

"What are you doing here?" you ask

"You're dead," she says. "What I mean is that you're not dead. You're coming back to life. And now you've got fragments of us in your head. Every time you take our suffering, we get stronger. In here, I mean. But if you want to come back to the world, you need to find your way out of here."

They're also bringing in George Ziets [Creative Lead on Mask of the Betrayer] as a writer at the $2.5 million level.

[Cormacaroni]

these updates are gonna be painful for the next 2yrs

if they had a stretch goal for 'release summer 2013' i'd back again

and then not play it

[Great Rumbler]

Torment track, courtesy of Mark Morgan:

[Himu]

Going to be 2 million in 2 days

At this rate, in 30 days we'll have (does quick math) $30 million dollars! Good jon everybody.

NEW SHENMUE

[Great Rumbler]

[Cormacaroni]

[mjemirzian]

2 million

Some gamers are very hungry for old school wrpg/crpgs.

[pilonv1]

Get paid next week, will jump on the $45 level to get both awesome games

[Diunx]

can't believe this is happening!

[Great Rumbler]

Recent stuffs:

Colin describes the Meres, which are the devices by which you’ll inhabit the bodies of other castoffs. You’ll learn about these early in Torment and they will be one of the tools at your disposal to solve various situations – or simply to explore more of the world, your heritage, and the nature of the Tides. Many of the Meres will be optional (or even hidden), and they are one of several ways in which the story is modular and reactive – which Meres are available to you at different points in the game will depend in part upon your choices.

The Castoff’s Labyrinth is a strange realm, a dreamlike maze of jungles, stairways, tunnels, and ruined cities. It’s your mind, but you wouldn’t know it from all that’s in here (I mean, what the hell is that dead, tentacled thing the size of a mountain range?). When you die in the game, you could always just reload, or maybe find the easy way out of the maze and back to your body. But you’d be missing out – it’s our goal to make gameplay after death compelling enough that you won’t even think about reloading.

The Castoff’s Labyrinth is a bizarre and interesting gameplay area, one of haunting exploration and discovery. As it grows, its secrets become deeper and more complex. Its depths are called Fathoms, and each brings new secrets and -- for the determined -- new rewards. What types of secrets and rewards? One will be lost cyphers: Each time you die, a new cypher (a single-use numenera) appears in the Labyrinth that you can take back with you. As the Labyrinth gets bigger, more of these random cyphers will become available the deeper you go. More types of secrets are attached to upcoming Stretch Goals, some of which are described below.

For every 3000 Backers beyond 45,000 (roughly when the $2.5m Stretch Goal was reached), we will extend the Castoff’s Labyrinth by one Fathom. So at 48,000 Backers, we’ll be at Fathom 2, at 51,000 Fathom 3, etc. (As of this writing, we are well on the way to Fathom 2!) Each Fathom adds deeper playable content and reactivity, and more of the features reached through the Stretch Goals (e.g., like increased quantity and complexity of the Reflections discussed below).

We’ll soon have a graphical representation up to better show the Castoff's Labyrinth's twisted progression to deeper Fathoms. (Backers through both Kickstarter and PayPal will count toward determining the labyrinth's Fathoms.)

Over a decade ago, an enthusiastic writer and designer broke into the games industry through a job in QA at Interplay. One of the games he worked on as QA was Planescape: Torment. It didn’t take long for Brian Mitsoda to prove his creative capabilities and move into design, eventually leaving Interplay and Black Isle Studios and becoming a key writer for the acclaimed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. I met Brian in 2005, when he joined me as the creative lead for Dwarfs, a grim prequel to Snow White that I was the lead designer on at Obsidian. Brian has since founded his own company, DoubleBear Productions, whose game Dead State, met with great success on Kickstarter last year. Brian will contribute his creative talent to Torment, bringing him back full circle in terms of his career. And what could be more fitting for a game that explores one’s legacy? (Fortunately, the schedules for Torment and Dead State make this possible.)

At this Stretch Goal we will also add Reflections of Companions and NPCs to the Castoff’s Labyrinth. These Reflections have different dialog and information than their living counterparts, and you will learn secrets about them that would otherwise remain hidden. (But are these secrets really about them? Or are they about you?) The more Fathoms within the Labyrinth, the more Reflections there will be, and the deeper their dialogues become.

[Great Rumbler]

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ao3p4/we_are_monte_cook_brian_fargo_colin_mccomb_and/

[Great Rumbler]

More stretch goals:

[Great Rumbler]

[Himu]

So when are we having a planescape replay thread

[Great Rumbler]

So when are we having a planescape replay thread

http://www.thebore.com/forum/index.php?topic=39530.msg1647637#msg1647637

[Positive Touch]

i tried replaying it but its not that fun when you remember all the conversations

[Rufus]

You just gotta wait longer.

[Great Rumbler]

Today brought with it a mock-up background [2D prerendered]:



http://i.imgur.com/y6svx0S.jpg

[Himu]

2d pre rendered?! *dies*

[Great Rumbler]

Here's the full write-up that went along with that screenshot:

My name is Koy vanOteghem, Lead Environment Artist here at inXile. I would like to take this opportunity to discuss a few items as we release our first image for Torment that is pre-production and game art oriented (as opposed to concept art). Ordinarily, we would expect to R&D these types of early-prototype scenes during the standard preproduction phase of the project development cycle. And certainly during our actual preproduction, this pipeline will see many changes and iterations based on evolving needs. But technicalities aside, because of our growing comfort level with the Unity Engine, along with our growing connection to our community of backers and fans, we thought it might be fun and informative to give a sneak peek of some of the ideas we have bouncing around the Art Dept. What we are presenting here, for the sake of conversation, is an example of a 2D pre-rendered environment within The Bloom.

The Ninth World of Numenera has a rich tapestry of aesthetics. You can see this in the variety demonstrated in both our Torment concept art as well as the Numenera artwork. While we search out the look and feel for this evolving title, we find ourselves developing a much more organic approach to our asset production pipeline, both in process and in created content. Perhaps it was starting with the Bloom that helped steer us down this road, though we see how it will apply to more architectural environments as well. Our approach involves a heavier focus on sculpting and modeling, and a lesser focus on the engineering side of the art, which will suit our (relatively) small team structure well. We get back to working on the art, and think less of engine settings and geometry management.

Torment will certainly present some special challenges, but more so I think, unique opportunities to realize our vision in a new old way. We’re looking back to a 2D approach, with a fresh eye rooted in contemporary modeling, texturing, and engineering techniques. Much like Project Eternity, our goal is to craft an experience that diverges from the common path of world building. We hope to strike a distinct style while achieving levels of detail often difficult to present in 3D game space with a small team, through a process of pre-rendering major portions of in-game assets. As you have seen in the published concept pieces, geometry varies greatly from location to location. We look to incorporate the organic nature of many of those structures into our asset creation pipeline while avoiding the often processor taxing in-game meshes.

The big debate: playing games in 2D vs. 3D – I know many of you are interested about our decisions regarding the art direction. There has been much talk about the costs associated with "2D development," the quality and scope that can be produced by a small team, and the impact that this might have (for funding) of other departments. And trust you me, I understand from where these expectation emerge. But to be clear, what we are really talking about here is not a 2D game, but what you might call a 2.5D game, with just a portion of art production that is 2D in nature. Bear in mind, any extra time we spend noodling in 2D will be made up 10-fold when we get to our beta build and we are not ripping our eyes out trying to figure out how to get all that geometry to render efficiently on screen. Our early tests are showing very promising frame rates for our 2D assets, freeing up additional processing power for characters, FX, lighting, post-processes, etc.

After all, characters are not 2D, rather 3D seen through an isometric camera. And particles, well, they’ve actually always been 2D, but you know that. I’ll admit, lighting in 2.5D was a concern of mine early on, but after some initial experiments, I feel confident that 3D lighting can and will be used to considerable effect, grounding the characters in the scene through dynamic lighting and some shadow casting. These issues, among others, simply require a mind shift in the creation process, and it’s quite liberating.

In the end, it’s really not that great a departure from what we already know and produce. It’s just a different way of presenting to you the player, our "3D geometry," in an old awesome way. With our new pipeline strategy, we’ll be able to include detail, complexity, and styles that I would typically shy away from given our team size. It’s a win-win from where we are standing.

I would also like to extend a big thank you to two team members, Gavin Glenn-McDowell and James Morford, for their dedication to this KS campaign and eventual production of Torment. As part of an effort to develop a "rapid pipeline" proposal, they produced what would turn out to be a rather motivating gameplay space from The Bloom concept in a weekend charette. After an explanation of their strategy, the potential time savings and cost reductions, and the quality bar that could be reached, we launched into another round of afterhours development with the help of a couple more team members willing to dedicate some oh-so-precious personal time. Their efforts made this post possible.

Thank you for your backing and support. I am in awe.

[Great Rumbler]

Animated version of that screenshot:

[Great Rumbler]

New screenshot of new area:

[Himu]

Like like.

[Cormacaroni]

Chris Avellone now contributing! 'tis a beautiful thing

[Great Rumbler]

Chris Avellone now contributing! 'tis a beautiful thing

Yep, he's creating a companion character and doing writing supervision. This is basically the RPG Avengers.

[Rufus]

Dreams do come true. ;_;

Please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck.

[Positive Touch]

this is better than the nsfw thread

[Great Rumbler]

Dreams do come true. ;_;

Please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck.

They'd pretty much have to screw up mightily for this to end up sucking.

[Great Rumbler]

Fathoms from the Castoff's Labyrinth:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

 :ooh

[close]

[mjemirzian]

I like how the kickstarters I've backed have been keeping an open development process. Some of them have set up forums for feedback and sent out alpha test demos, like Cryamore. It's more interesting and involved than the usual closed doors stuff. They just have to be careful not to take fan feedback too far.

[Great Rumbler]

That's basically what every game should be doing, although I know that some of them aren't.

[Positive Touch]

pics

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

HOLY SHIT I CANT WAIT TO PLAY THAT

[Great Rumbler]

pics

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
(Image removed from quote.)
HOLY SHIT I CANT WAIT TO PLAY THAT

2015 :'(

[Positive Touch]

gives me more time to forget torment so i can do another playthru

[Great Rumbler]

Two more years.

[Himu]

pics

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
(Image removed from quote.)
HOLY SHIT I CANT WAIT TO PLAY THAT

STOLE MY POST

[Rufus]

Best not to think about it. Just hope you don't get hit by a bus til then.

[Great Rumbler]

Destructoid has the full track that goes along with that new screenshot:

http://www.destructoid.com/torment-tides-of-numenera-ost-sample-just-for-you-250844.phtml

[Diunx]

2015? fuuuuuuuuu

[Great Rumbler]

Passed $4 million on Kickstarter with a few hours to spare.

[Human Snorenado]

Passed $4 million on Kickstarter with a few hours to spare.

What all does that lock in? Is Bryan Fargo gonna hug each one of us separately?

[Great Rumbler]

Here's all the stretch goals:

[Human Snorenado]

Cool.  Incredibly stoked for this.  Plus, a player stronghold and other shit can be done as DLC later on anyway.

[Great Rumbler]

With Paypal, they're at a little over $4.15 million, so that last stretch goal is probably just out of reach.

[Great Rumbler]

Live streaming of the wrap party starts in about 20 minutes:

http://www.twitch.tv/inxile_entertainment

[Diunx]

Blowing out the KS money on booze coke and pussy

[Great Rumbler]

$4,188,358

[Phoenix Dark]

How do levels of KS work in terms of new people joining the team if the funding reaches x amount? Pat Rothfuss is a pretty big name for instance, but I'm guessing a lot of the story is already written. So if he joins, what exactly does he do?

[Great Rumbler]

How do levels of KS work in terms of new people joining the team if the funding reaches x amount? Pat Rothfuss is a pretty big name for instance, but I'm guessing a lot of the story is already written. So if he joins, what exactly does he do?

He's handling the writing in one location of the game [like character dialog and such] and will create one of the companion characters.

[Phoenix Dark]

Ah yea, that makes sense.