Torment: Tides Of Numenera

Well, the Kickbacks Kickstarter's gone live. You can find it here.

In case you're wondering what's going on here, Tormet: Tales Of Numenera's a spiritual sequel to Planescape: Torment being made by inXile, the group responsible for the very successful Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Project the remake of the Bard's Tale. There's a lot of really great talent involved with this project on top of that, and it's looking plenty exciting.

I'm super hyped about this, and it seems others are too. It's already over 10% funded. Check it out! The video's hilarious, and there are plenty of juicy plot details.

Edit: Oh, yeah. Check out some of the concept art. Possible companion character? Some place. Some dude(tte). Some state of mind. (Actually the morality rubrics they're using for the game. Five axes! Interesting...)

edited 6th Mar '13 6:35:08 AM by Nicknacks

4 hours since your post and it's hit 1/3 of the funding needed. Guess people really do want Planet Escape: Tournament 2.

Backed.

I looked at the news items, and Planescape: Torment sequel was mentioned as early as May 2011.

Hmm. I really gotta play through Planescape. I got stuck on the first room because fiddling with archaic system specs is far more taxing than going on an epic adventure.

Kickstarter goal reached.

Only 29 1/2 days to go.

Aaaand funded after six hours.

Planescape: Tworment is confirmed. All praise the glorious Fargo.

Damn it, I've been following this for ages and it launched in my sleep!

It hit one million faster than the Ouya. Amazing.

Yeah, I just looked at it this morning and I was very, very confused. Excited, but confused.

Stretch goals (which will hopefully be more attended to that The Longest Journey's)

Been chatting with Avellone.

• * *

Too bad there's STILL no stretch goals heh

edited 6th Mar '13 4:17:07 PM by JAF1970

Was he using *asterisks?*

Edit: That's a reference to his work on Planescape and Neverwinter Nights 2, not the asterisks that have suddenly appeared in the post above this one.

Stretch goals are going up today or early tomorrow. We've apparently already achieved one of them.

edited 6th Mar '13 4:18:35 PM by Nicknacks

Asterisks are a good way to notate dramatic effect, particularly in media that don't take well to italics (computer games and certain image boards...).

I'll admit that I only started seeing them that way after reading Dak'kon's dialogue in PS:T though. In *knowing* the teachings of Zerthinon...

I *know* what you mean, but I don't think you *get* what I'm saying.

I just like the idea that Avellone communicates with *audible* asterisks. No critique implied.

Edit: I just don't want this to turn into a conversation about asterisks and for someone to mistake someone else — probably me — as complaining about them.

edited 6th Mar '13 4:33:33 PM by Nicknacks

$1.4M now.

Oh, I'm sorry:

$1.4M *now*.

edited 6th Mar '13 6:46:36 PM by JAF1970

Wish Skullgirls got this kind of funding.

edited 6th Mar '13 7:10:07 PM by ShirowShirow

We're almost at the next stretch goal apparently. Awesome.

And they'll not be scaling them up because of the extra funding, which is awesome and super not-dickish of them.

Where are the stretch goals?

They're going up in the next day/day and a half. They're just trying to present a substantial list. They're not going to be presenting a list of moving goals though, is what I'm saying. We'll have already gained at least one of the rewards, and it'll be substantial.

I'm guessing they're in the awkward position of having to make sure that stretch goal looks like something they haven't budgeted for (and it's isn't something they've budgeted for, but it has to look that way) while also not being so substantial that it immediately satisfies.

$1.5 Million: Richer Story – Writer Mur Lafferty and Designer Tony Evans join the Writing Team, plus a Bonus Novella) Upon reaching $1.5M, we will expand the richness and reactivity of the story through adding two new writers to our team. We have designed the game’s storyline to be highly scalable and modular, and this allows us to bring in additional writing talent to enhance Torment’s story through deeper content and new areas and characters – both optional ones and on the critical path.

At $1.5 Million, two excellent writers, Tony Evans and Mur Lafferty will be contributing to the game. In case you aren’t yet familiar with their past work, here’s a little information on each:

Tony has been a game writer and designer since the late 1990s. He has worked on role-playing games for much of that time, for both Obsidian Entertainment and Bioware. Tony worked on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Mask of the Betrayer (he designed the Skein and wrote One of Many, among other things). Tony was also the lead designer on Storm of Zehir.

Mur is an author from Durham, NC. She’s written for several role-playing games including Vampire, Mage, Exalted, and World of Warcraft the RPG. She started podcasting in 2004 with her show Geek Fu Action Grip, and in 2005 began producing the award-winning podcast I Should Be Writing. She's published several audiobooks via podcast, and her debut novel, The Shambling Guide to New York City, is coming out in May. She was a 2012 nominee for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction or Fantasy.

Additionally, Torment (and Wasteland 2) writer Nathan Long will be writing a novella for Torment. Nathan’s novella will be included in the Novella Compilation, and all backers receiving that reward will automatically receive this fourth novella, too.

We haven’t talked much about Nathan in the past and it’s high time to correct that. Nathan has been a superstar on the Wasteland 2 team and we are honored to have him as part of our team. Nathan is a screen and prose writer, with two movies, one Saturday-morning adventure series, and a handful of live-action and animated TV episodes to his name, as well as eleven fantasy novels and several award-winning short stories. He hails from Pennsylvania, where he grew up, went to school, and played in various punk and rock-a-billy bands, before following his dreams to Hollywood - where he now writes full time - and still occasionally plays in bands. His latest novel is Swords of Waar, the sequel to 2012's Jane Carver of Waar, and he realized his life-long dream when he began working as a game writer for inXile Entertainment.

$2.0 Million: Monte Writes, Mark Composes, and Goo Oozes We will continue to increase Torment’s story depth and reactivity as Monte Cook also joins our writing team, contributing directly to in-game content. Monte is focused on Numenera, but we’ve been working directly with him already, seeking his guidance on how to best explore Numenera’s Ninth World. Later in the project, we will also be collaborating with Monte on the adaptation of Numenera’s tabletop rules to best suit a computer role-playing game. But at this Stretch Goal, Monte will become even more involved in Torment team and will add his writing talents as well. (Fortunately, Torment’s schedule allows for his creative work to begin later so that it won’t interfere with Numenera.)

At this Stretch Goal, Mark Morgan will write more music for Torment to complement the additional game areas and content we will be adding. Furthermore, he will incorporate a live orchestra into his work. Of course, all of this new music will be automatically including in the soundtrack (digital or CD) for backers who are receiving that reward. We will also provide the soundtrack reward in the lossless FLAC format for those who desire it.

Our initial plans for Torment included four possible companions for the player and at this Stretch Goal, we will be adding a fifth, which we’ve nicknamed “The Toy.” (That’s not its in-game name. ;) ) The Toy is a changing ball of goo: Is it a pet, an abandoned toy, a dangerous weapon? Whatever it is, it responds to the way you treat it by changing its appearance and abilities to reflect what it perceives as your desires. Its ultimate secrets are... well, you'll have to find out.

Nice. And the already achieved stretch goal allows for female protagonist in addition to male, with appropriate reactivity.

In before Grey Goo references.

I'm kind of shocked that there are so few party members. I guess that means that they'll be more developed, but I'm still surprised.

I guess there'll be more characters in the stretch goals though.

Edit: One of them must be played by Shirley Manson. That'd be a really clever in-joke, and she'd totally do it.

edited 6th Mar '13 9:16:58 PM by Nicknacks

I find it kinda worrisome that they are doing multiple projects at same time. Then again, that is normal practice I suppose, but still :P

Wasteland 2 is more or less finished. They're bug-fixing and polishing it now. That's why they've waited til now to announced this game - it was in planning way back in late 2011.