Torment Kickstarter Concludes

The Kickstarter for Torment: Tides of Numenera has concluded, showing inXile entertainment has attracted almost $4.2 million in crowdsourced funding for the role-playing game. This is a record for the service, though Star Citizen surpassed $6 million in funding when PayPal donations are included. Word is that in addition to being wealthier, they are also humbled and excited:
We are both humbled and excited that you have given us this opportunity. The team we have assembled is pretty unbelievable and I have full faith that together we will create a true classic. I never stopped working to get Chris Avellone aboard to make sure we had the band back together. But it only got better when we brought on guys like Pat Rothfuss and Kevin Saunders to take the game to new heights. The trick is always to surround ones self with brilliant people and to create an environment in which creativity can flourish.
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41.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 7, 2013, 20:25
41.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 7, 2013, 20:25
Apr 7, 2013, 20:25
 
Oh I did that stupid thing again where I quote the spam. Thanks for fixing that Blue
Avatar 17249
40.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 7, 2013, 20:03
40.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 7, 2013, 20:03
Apr 7, 2013, 20:03
 
Dev wrote on Apr 7, 2013, 02:51:
Slashman wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 19:15:
I don't think you need billion dollar graphics and animation to convey things through animation and graphics. Bastion wasn't a million dollar game and I was very into it's story and world. It mostly had narrated dialogue and cleverly done world design.
Are you CERTAIN that bastian wasn't a $1 mil game? It wouldn't surprise me if it was about that much, remember it was published by WB. If you had said that it wasn't a $10 mil or $100 mil game, I would have agreed with you, and I agree with your other points.

Bastion was made by seven people total. I remember them saying that it exceeded their expectations on sales by a good bit. I think it was around 600K copies at the time. It cost 14.99 at release but I know there were a lot of sales on Steam for it too.
39.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 7, 2013, 10:23
39.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 7, 2013, 10:23
Apr 7, 2013, 10:23
 
georgiathompson wrote on Apr 7, 2013, 08:41:
Like the things here.

Sure, right away boss.

This comment was edited on Apr 7, 2013, 12:46.
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removed
Apr 7, 2013, 08:41
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removed Apr 7, 2013, 08:41
Apr 7, 2013, 08:41
 
* REMOVED *
This comment was deleted on Apr 7, 2013, 12:45.
37.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 7, 2013, 02:51
Dev
37.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 7, 2013, 02:51
Apr 7, 2013, 02:51
Dev
 
Slashman wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 19:15:
I don't think you need billion dollar graphics and animation to convey things through animation and graphics. Bastion wasn't a million dollar game and I was very into it's story and world. It mostly had narrated dialogue and cleverly done world design.
Are you CERTAIN that bastian wasn't a $1 mil game? It wouldn't surprise me if it was about that much, remember it was published by WB. If you had said that it wasn't a $10 mil or $100 mil game, I would have agreed with you, and I agree with your other points.
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Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 21:59
36.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 21:59
Apr 6, 2013, 21:59
 
Yup, and if the PayPal contributions push the total past $4.5 mil, we'd still get that stretch goal (player strongholds and extra depth/reactivity). The last day for that is April 30.
35.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 21:25
35.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 21:25
Apr 6, 2013, 21:25
 
They are still taking Paypal on their site. Grin
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” -- Carl Sagan
34.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 20:32
34.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 20:32
Apr 6, 2013, 20:32
 
I forgot about this one... Guess it's good it closed before I could throw some money at it.
Munching On: FF14 storyline, SAO PS4, Horizon.
33.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 19:41
33.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 19:41
Apr 6, 2013, 19:41
 
Slashman wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 19:15:
I don't think you need billion dollar graphics and animation to convey things through animation and graphics. Bastion wasn't a million dollar game and I was very into it's story and world. It mostly had narrated dialogue and cleverly done world design.

I'm not talking about making a Mass Effect-like experience either. That was more into the territory of an interactive movie.

I don't mind a lot of text to convey character depth in terms of feelings, thoughts and moral dilemmas. But I don't want that to be used to convey moments where the action of a character would be better shown via animation.

This is an isometric RPG so there's only so much that can be conveyed through animation. Also, animations take considerably longer to create than a line of text. As with any of the classic CRPGs or their P&P inspirations, you'll have to use your imagination for most of the visuals.
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32.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 19:15
32.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 19:15
Apr 6, 2013, 19:15
 
I don't think you need billion dollar graphics and animation to convey things through animation and graphics. Bastion wasn't a million dollar game and I was very into it's story and world. It mostly had narrated dialogue and cleverly done world design.

I'm not talking about making a Mass Effect-like experience either. That was more into the territory of an interactive movie.

I don't mind a lot of text to convey character depth in terms of feelings, thoughts and moral dilemmas. But I don't want that to be used to convey moments where the action of a character would be better shown via animation.
31.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 15:58
31.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 15:58
Apr 6, 2013, 15:58
 
I'm enjoying planescape torment (what little of it I manage to get through every couple years before losing interest) and am curious to see what they do here. It's a really flawed game though, and I get the criticism about too much text. I "play" japanese visual novel "games" that feel less wordy than PS:T. Part of that has to do with the presentation of the text. With very static backgrounds, no animations the npcs make, and big walls of text that just scroll in and you have to stare at it, it's a pretty boring method of delivery. I think the biggest problem with the game is they had this great world and story, and they kind of shoved it into the engine they had available. Neither the combat or storytelling really fit 100% into the engine. (Heck the combat could have just been left out) Here, they are actually building the engine to the game they are creating.
30.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 13:02
30.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 13:02
Apr 6, 2013, 13:02
 
All what Creston said, and, last I checked, books don't have visual representation of ANYTHING. So while PS:T did have a ton of reading where you were using your imagination (e.g. the dreamatorium), you still got to see the people, places, and things you were reading about as part of the main story, rendered in the visual style intended by the game artists. If anything, that game made me feel like I was playing a character, who himself was reading all this stuff. Like book-ception or some shit.

Bottom line, if you didn't like PlaneScape: Torment, for whatever reason, you WILL NOT like Tides of Numenera. Sorry.
29.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 12:21
29.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 12:21
Apr 6, 2013, 12:21
 
Slashman wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 08:36:
Playing a game should be a different experience than reading a book. The problem is that most developers cannot properly marry the two types of story telling and pick one over the other instead of achieving a decent synergy of both. There are situations and events in a game that may be better related through actions and animation than through reading words on a page.

You need to take into account that Torment is going on 14 years old. Portraying a deep story through graphics and animation simply wasn't possible back then. If you wanted to have deep characters, you had to describe everything they did in words, because on screen they were half an inch tall and looked like amorphous brown blobs. (or yellow blobs, if you had given them the yellow armor.)

I don't want to play a game that feels like a choose-your-own path novel. I want it to be a game. I want it to use the capabilities of my computer to let me feel like I'm living it while remaining a deep experience.

That's fine, but don't expect that out of a Kickstarter. What you describe costs a metric shitload of money. While it is certainly possible with the power of today's PCs, it also requires an incredible amount of work. I believe Bioware had somewhere between 30 to 50 animators working on the Mass Effect series (IIRC) for all the animation in their dialogues. And apparently the average salary for these guys is around 80 grand a year.

Also, writing words is cheap. A good writer can churn out around a few thousand words a day. While doing so for a game is probably impossible, since there are far more varieties in what you have to write compared to a novel, I'm sure that Avellone can still take an area and put a thousand words of dialogue and descriptions in there in a day. If said dialogue doesn't have to be voiced and animated, he's done. On to the next area. If it DOES have to be voiced and animated, it's probably going to be worked on for the next few months by the equivalent of a small development house.

This next Torment game is going to be a massive BOOK, and in very many ways a choose-your-own-path novel. It's not going to be what you are describing. If they wanted to do that, they'd have needed around 10 times what they hauled in.

Creston
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28.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 12:19
Dev
28.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 12:19
Apr 6, 2013, 12:19
Dev
 
El Pit wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 03:30:
Baldur's Gate 3 - The Kickstarter. $5,000,000 almost guaranteed.
And also very unlikely to happen. Interplay apparently sold the remake rights for a song to that one company thats trying to promote their beamdog digital distribution platform. From everything I saw, the enhanced edition mostly had work done on the UI to make it work on ipads.

But all the companies with the rights to the original game don't seem to be interested anymore in doing additional licenses. Such as WotC for one. EA for another.

So give up that hope, games like this on kickstarter that are spiritually similar are almost certainly the closest one will ever come.
27.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 10:10
27.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 10:10
Apr 6, 2013, 10:10
 
El Pit wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 03:30:
Okay, backed this although I could not get into Planescape Torment. Too much storytelling in words instead of letting the player actually play it. *sigh* But I though this needed to be backed, because I am hoping against hope that inXile might bribe their way into buying the Baldur's Gate rights. I know, I know... But it's just the hope, you know? Baldur's Gate 3 - The Kickstarter. $5,000,000 almost guaranteed.

"I'm going to buy a sequel to a game I didn't like on the hopes that the success of this sequel will inspire the devs to buy the rights to another franchise based on a licensed setting and ruleset" sounds really dumb.
26.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 08:36
26.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 08:36
Apr 6, 2013, 08:36
 
Yifes wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 08:20:
El Pit wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 07:26:
storytelling IN WORDS instead of letting the player experience it. Sometimes it felt like reading a book instead of playing a game.

You can express more with words than you can with just animation and dialogue. The depth of storytelling that I experienced in PS:T surpassed any other game that I've played. Reading is a part of the gameplay experience, and that's not a bad thing.

Funny thing, Chris Avellone agrees with you and thinks that it's one of the weaknesses of the game. Personally though, I think it's one of the best aspects of the game, and put it on a level above his later works like KOTOR2 and NWN2

Playing a game should be a different experience than reading a book. The problem is that most developers cannot properly marry the two types of story telling and pick one over the other instead of achieving a decent synergy of both.

There are situations and events in a game that may be better related through actions and animation than through reading words on a page. The opposite is also true. Much of the time, developers make the wrong choice regarding which is which. But doing it all one way (and neglecting other avenues) doesn't always equate to a better game.

I don't want to play a game that feels like a choose-your-own path novel. I want it to be a game. I want it to use the capabilities of my computer to let me feel like I'm living it while remaining a deep experience.
25.
 
Re: About original Torment
Apr 6, 2013, 08:25
25.
Re: About original Torment Apr 6, 2013, 08:25
Apr 6, 2013, 08:25
 
eRe4s3r wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 00:07:
You know what I just randomly noticed because I am replaying it (don't laugh..). Torment may have a great story, but can it be that they ran out of time? Some of the characters you meet are severely under-developed. Pharod and Annah for example. Especially considering that there is even the remnant of a romance (Annah) in the game, but they never do anything with it.

Chris Avellone commented on this years ago in an interview I read somewhere. They ran out of time and the end of the game is much less polished. You can really feel it in areas like Baator.
24.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 08:20
24.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 08:20
Apr 6, 2013, 08:20
 
El Pit wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 07:26:
storytelling IN WORDS instead of letting the player experience it. Sometimes it felt like reading a book instead of playing a game.

You can express more with words than you can with just animation and dialogue. The depth of storytelling that I experienced in PS:T surpassed any other game that I've played. Reading is a part of the gameplay experience, and that's not a bad thing.

Funny thing, Chris Avellone agrees with you and thinks that it's one of the weaknesses of the game. Personally though, I think it's one of the best aspects of the game, and put it on a level above his later works like KOTOR2 and NWN2

This comment was edited on Apr 6, 2013, 08:28.
23.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 07:26
El Pit
 
23.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 07:26
Apr 6, 2013, 07:26
 El Pit
 
storytelling IN WORDS instead of letting the player experience it. Sometimes it felt like reading a book instead of playing a game.
"There is no right life in the wrong one." (Theodor W. Adorno, philosopher)
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes." (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi)
Founder, president, and only member of the official "Grumpy Old Gamers Club". Please do not apply.
22.
 
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes
Apr 6, 2013, 06:42
22.
Re: Torment Kickstarter Concludes Apr 6, 2013, 06:42
Apr 6, 2013, 06:42
 
El Pit wrote on Apr 6, 2013, 03:30:
Okay, backed this although I could not get into Planescape Torment. Too much storytelling in words instead of letting the player actually play it.
Really? Too much story telling, the story is what makes it one of the monumental CRPG's ever made.
--
"For every human problem,
there is a neat, simple solution;
and it is always wrong."
--H.L. Mencken
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