Development Info Colin McComb on Narrative Design in Torment at EGX Rezzed 2015

[Infinitron]

Tags: Colin McComb; InXile Entertainment; Torment: Tides of Numenera

The fast-talking Colin McComb is attending the EGX Rezzed convention in London this weekend, where he's giving a talk about the narrative design of Torment: Tides of Numenera. It's live now:

1pm: Colin McComb - Torment: Tides of Numenera

When you’re the creative lead for one of the most anticipated RPGs for 2015, you have to be careful with your words, especially when you have to write hundreds of thousands of them. Colin McComb, creative lead for Torment: Tides of Numenera, talks about developing narrative and effective word choices for player experience and perception.
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There will be a Q&A session at the end.

Update: Well, it's over. Nothing particular mind-blowing, but Colin did reveal some information about the game's plot (the player begins his life crawling out of a crashed escape pod from the moon - sounds awesome), a few images of one of the companions (who you may have already seen before) and a snippet of its very first dialogue sequence. Colin's such a fast talker that there wasn't much time for Q&A at the end, but it's worth noting that when answering a question about combat, he chose to compare the game's turn-based combat system with The Banner Saga's. Though that's not exactly new information either.

 

[Infinitron]

Updated OP.

 

[bonescraper]

Sounds amazing.

 

[tuluse]

Haha at 22:34 he uses the same picture as "fargo fanboy".

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Glad that Eurogamer invited CMcC to this, hope the game continues to get good press.

Have to remind myself occasionally that he's a Codexer - one of us, one of us!

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

YouTube version:




6:40 One of those guys is not a Codexer. Guess who.



Edit: Sorrow is she

 

[Infinitron]

6:40 One of those guys is not a Codexer. Guess who.

They all have Codex accounts, actually.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

6:40 One of those guys is not a Codexer. Guess who.

They all have Codex accounts, actually.

Thomas Beekers is Brother None? Impressive. CMcC gave him the same billing as Kevin Saunders and Brian Fargo. I thought he had only recently gotten into the game industry.

What is Brian Fargo's Codex name?

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

What is Brian Fargo's Codex name?

Daedalos?

 

[Infinitron]

What is Brian Fargo's Codex name?

Daedalos?

BrianF

 

[bonescraper]

What is Brian Fargo's Codex name?

crojipjip

 

[Crescent Hawk]

It all seems to come together well, but I hope they dont make the setting too bland and explainable. I hope its more Jodorowvsky style. But I am afraid that they would have to spend a lot of the kicktsarter money on drugs, and bhuddist throat singing cds.

 

[FeelTheRads]

BrianF was last seen: May 19, 2004

The codex does not provide enough dorito

 

[VioletShadow]

has a great voice should voice companion and he's funny too :D

 

[GloomFrost]

The "writing team" is something out of this world: Avellone, Cook, McComb, Mitsoda to name a few. Holy sweet Jesus the dialogues and texts are going to be THE best in an entire gaming industry.

 

[bonescraper]

It would be really cool if they released their production documents later on. Larian did that when they released their Divinity anthology. It was condensed in a neat little book, great read. Also, it has pictures.

BTW, they cut the Mask? This character? Am i getting this right?

Quite a shame, she looked cool in her own creepy way.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The "writing team" is something out of this world: Avellone, Cook, McComb, Mitsoda to name a few. Holy sweet Jesus the dialogues and texts are going to be THE best in an entire gaming industry.

Ziets too. Don't forget the Ziets.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

It would be really cool if they released their production documents later on. Larian did that when they released their Divinity anthology. It was condensed in a neat little book, great read. Also, it has pictures.

BTW, they cut the Mask? This character? Am i getting this right?

Quite a shame, she looked cool in her own creepy way.

She is I think the first castoff. Dead.

 

[Infinitron]

Killed by excessive quicksaving.

Centuries ago, the Changing God met one of his children for the first time. This castoff, who claimed the status of the First Castoff, the eldest sibling of all his heirs, had been badly hurt in a struggle with the Sorrow, her skin utterly burned away. She wore a mask to conceal the damage, but her castoff regeneration was unequal to the task of restoring her. She sought answers from her sire, tracking him across the Ninth World to find him. She wanted to know why the Sorrow attacked her and the other castoffs, how they could stop it, and how she might earn a new body for herself.

The two of them were inseparable for a time as she awaited his aid in growing her a new body to replace the scarred wreckage of hers – they traveled together, seeking truths and long-buried secrets. But their alliance was shattered when at last she demanded that the Changing God stop deferring her; her body was beginning to decompose. Yet the Changing God refused to transfer her consciousness – he gave her a bottle of embalming fluid and told her to make do with the body she had. They fought, the confrontation teased out greater truths from her sire, and she realized that he had been hiding too much. Rather than share his secrets, he turned his back on her. She demanded his knowledge, and suddenly their personal struggle turned into a larger battle, each pulling their friends and allies into an ever-expanding conflagration.

Their feud created a schism in the castoff community. Dozens of castoffs flocked to both sides, coming to stand for the side they thought right. Some sided with the Changing God, believing that he had a plan to stop the Sorrow’s genocide, or from a loyalty to the man responsible for their creation. Some sided with the First, believing that she had their best interests at heart against a man who had proven himself time and again to be focused solely on himself.

Realizing that the First was an existential threat, surpassed only by the destructive power of the Sorrow, the Changing God marshaled his forces to eliminate his foe, and this is when he discovered she had secrets of her own: she possessed a reality splitter she called Reconciler of the Truth. He discovered that his weapons were worthless – every time he launched a massive attack, she simply replaced the reality with one where the event didn’t occur, and then merged the realities together, collapsing them into a single observable state. Twice a day, she changed the course of the war, pushing ever closer to the Changing God’s headquarters as he struggled to launch multiple stratagems that would divert her attention.

After failing to destroy her several times, he sought a counter and at last managed to discover and repair a similar device that he named Heaven’s Rejoinder. Now time in the Endless Battle is torn, multiple parallel realities rolling and twining around each other, merging and splitting again with the major attacks. The two sides move and counter-move, trying to act secretly in ways that will allow them an undeniable victory, so much of the Endless Battle is fought in shadow, in clandestine tactics and small-squad engagements. They build and layer their feints, giving ground on certain fronts so that they can advance on others in separate realities.

But even this device was not proof against disasters. Over a century ago, the Changing God succeeded in summoning a biological moon and transitioning his consciousness to a body he created remotely within it. The First was occupied in a battle with the Sand Knights, a deadly mercenary company in the employ of the Changing God God who had been stymying the advance of the rebels for over a decade. Her lieutenant, Paj Rekken, was charged with leading an assault on one of the Sand Knights' fortresses, and gained entry just as the First was torn apart in a coruscation of energies. Rekken did not know the First had been destroyed and snapped the realities together quickly to maintain the victory over the Sand Knights. By the time Rekken learned of the First's death, the First was irrevocably lost.

 

[Duraframe300]

The "writing team" is something out of this world: Avellone, Cook, McComb, Mitsoda to name a few. Holy sweet Jesus the dialogues and texts are going to be THE best in an entire gaming industry.

Yeeeeah, don't get your hopes up too high.

I mean get them up, but just because theres lots of names do not make the mistake of counting those up.

For example in Avellone's, Mitsoda's and possibly Cooke's case I wouldn't automatically assume their very best work.

 

[hiver]

You guys are really great because you thought of including a female character too. Such a great idea you guys had.

 

[Irenaeus]

tl;dr

Spoiler

 

[tuluse]

The "writing team" is something out of this world: Avellone, Cook, McComb, Mitsoda to name a few. Holy sweet Jesus the dialogues and texts are going to be THE best in an entire gaming industry.

Yeeeeah, don't get your hopes up too high.

I mean get them up, but just because theres lots of names do not make the mistake of counting those up.

For example in Avellone's, Mitsoda's and possibly Cooke's case I wouldn't automatically assume their very best work.

I'm pretty sure on that list only McComb is going to be writing dialog for the game.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Remember that time Colin trolled Roguey into thinking Jack Off Jill was doing the music? Only on Codex...

 

[Ninjerk]

CMcC Your voice sounds different. It just wouldn't be Stalkdex without me asking how you're feeling.