Game News Torment Kickstarter Update #13: Animated Screenshot, Final Stretch Goals

Tags: Colin McComb; InXile Entertainment; Kevin Saunders; Mark Morgan; Monte Cook; Torment: Tides of Numenera

With the end of the campaign in sight, today's Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter update has laid out all of the remaining stretch goals. There are also some new add-ons available, and the news that the game's release will be delayed. Last but not least,, there's also an animated version of the screenshot from yesterday's update. I'll go over these one by one, as usual.

I like kicking off my newsposts with a video, so I'll start with the animated screenshot:

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I've been informed that the human figure in the video is the Cold Calculating Jack. Keep your eyes peeled for the creepy Stichus who sneaks in at around the 1:00 mark!

The campaign has reached 60,000 backers, thereby unlocking the sixth Fathom of Castoff's Labyrinth. In fact, due to this overwhelming success, inXile now have enough resources to spend a longer time developing the game. Accordingly, its release will be delayed a few months past the originally planned December 2014 date. More details about this will be provided later.

There are three new add-ons. The first two are a digital Torment sourcebook for the Numenera PnP setting by Monte Cook, for 12 dollars, and a digital comic by Pat Rothfuss telling a story related to one of the game's characters, for 8 dollars. These are "add-on exclusive", meaning they aren't included in any of the tiers. The third add-on is the hi-res digital concept art from the $50 tier, now available separately for 4 dollars.

Now for the stretch goals. First of all, with the addition of Pat Rothfuss to the team, a new retroactive stretch goal has been added at 3.4 million dollars. At that funding level, Pat will write a companion for the game. (It's not clear to me whether this is will be an entirely new companion or one of the planned eight, though I assume it's the latter.) The main attractions, however, are the new stretch goals, which go all the way up to 4.5 million.

At 3.6 million dollars, a new area will be added to the game - the Hall of Lingering Reflections, a Sensorium-like vault where frozen memories are stored. At 3.75 million dollars, companion depth will be increased, including new quests for each companion. In addition, portals will be added to Castoff's Labyrinth which take the player to hidden areas of the world.

At 4 million dollars, the number of Legacies will be increased from 11 to 16 - ten possible pairs, plus five for when one Tide dominates all others, plus one for when no Tides are dominant. This was apparently the developers' original vision for the game all along. This is also the stretch goal at which the game's second city, discussed in a previous update, will be added. More music by Mark Morgan will be added to the game as well.

At 4.25 million dollars, the game will grow even larger, with various ideas the team had being expanded into major subplots. A crafting system of sorts for numenera will be added to the game. This system will include puzzle-solving elements, "though not what you'd call a mini-game" according to the update. In addition, at this stretch goal, the game's journal will be expanded and given the prestigious name of The Voluminous Codex. It will contain more lore, creature and character portraits, etc.

Finally, at 4.5 million dollars, the game will expanded once more, with a particular emphasis on reactivity and the Tides. In addition, a player stronghold will be added to the game, though the update promises that it won't exactly be a place to "chillax".

Update: Something that wasn't mentioned in the Kickstarter update was the reveal of a new member of Torment's writing team - author Natalie Whipple. You can read about it on her blog.

Update 2: Torment's Facebook page has reached 10000 likes, thereby unlocking a seventh bonus Fathom.

Update 3: Colin McComb has posted an apology for his previous apology, though not without incident.

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Update 4: A 1080p high definition version of the animated screenshot video has been uploaded to Youtube. I've embedded it above in place of the 720p version.

 

That lighting is really fucking sweet. <3

 

I suggest that we actually institute a prize called “Prestigious Writing Award” and we delivery it once a year.

 

Well, this has that too.

 

updated my j... i mean, upped my pledge.

 

Updated OP with the news they don't want you to hear.