Interview Arvan Eleron Interview: Colin McComb and George Ziets talk Torment

[Infinitron]

Tags: Colin McComb; George Ziets; Gregory Wilson; InXile Entertainment; Torment: Tides of Numenera

inXile's Colin McComb and George Ziets are going to be talking about Torment: Tides of Numenera on Gregory Wilson's Twitch channel tonight, at 21:00 EST. The interview was apparently announced on Wednesday and nearly flew under my radar. I'm not sure what exactly it's going to be about or whether we'll see any new gameplay or anything, but Arv's a good interviewer so it should be worth watching.

​

The interview proper is about 45 minutes long, with another 30 minutes of viewer Q&A. Colin and George answer questions about Torment's writing and themes, reactivity, visual and audio design, and the weirdness of its setting. Don't miss the RPG Codex mention near the end!

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Aenra]

my bedtime

Do newsbots androids dream of electric sheep?

 

[Anthony Davis]

I <3 gzeits forever.

 

[Shin]

skip to 00:47:14

made my heart race

 

[Xzylvador]

Video won't play for me but the highlights do.
Torment's looking pretty good so far, except for the performance issues. But since it's a beta-build that's not something to hold against it.

Edit: Must.... resist..... hype....

 

[Infinitron]

Video won't play for me

That's because it ended hours ago. Updated OP.

 

[Prime Junta]

Uh... when do CMcC and G Ziets actually come on? I watched through a part of it and then skipped through it, but it was just a guy trying to grow a beard droning about games he wants to play and trying to play the beta.

 

[Infinitron]

Uh... when do CMcC and G Ziets actually come on? I watched through a part of it and then skipped through it, but it was just a guy trying to grow a beard droning about games he wants to play and trying to play the beta.

Whoops, wrong video

 

[Infinitron]

The interview proper is about 45 minutes long, followed by 30 minutes of viewer Q&A (continued in another video).

George says "production is ending very soon" after which they'll only be polishing and iterating.

When asked about what happens after the game is released, Colin again refuses to reply but says the future depends on how well it sells as well as on Monte Cook's plans for the licence. He also says inXile have an entire lineup of other games they're thinking of making in the future.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Well, they're not really that dependent on the Numenera setting, right? I mean I remember that before or during the Kickstarter they said they could make more Torment games and each in a different setting. Of course, that was also marketing speak for "guys in PST the setting totally didn't matter", but still.
I assume that now that they have this, it would be much easier to do a sequel.

In the end, though, while I still would prefer Planescape, I wouldn't mind if they actually did each game in a completely different setting than the previous one.

 

[Infinitron]

George says the game is shorter than PS:T, in part due to having less combat. But it also has more words than PS:T.

Arv says MRY's whale-themed CYOA segment reminded him of Dishonored. Whalepunk ascendant!

EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq-Y7OrRSow&feature=youtu.be&t=5186 Oh wow.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I can't imagine they would have problems with the license, considering Monte Cook benefited far more from association with TTON, than the other way around.

 

[Daedalos]

Lol. (..)Lot of crazy things happen on RPGCodex, but there is also some good really good insightful stuff.. "

Ahahah. Oh man.

Also, you just gotta admire George and Colin.

They are just so calm and collected guys, really seems like they truly wanna make a great game.

Even if the game turns out to be shit, which I'm sure it won't, you gotta just hand it to these guys.

 

[l3loodAngel]

I mean I remember that before or during the Kickstarter they said they could make more Torment games and each in a different setting. Of course, that was also marketing speak for "guys in PST the setting totally didn't matter", but still.
I assume that now that they have this, it would be much easier to do a sequel.

How about make one fucking good game first. I mean this KS bullshit is a disapointment for me. The esteemed developers can't manage to make a better game than bg/bg2 and thats not a high bar...
They all can talk the talk and have heart in the right place (the chest), but fail miserably when they have to walk the walk.

 

[Darkzone]

How about make one fucking good game first. I mean this KS bullshit is a disapointment for me. The esteemed developers can't manage to make a better game than bg/bg2 and thats not a high bar...
They all can talk the talk and have heart in the right place (the chest), but fail miserably when they have to walk the walk.

Yes that is somehow weird that all the "great" ones, are just shadows of their past.

 

[sstacks]

I was glad Arv asked my question about whether and PnP mechanics will show through (my personal preference if so).

Arv's a good guy, I've had him on my show. He gets some surprisingly high profile guests on his Twitch stream. He recently had Ed Greenwood DM a Forgotten Realms D&D game for around 6 hours.

 

[Infinitron]

Arv's a good guy, I've had him on my show. He gets some surprisingly high profile guests on his Twitch stream. He recently had Ed Greenwood DM a Forgotten Realms D&D game for around 6 hours.

He's also a writer. Connections: http://www.gregoryawilson.com/writer/

 

[sstacks]

Arv's a good guy, I've had him on my show. He gets some surprisingly high profile guests on his Twitch stream. He recently had Ed Greenwood DM a Forgotten Realms D&D game for around 6 hours.

He's also a writer. Connections: http://www.gregoryawilson.com/writer/

Yep I've got his fantasy book He definitely has some good connections.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

This is great stuff - it really sounds like they've got a real grip on why people loved PS:T. I really hope that inXile can retain the pair of them for whatever comes next.

Also, George Zeits has an unexpectedly deep voice. CMcC just sounds so soothing - I could imagine him reading me bedtime stories.

 

[Tao]

I can't wait to play this. So far all i saw y played was great. Only complain as everyone said is the performance so far. But a beta is a beta.

 

[Arvan Eleron]

Tags: Colin McComb; George Ziets; Gregory Wilson; InXile Entertainment; Torment: Tides of Numenera

inXile's Colin McComb and George Ziets are going to be talking about Torment: Tides of Numenera on Gregory Wilson's Twitch channel tonight, at 21:00 EST. The interview was apparently announced on Wednesday and nearly flew under my radar. I'm not sure what exactly it's going to be about or whether we'll see any new gameplay or anything, but Arv's a good interviewer so it should be worth watching.

Yeah, I only got final confirmation about this on the Tuesday before the appearance, or I would definitely have let you know. As always, thanks for the kind words! George and Colin were awesome, and despite the performance stuff the game looks tremendous...feels exactly like a "Torment game" should. I should also say that we have one more of these interviews scheduled for a couple of weeks from now (exact date coming soon)--I'll have Patrick Rothfuss, NY Times bestselling author who did some work on Torment, probably Colin again, and perhaps Monte Cook himself (not sure yet, but we're working on it) to talk about worldbuilding and the like. I'll be doing some gameplay again as I do the interview, this time joined by my Speculate podcast co-hosts Mike Underwood and Brad Beaulieu.

And you all saw George's smile when I mentioned the Codex. He LIKES you guys! :p

--Arv

 

[sstacks]

I asked if some encounters could be resolved by a spontaneous freestyle rap off or a mom insulting contest and, sadly, the answer was no.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

I asked if some encounters could be resolved by a spontaneous freestyle rap off or a mom insulting contest and, sadly, the answer was no.

Wut? George (or was it Colin) distinctly said yes, and I will hold them to that. Also, you're getting a (pending) brofist for the pnp mechanics questions. I (almost) literally held my breath for the answer to that one, and it was exactly what I was hoping for.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

And you all saw George's smile when I mentioned the Codex. He LIKES you guys! :p

As he should - George is about as universally worshipped as any human could possibly be in such a cauldron of diversity as the Codex.