Interview George Ziets and Colin McComb interviewed on Shane Plays

[Infinitron]

Tags: Colin McComb; George Ziets; InXile Entertainment; Shane Stacks; Torment: Tides of Numenera

inXile's George Ziets and Colin McComb were the guests on Shane Plays this Saturday. The resulting interview, which as you might expect was mainly about the upcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera, was made available on YouTube last night. Topics include George and Colin's careers and how you might acquire a similar one, the current state of Torment's development (it's progressing well, but no, they can't commit to a release date yet), the story of how Torment ended up using the Numenera setting and their thoughts about adapting its ruleset, Torment's sales expectations (with no answer given, of course - a noble but futile effort), the prospects of an arm wrestling competition with Brian Fargo, and more.

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However, the most interesting part of the interview is literally in the last two minutes, when Shane asks Colin and George what they regret having to cut from the game. In Colin's case, it's a particular character he really liked that had to be cut in favor of another, more well-developed one. In George's case, it's an entire faction, and he also seems to imply that the game's entire factional aspect won't be receiving as much emphasis as they had originally planned. That sounds like Planescape: Torment, all right.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

In George's case, it's an entire faction, and he also seems to imply that the game's entire factional aspect won't be receiving as much emphasis as they had originally planned.

 

[Abu Antar]

That's a freaking shame about the factions.

 

[karfhud]

It'd be cool if they could clarify that. Quite possibly just GZiets' faction got cut and the rest's the matter of wording.

 

[sstacks]

It'd be cool if they could clarify that. Quite possibly just GZiets' faction got cut and the rest's the matter of wording.

I'll send a follow up question to George, since it was a last minute remark without a lot of time to expound.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

Next time really ask them about Brian Mitsoda please.

 

[sstacks]

I reached out to George Ziets regarding factions in Torment and he said they will definitely be talking about it more but for now he doesn't have anything substantial to add.

 

[Manmower]

Torment's sales expectations

Definitely not a fan of that bloviating tryhard, Pat Roothfus. Or some of the others working on the game. I've played the beta, and wasn't impressed. The entire game is trying so hard to ape PS:T's style that it ends up shitting all over itself. What's even funnier is that PS:T was written by what, 2 guys? MCA, and to a lesser degree, Colin?

Looks like it's gonna be strike 2 for inXile.

I hope they prove me wrong and deliver a masterpiece.

 

[Athelas]

What's even funnier is that PS:T was written by what, 2 guys?

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/planescape-torment/credits

Lead Designer Chris Avellone
Designers Stephen Bokkes, John Deiley, Kenneth Lee, David Maldonado, Colin McComb, Jason G. Suinn, Scott Warner

 

[Manmower]

But MCA wrote the entire 1st draft, by himself.

And not all the designers wrote. And then not in the same capacity.

Face it: 2 guys did a better job almost 2 decades ago than half a dozen pretentious ponces with an entire narrative framework handed to them on a silver platter.

 

[Infinitron]

I wouldn't be surprised if Colin McComb ended up up having written most of T:ToN, or at least a plurality. Probably not as large a percentage as MCA did PS:T, but that's to be expected.

FYI, the current Codex Consensus is that T:ToN after the opening is pretty damn good.

 

[Manmower]

FYI, the current Codex Consensus is that T:ToN after the opening is pretty damn good.

I respect the Hivemind, but am entitled to my own opinion. And to me, TTON is to PST what PoE was to BG2.

Dunno, maybe inXile will throw us a curveball, and the finished game will indeed be worthy of praise.

In fact, that's what I want! But somehow, given their track record so far, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

I ... am entitled to my own opinion.

No.

 

[hpstg]

BG2 was amazing for his time and for the form of game it practicaly invented, but I think that PoE is the better game, time and place considerations aside.

 

[throwaway]

I wouldn't be surprised if Colin McComb ended up up having written most of T:ToN, or at least a plurality. Probably not as large a percentage as MCA did PS:T

Where's this coming from? If anything, and I'm highly supportive, I've been getting the impression that they let every Tom, Dick and Harry, have a go at producing words for tton. That's how they ended up with 1m words. The already significant number of writers "unlocked" during the KS were compounded on with other people like BN and that indie dev, think they got about a dozen of writers now.
MCA wrote about 70% of PST (Or whatever that watch interview said), i haven't been exposed to any reason to believe Colin wrote the half a million words that even a 50% would be.

It'd actually be interesting to know the writing distribution for MotB and maybe The Sith Lords. We have quite strong evidence to attribute PST to Avellone, does the same hold true for Ziets or non-fat Avellone?

 

[Prime Junta]

BG2 was amazing for his time and for the form of game it practicaly invented, but I think that PoE is the better game, time and place considerations aside.

BG2 rises to higher heights (Firkraag's dungeon, the sheer amount of stuff in Athkatla, seems like it never ends), but also falls on its face a lot more. Which one is "better" depends largely on your level of tolerance for pratfalls.

 

[Tigranes]

Now that we have some temporal distance from POE as well, and its KS campaign, it increasingly seems to me that they're less and less comparable. POE's combat and character system makes its core gameplay quite significantly different from BG2's IE/D&D, and while I enjoy both, one doesn't really scratch the other's itch and it's easy to imagine someone hating one and loving the other. Add to that a different world, etc., and to me they are as similar as Arcanum and Fallout, and certainly less than IWD and BG.

 

[Fairfax]

I wouldn't be surprised if Colin McComb ended up up having written most of T:ToN, or at least a plurality. Probably not as large a percentage as MCA did PS:T, but that's to be expected.

FYI, the current Codex Consensus is that T:ToN after the opening is pretty damn good.

I doubt it. Adam seems to be writing a lot of it, and he's the Lead Designer. The TTON team also has a lote more writers than PS:T ever did, so his percentage becomes smaller the more they contribute.

FYI, the current Codex Consensus is that T:ToN after the opening is pretty damn good.

Debatable.

 

[Infinitron]

Where's this coming from? If anything, and I'm highly supportive, I've been getting the impression that they let every Tom, Dick and Harry, have a go at producing words for tton. That's how they ended up with 1m words. The already significant number of writers "unlocked" during the KS were compounded on with other people like BN and that indie dev, think they got about a dozen of writers now.

It's bullshit. Kickstarters that hire a horde of writers don't actually end up using most of them to a significant degree. Wasteland 2 theoretically had a bunch of writers but ended up being done, in practice, by one and a half guys. Torment will likely have more than that, but not as much as you think. Hint: Look at Twitter and see who's actually talking about their ongoing work on the game.

 

[hpstg]

BG2 rises to higher heights (Firkraag's dungeon, the sheer amount of stuff in Athkatla, seems like it never ends), but also falls on its face a lot more. Which one is "better" depends largely on your level of tolerance for pratfalls.

That is true. I'm also playing PoE now, I'm right before I enter Defiance Bay (so at the start, relatively speaking). I noticed another thing the game suffers from. One is that the world itself might be really well fleshed out it feels like it has continuity etc, BUT because it's not D&D, I can't intuitively tell what's what, and that lessens the impact of whatever is happening, since I have to "think" about it to realize what it really is.
Second, the FUCKING NAMES. What the hell is wrong with Sawyer? Was he hit in the fucking head? I understand the "authenticity" he went for, but it's a FANTASY world, you can do whatever you want with the fucking names, they don't have to look like Welsh roadsigns.