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- Oct 21, 2002
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Tags: Colin McComb; InXile Entertainment; Torment: Tides of Numenera
There has been some drama recently in regards to crowdfunded content being cut from Torment: Tides of Numenera. I suppose the real stinker here is not necessarily that the content was cut, but that we (and backers) didn't find out about it until now: shortly before launch, and only after Codexer Fairfax' exposé.
Here's (a bit of) what Colin McComb has to say about it in the Kickstarter update:
He does apologize for the lack of transparency:
If you're still pissed off about all this, and you're an Italian, you can e-mail them for a refund, because they're cutting Italian localization too (at the same Obsidian adds it as a stretch-goal to Pillars II – what a strange coincidence).
Also in the update: Monte Cook releases a novella.
There has been some drama recently in regards to crowdfunded content being cut from Torment: Tides of Numenera. I suppose the real stinker here is not necessarily that the content was cut, but that we (and backers) didn't find out about it until now: shortly before launch, and only after Codexer Fairfax' exposé.
Here's (a bit of) what Colin McComb has to say about it in the Kickstarter update:
During the Kickstarter, we had to move fast. We had to make decisions and add content on the fly. The problem is, as with any plan, some of those decisions looked great on paper but didn’t survive contact with reality. Building a game is not a straight line from start to finish. It’s not as simple as creating a design document, implementing it, and shipping it. It’s an endlessly iterative process, one where ideas must be thought up, discussed, prototyped, iterated on again, and tested in game. The cycle repeats frequently. Sometimes, these ideas don’t work out the way you intended or just don’t feel like they fit properly in the theme of the game. A lesson we've taken away since the Kickstarter campaign is to avoid being too specific in detailing early designs, locations, and characters – it's fun and exciting at the time for us and you, but...
[...] Some of our players and community members recently pointed out that they noticed that some features had changed from what we initially detailed. The one that has come up the most is the companion roster. The early access version doesn't feature the companion list we initially had our sights on. This is true: for the release version, there will be six. While we laid the groundwork for more, while building the game we realized that we had to make a tradeoff between companions with depth, or a larger amount. We chose to focus on the added richness and personality that you expect with a smaller group. The game’s scope increased considerably over what we originally set out to build, and we underestimated the amount of time and iteration it would take to make our companions as reactive and branching as they needed to be.
[...] Some of our players and community members recently pointed out that they noticed that some features had changed from what we initially detailed. The one that has come up the most is the companion roster. The early access version doesn't feature the companion list we initially had our sights on. This is true: for the release version, there will be six. While we laid the groundwork for more, while building the game we realized that we had to make a tradeoff between companions with depth, or a larger amount. We chose to focus on the added richness and personality that you expect with a smaller group. The game’s scope increased considerably over what we originally set out to build, and we underestimated the amount of time and iteration it would take to make our companions as reactive and branching as they needed to be.
He does apologize for the lack of transparency:
But our focus on the game led to a different disservice. Namely, our lack of communication. We have always been major proponents of openness during development, but we did not communicate these changes earlier, and we should have done so sooner. For this, you have the entire team’s sincerest apologies. Going forward both with Torment and our future games, we hope to increase our efforts in making sure that you know the status and future plans for inXile’s projects.
If you're still pissed off about all this, and you're an Italian, you can e-mail them for a refund, because they're cutting Italian localization too (at the same Obsidian adds it as a stretch-goal to Pillars II – what a strange coincidence).
Also in the update: Monte Cook releases a novella.
