Interview inXile's Torment successor officially announced on RPS, will use Monte Cook's Numenera setting

[Infinitron]

Tags: Brian Fargo; Colin McComb; InXile Entertainment; Kevin Saunders; Monte Cook; Numenera; Torment: Tides of Numenera

This day has finally arrived! Brian Fargo has officially announced inXile's upcoming Planescape: Torment spiritual successor, which was first uncovered here on the Codex a month ago. In an interview at Rock Paper Shotgun, Brian reveals that his team has decided to use Monte Cook's Numenera setting, which was successfully Kickstarted back in August. Monte himself will be joining the game's writing team. The game itself, which is still unnamed, will of course also be a Kickstarter project. Some snippets from the interview:

RPS – What are the stand-out aspects of Numenera for you, in terms of suiting your dev plans? How much is about the setting and how much the roleplaying mechanics?​

Fargo: A Torment game requires big ideas and a truly exotic setting in order to explore the underlying thematic elements. Colin described it best when he said “Torment’s themes are essentially metaphysical, getting to the heart of what it means to be alive and conscious, and it’s easier to ask those questions in a setting that is far removed from the familiar.” Numenera is such a setting, and it has tremendous potential to cultivate those ideas. We won’t have faeries or devils, but we’ll have diabolical creatures from far dimensions with schemes beyond human imagination. We won’t have gods, but we’ll have creatures who have lived for millennia with the powers of creation and destruction at their fingertips, with abilities honed over countless lifetimes. We won’t have other planes per se, but we’ll have pathways to hostile worlds and bizarre landscapes and ancient machines that catapult the players into places where the ordinary laws of nature no longer apply. In terms of role-playing mechanics, we won’t be attempting to literally translate the Numenera tabletop system into electronic form. However, its gameplay mechanics are very solid and include several components that will lend themselves to great (and innovative) cRPG gameplay. It’s great to have the Numenera rules as a starting point and to be working with Monte to adapt them for a cRPG.​

RPS – Given no Planescape and presumably none of the PST characters, what makes a Torment game a Torment game to your mind?​

Fargo: We know it hasn’t been done often in the game industry, but we’re envisioning Torment as a thematic franchise with certain themes that can expand over different settings and stories. We will focus on the same things that made people appreciate PST so much: overturning RPG tropes; a fantastic, unconventional setting; memorable companions; deep thematic exploration of the human condition; heavy reactivity (i.e., choice and consequences); an intensely personal (rather than epic) story.​

RPS – Where are inXile up to in terms of designing this thing, given you’ve presumably incredibly busy with Wasteland? Will you be working on it concurrently with Wasteland or saving it for later?​

Fargo: We’re very early in Torment’s preproduction right now. We have a basic story outline, design sketches of the major characters, and thematic concepts defined. Wasteland 2 is in full production and we don’t want to detract from that focus. But with that said, the writers on Wasteland are complete for the most part and the concept artists are not involved at this stage in the game. The guys working on Torment are no longer working on Wasteland 2 and I want to keep these talented guys busy for us. Typically we do begin design of the next game while the production team is working on the current one. This allows the team to take a nice break once they are complete on the current game and then come back to roll onto a design that is thorough and polished. The last thing we want to do is break up a winning team.​

I find this model creates a better quality flow of product and doesn’t have the team jumping onto a sequel before there has been adequate time to absorb the feedback from the game that just shipped. It is a luxury that most mid size developers are not able to have and it allows the time required to create classics. I never like sequels to be rushed and working this way ensures the team works on fresh ideas.​

RPS – While PST was a team effort Avellone’s become the poster boy for it since release – so, have you been thinking/talking about getting him involved? And if you can’t for any reason, do you have a plan on how to convince the PST faithful that is a true-blue Torment?​

Fargo: Chris deserves all the credit that he receives and we are working with him on Wasteland 2 as you know. My role as executive producer is to assemble top notch teams and to make sure we stay on point for what we are creating. I’m really happy with the team we have assembled for this game. It was Chris who urged me to work with both Colin McComb and Kevin Saunders for this project and he has given us his blessing for another Torment. Colin McComb and Monte Cook were two of the primary developers of the Planescape campaign setting for TSR, and Colin was one of the main designers on the original Torment. Colin serves as creative lead for this Torment and will be driving the story vision for the game.​

Kevin Saunders, the project director, worked with Chris at Obsidian for 5 years – including leading the Mask of the Betrayer (MotB) team. People might remember that MotB was very well received and there were more than a few comparisons to PST. Kevin was also the lead designer and producer for Shattered Galaxy, which swept the 2001 Independent Games Festival and was acknowledged by GameSpot as the Most Innovative Game of the year.​

Additionally, we have one of the unsung heroes of PST on the design team: scripter Adam Heine, who really helped breathe life into the game. He was also one of the designers on Black Isle’s TORN, having moved to that position in large part because of his excellent work on PST.​

Our talented artists include Dana Knutson, the concept artist from the original Planescape campaign setting, and he’s been helping bring our ideas to life.​

And to really show we are serious about the writing aspects of this game we brought Ray Vallese in as the editor to ensure the detail and consistency of the story. Ray too was part of the Planescape team at TSR.​

There will be some other surprise talent that I’ll announce later on but I thought it important to stress the heritage of the great team we have. I feel quite confident that the players of PST will feel comfortable and appreciate the experience being created.​

RPS – Real/pause time or turn-based?​

Fargo: I’ll let the producer Kevin Saunders answer that one: “The details of combat are still an open question, but our initial leaning is that real-time with pause will provide the better experience for the game. Whichever direction we ultimately take it, we’ll be giving combat considerable attention – we are aware that one of the criticisms of PST (including from Avellone) was its combat and we want to improve upon that aspect. The Numenera combat system provides a stronger starting place for a cRPG than AD&D 2nd Edition did and we’ll prototype early so that we have ample time to iterate over the course of the project. We are also working on ways to weave narrative elements into the combat system such that the gameplay and story complement each other. But I should mention that even while enhancing combat, we will stay true to PST by making it so players can almost completely avoid battles based upon their choices.”​

Exciting news! Well, unless you're upset about Numenera or RTwP, that is. It's a shame the RPS guys forgot to ask whether the game will be 2D or 3D.

We can expect the Kickstarter to launch sometime soon this year. Though according to my sources (sup Brother None), not very soon.

 

[ColCol]

So much for fargo's love of turnbased.

 

[undecaf]

Fucking RTwP crawling over all the incline.

 

[Wise Emperor]

People that created the Planescape setting & Lead designer of MOTB. What can I say? Storyfag wet dream. I need handkerchief, bros... :tearofjoy.jpg:

 

[ghostdog]

This is strangely starting to sound good to me. That berk Fargo knows how to pitch his goddamned game. Numenera seems like an adequate setting. I might throw him some more of my hard-earned moneyz.

I'd really like to learn if it's 2D or 3D though.

 

[ColCol]

"Fargo: We know it hasn’t been done often in the game industry, but we’re envisioning Torment as a thematic franchise with certain themes that can expand over different settings and stories. We will focus on the same things that made people appreciate PST so much: overturning RPG tropes; a fantastic, unconventional setting; memorable companions; deep thematic exploration of the human condition; heavy reactivity (i.e., choice and consequences); an intensely personal (rather than epic) story."

Translation: We want more name recognition so we can claw are way towards more money.


Still, they shall have my gold, as I am from rpg codex and have a mind that is extremely fractured and bi-polar

 

[Jaesun]

As if combat was that important in Torment.

Do people want Torment: EXTREME TURN-BASED COMBAT SIMULATOR!!1111!!!!!! Seriously?

Anyways, the rule-system was always second seat to Torment (story, characters and setting were first are forefront). Don't really care to be honest. Anyways, waiting to see what the actual setting will finally be, and incredible juicy and detailed information on that will give me a gigantic boner.

 

[Infinitron]

News from RPS comments - Colin McComb now has a Formspring account: http://www.formspring.me/CMcComb

Start bugging him, Codexers.

 

[Temaperacl]

I backed Numenera and have liked what I've seen with it so far - this seems like it good be a good choice.

Don't like the leaning towards RT - I haven't found a CRPG with RT combat that I've actually enjoyed the combat in yet - at best, it's been a "I don't mind the combat" situtation. I wonder about the details of why the leaning is that "real-time with pause will provide the better experience for the game".

Kevin was also the lead designer and producer for Shattered Galaxy

Good game, although it was never as popular as I would have liked.

 

[Moribund]

But there's never any guarantee that story will be good in a game, so why gimp it out of the gate? I don't expect any real substance to a tarantino movie but sometimes they are really good anyway. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea to make a movie that's as shallow as possible and make all the appeal the style, especially because you can't guarantee this will always work then you get a worthless POS like Ingloreous Basterds or something utterly mediocre.

I'm pretty sure 90% of the success of torment was due to the setting, and a lot of that was good simply because Gygax was a genius. All the metaphysic stuff was his idea. He was a genius for both mechanics and setting so yes ideally a good DnD game would do well at both and there's no excuse not to at least try. If we want a game that's just a "cool" story then we can look to bioware or even CoD.

 

[undecaf]

As if combat was that important in Torment.

Do people want Torment: EXTREME TURN-BASED COMBAT SIMULATOR!!1111!!!!!! Seriously?

True, it wasn't - and no I don't what that much hyperbole. Just a good engaging combat system for what combat is offered, which I do not consider RTwP to be.

I can live with that, it's not a make or break thing. But I would've preferred TB.

 

[Haba]

As long as it is fun to play, I wouldn't even mind minesweeper as the combat model.

 

[Infinitron]

As if combat was that important in Torment.

Do people want Torment: EXTREME TURN-BASED COMBAT SIMULATOR!!1111!!!!!! Seriously?

True, it wasn't - and no I don't what that much hyperbole. Just a good engaging combat system for what combat is offered, which I do not consider RTwP to be.

I can live with that, it's not a make or break thing. But I would've preferred TB.

Problem: Turn-based combat systems pretty much have to be complex, or they become boring and pointless.

If your game is going to have mostly simple, understated combat, real time is the way to go.

 

[CappenVarra]

Sounds good

 

[Chuck Norris]

RPS – Given no Planescape and presumably none of the PST characters, what makes a Torment game a Torment game to your mind?
Fargo: We know it hasn’t been done often in the game industry, but we’re envisioning Torment as a thematic franchise with certain themes that can expand over different settings and stories. We will focus on the same thing that made people appreciate PST so much: shitloads of text.

 

[vitamin]

What's this tbs vs rtwp discussion all about? If it's gonna be a true PS:T successor, combat is the least important thing - simply consider it nonexistent... and eot.

 

[undecaf]

Problem: Turn-based combat systems pretty much have to be complex, or they become boring and pointless.

If your game is going to have mostly simple, understated combat, real time is the way to go.

Probably. I don't know if the amount complexity is (or needs to be) so overwhelming that the combat would actually cause the game to crawl, and make the combat situations feel detached from the point of the game.
Anyways, like I said, it's not a dealbreaker, or something to really start raging about. Just a preference.

 

[quasimodo]

So what you are saying is if it's going to be a true PS:T successor the combat must suck. If they go with RTwP the combat will suck so I guess they are on the right track.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

I'm pretty sure 90% of the success of torment was due to the setting, and a lot of that was good simply because Gygax was a genius. All the metaphysic stuff was his idea. He was a genius for both mechanics and setting so yes ideally a good DnD game would do well at both and there's no excuse not to at least try. If we want a game that's just a "cool" story then we can look to bioware or even CoD.

I don't think Gygax had anything to do with planescape - it was designed long after he had been forced out of TSR. Unless you mean the planes generally? I don't know too much of the history of that cosmology, but I think alot of it was also developed after he left TSR. Gygax was important, but the view of him as a genius incapable of doing wrong is called into question by his post-TSR output. See Cyborg Commando.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I don't understand this "combat wasn't important in Torment so it doesn't matter what they do in this one" bullshit. Why the fuck would they even add combat then?

 

[Diablo169]

How good Wasteland 2 is going to be my litmus test for how excitied i get over this project. On paper it sounds brilliant but Fargo has always been able to sell something in an interview.

 

[Larendav]

The potentially shitty combat won't bother me if it's a successor to Planescape: Torment. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer had mediocre real-time with pause combat & that's still one of the best RPGs that I've played this generation next to Knights of the Chalice. Either way, there had better be an option for turn-based combat.

 

[vitamin]

So what you are saying is if it's going to be a true PS:T successor the combat must suck.

I said what I said - you have problems with reading or understanding what you read? BTW, combat in PS:T was absolutely perfect for me. Both in terms of mechanics (simple) and quantity (very little). And I hope they'll keep it that way in this new game.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

That sounds like Xenogears

 

[mediocrepoet]

Torment wasn't even really a AD&D game at all. With all the stat bonuses you can get - unusual for AD&D 2E, class swapping and so on, it basically shit all over the rule set. The combat was atrocious and if you didn't let the story grab you, there isn't really a whole lot left to it. I still maintain it'd have been a better adventure game. In any case, it doesn't need to be turn based because there's no mechanical depth to showcase, the system is basically irrelevant because even when it did use a structured system (D&D ruleset) it just ignored or broke the rules all over the place anyway. And whether it's in Planescape or not, I don't think that matters either. It never struck me that the big thing on display was Sigil or the planar workings of D&D even though there was some plane hopping involved. It was really just about the weird layered set of events that TNO had put together over multiple lives. Now that I think about it, PST is probably the closest thing to Memento: The Game that I can think of.

Ugh, I might actually have to replay it with fresh eyes. I hated the game because of the terrible combat and D&D rule breaking.