People News Mark Yohalem joins the Torment: Tides of Numenera writing team

[Infinitron]

Tags: InXile Entertainment; Mark Yohalem; Torment: Tides of Numenera

I'm very pleased to announce that Mark Yohalem, writer and designer of the Codex's favorite adventure game, Primordia, has joined the Torment: Tides of Numenera team as a contract writer. Mark himself broke the news in a post on the official Torment tumblr:

Mark Yohalem joins Torment: Tides of Numenera

A while ago, I mentioned I had two exciting things to announce. I can finally share the first of them: I have been given the wonderful opportunity to work as a writer on Torment: Tides of Numenera. As you guys probably know, the original Torment game (Planescape: Torment) was my principal inspiration for Primordia. The T:TON writing and design team is composed of people whose work I’ve long admired: Colin McComb, George Ziets, Kevin Saunders, Chris Avellone, Monte Cook – to name just a few. Numenera was one of the very first projects I backed on Kickstarter as part of my commitment to using Primordia’s revenue to support interesting projects; T:TON came not long after. To suddenly be on the same team as these guys is not a dream come true because, first of all, my dreams tend to be unpleasant and, second, even my subconscious would not be so audacious as to invent such a scenario. While I am optimistic that this is another step on my game-writing path and not the end destination, it does feel like a milestone as important as Primordia was.

Hopefully in the next week or two I will be able to talk about the other exciting topic, which is Wormwood Studios’ next project, Fallen Gods. I expect that, far from delaying Fallen Gods, T:TON will teach me tons and encourage me to be more efficient in time-management.

Mark Yohalem
http://www.wormwoodstudios.com/
​

Mark had the opportunity to become acquainted with the inXile guys in person when he visited the Wasteland 2 launch party at the behest of a certain shady website last year, something which is probably not entirely unrelated to this news. That's your dollars at work, people. RPG Codex - the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[Haba]

:O

Is this what I think it is?

 

[Athelas]

A person with such an unsettling smile definitely belongs on the writing team for a Torment game.

 

[hiver]

We had a talk about that small fiction he wrote for his game Primordia, whose intro was written really badly, his response was "could we talk about it privately" and putting me on ignore since then, not to hurt his sensitive sensibilities.

Seems like a perfect addition to the team and "writing" for the game.

 

[A horse of course]

If you really want to improve your legal writing, says Mark Yohalem ’05, try writing a video game. A prosecutor at the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles with a Supreme Court clerkship under his belt, Yohalem has written more than 20 short stories and seven computer games in his free time. He credits the latter with keeping his writing fresh and reminding him that there are multiple ways to tell a good story.

In one instance, he recalled, Professor Lloyd L. Weinreb ’62 chewed him out for working on a video game that had “no redeeming value to it.” Yohalem admitted he was right but countered that someone was going to write it, so it might as well be him.

“He said that’s a complete cop-out,” Yohalem recalled. “‘Someone might write it,’ he said to me, ‘but you have a set of skills and you should be trying to use those skills for something more rewarding.’”

Should've listened to your Professor.

 

[Shadenuat]

Primordia had some bad stuff but writing was generally pleasant with even a few very high points, even if it kinda mimicked PST a lot.
However I think that it all may not go well for TON.
One of the main design goals for PST as MCA put it was to not be like any other game, and developers worked hard to accomplish that and reverse/deconstruct various tropes. And I am feeling that, game trying to be like PST or in spirit of PST, kinda misses the point. I felt it in Primordia a lot that, while was fun, had some things that felt were just paying tribute to PST and in that it was hard to appreciate them at all. Final insight into your character by using quest item being one of high points in the game, for example. You can't but feel like that twist was recycled from an actual "original" experience.

 

[Rake]

Primordia had some bad stuff but writing was generally pleasant with even a few very high points, even if it kinda mimicked PST a lot.
However I think that it all may not go well for TON.
One of the main design goals for PST as MCA put it was to not be like any other game, and developers worked hard to accomplish that and reverse/deconstruct various tropes. And I am feeling that, game trying to be like PST or in spirit of PST, kinda misses the point. I felt it in Primordia a lot that, while was fun, had some things that felt were just paying tribute to PST and in that it was hard to appreciate them at all. Final insight into your character by using quest item being one of high points in the game, for example. You can't but feel like that twist was recycled from an actual "original" experience.

That boat has sailed already. ToN will propably pay more tribute to Torment and recycle ideas than Primordia ever did.

 

[Infinitron]

:O

Is this what I think it is?

Uh...what do you think it is?

 

[hiver]

Primordia had some bad stuff but writing was generally pleasant with even a few very high points, even if it kinda mimicked PST a lot.
However I think that it all may not go well for TON.
One of the main design goals for PST as MCA put it was to not be like any other game, and developers worked hard to accomplish that and reverse/deconstruct various tropes. And I am feeling that, game trying to be like PST or in spirit of PST, kinda misses the point. I felt it in Primordia a lot that, while was fun, had some things that felt were just paying tribute to PST and in that it was hard to appreciate them at all. Final insight into your character by using quest item being one of high points in the game, for example. You can't but feel like that twist was recycled from an actual "original" experience.

That boat has sailed already. ToN will propably pay more tribute to Torment and recycle ideas than Primordia ever did.

It doesnt matter that much.

Of course you will get a recycling of some features of PST, thats what the kickstarter was about.
But it wont be a big deal if the game turns out good. If it isnt... then all that will remain will be a husk of derivatives.

Remember that this is not meant to be and will not be any kind of sequel - so, just like in case of other kickstarters you will not get an evolution and improvement of the original concepts, mechanics and gameplay.

You will get another attempt to reach the watermark original left, with a slew of new features and a kitchen sink thrown over it.

 

[agentorange]

One of the main design goals for PST as MCA put it was to not be like any other game, and developers worked hard to accomplish that and reverse/deconstruct various tropes.

Call something a deconstruction or "ironic take on", but it is still that thing; PST had more than a few tedious delivery quests, even if they were dressed up in some very fun writing, so I think you are overrating it somewhat in regards originality. Not that originality necessarily matters because all ideas are borrowed, all that matters is how you handle the ideas and how many personal touches you put on them.

I thought the best part of Primordia was the relationship and dialogue between Horatio and Crispin (which is of course reminiscent of The Nameless One and Morte's relationship), so hopefully MRY gets to work on something that plays to his strength - and not area descriptions or god forbid lore books.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I can already feel the Polygon headline: "Representative of hate group joins Torment writing team".

 

[Black]

I can already feel the Polygon headline: "Representative of hate group joins Torment writing team".

What do you mean?

 

[Ogg]

How many writers worked on this game? And how many is too many?

 

[abnaxus]

He'll do a good gob.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

The edgy squad is on a roll again
For a moment I was afraid you bunch exhausted yourself in the Pillars review thread...

 

[GloomFrost]

Welcome aboard man. The more the merrier.

 

[garren]

Spoiler

Bald version when?

 

[Bubbles]

As soon as he takes off that hair piece.

 

[StaticSpine]

Spoiler

Bald version when?

 

[MRY]

That picture is already considerably dated -- the Maginot Line has crumbled and my hairline is in full retreat, with the deserters apparently settling on my back. Unfortunately, to continue the WWI metaphors, I have a feeling that when my full scalp is unveiled, it will be as pitted and horrific as a battlefield, so there's really no happy ending in sight.

 

[Zed]

Welcome aboard man. The more the merrier.

Who are you?

 

[Athelas]

That picture is already considerably dated -- the Maginot Line has crumbled and my hairline is in full retreat, with the deserters apparently settling on my back. Unfortunately, to continue the WWI metaphors, I have a feeling that when my full scalp is unveiled, it will be as pitted and horrific as a battlefield, so there's really no happy ending in sight.

 

[GloomFrost]

Welcome aboard man. The more the merrier.

Who are you?

Nobody. I just like the fact that he joined the development. Primordia is a good game.

 

[MRY]

@ Athelas: Way too much hair. More like:

 

[Kem0sabe]

Good, maybe now they have enough writers that they can take their codex interns off the writing team and back to holding the line.