Game News Torment Kickstarter Update #3: ZIETS ZIETS ZIETS

[Jasede]

This is going to be atmospheric as Dark Souls by the likes of it, and just like that game, will return me to the place I cherish in my memories: the place in which I explore a forgotten, abandoned world... the place in which I played PS:T, Nier and Dark Souls and the few other games that are like this.

I am a strange person. What makes me happiest is being alone with a game that brings me to sad, quiet, beautiful places. I can already tell the people who work on this "get" this kind of melancholy and will cater to it.

I am happy, very happy. I can't wait to play this. I wish them all the best, my greatest respect to whoever works on this.

Thank you.

Please, kill yourself. Emotional faggot.

Emotional vampire!

 

[winterraptor]

Fuck, RPG book covers look like a goddamned movie poster now?

 

[FrancoTAU]

I'll up my pledge if the next stretch goal is licensing the Space Jam theme song.

 

[Gondolin]

and a new area called Castoff's Labyrinth, which will be a "continuous stretch goal", much like Project Eternity's Endless Paths megadungeon.

Told you, fuckers. 13 levels of story to unlock! Find secret doors in walls of text! hgoditsheaven:

 

[ironyuri]

Colin McComb is like the storyfag's Josh Sawyer.

 

[winterraptor]

2 mil reached. Comments section will be filled with repetition of this statement in more excited 'tones' for hours.

 

[Average Manatee]

I like to think that right now Ziets is brushing up his resume to read "George Ziets: Designer, Writer, Stretch Goal"

Stretch Goal should be first. Go ask any business for a job and tell them that people donated x-million just to have your name attached to a project. Pretty impressive.

 

[MRY]

[SNIPPED: Numenera core book cover]
Fuck, RPG book covers look like a goddamned movie poster now?

I'm sad, not because of the composition -- which is what it is -- but because somehow this has like a tiny fraction of the character of the concept art used in the Kickstarter (one of the first Kickstarters I backed, if not the first). I guess as you add detail, you lose mystery. But this could easily just be, like, an Anne McCaffrey cover from the early 90s or a Bioware game box or something. I have nothing against that style of art, but it's something very concrete and almost adolescent. By contrast, this was the main picture they teased during the Kickstarter campaign:

Similar elements: the same huge numenera / monolith, a man, a beast, some ruins. But this, to me, just feels a lot more mature, and not in the sense of God of War or something. More in the sense of a Jack Vance pulp -- which, for all its fun and zest will tend to have a lot of complexity going on -- or a Gene Wolfe novel.

Meh. I'm just grumpy, I guess.

--EDIT--

Incidentally, the concept art they're teasing for Torment seems more in line with the old Numenera visuals, so I'm happy in that regard!

 

[Ulminati]

Much as I'm still butthertz about inXile starting this before WL2 is out, one has to wonder if all these RPG kickstarters getting millions in days from preorders based on a partial design doc alone might convince the suits there's a market for decent PC CRPGs.

 

[Esquilax]

Much as I'm still butthertz about inXile starting this before WL2 is out, one has to wonder if all these RPG kickstarters getting millions in days from preorders based on a partial design doc alone might convince the suits there's a market for decent PC CRPGs.

It won't. Those guys are incredibly out of touch and only interested in home runs.

 

[Zeriel]

Much as I'm still butthertz about inXile starting this before WL2 is out, one has to wonder if all these RPG kickstarters getting millions in days from preorders based on a partial design doc alone might convince the suits there's a market for decent PC CRPGs.

I feel like their take-away is only one step removed from the satirical take Fargo is doing in these videos.

"Okay, so these guys like old-fashioned RPGs, like Mass Effect! Let's do a first person RPG with combat like XCOM, only in real time, because that sells more. We'll hire that Garriot guy, he's well-respected, right?"

 

[winterraptor]

(pic)

That's more the sort of vague mystery I would want of a PnP RPG cover. Granted that's 'concept art' level so something just a bit more refined, but along those lines. Not as though it were trying to pitch me a specific scenario like a movie does.

Meh. I'm just grumpy, I guess.

Maybe, but that's everyone here.

Incidentally, the concept art they're teasing for Torment seems more in line with the old Numenera visuals, so I'm happy in that regard!

Good to know. I dig them more than that fucked-ass cover, that's for sure.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Much as I'm still butthertz about inXile starting this before WL2 is out.

Wait...seriously? So you're just as oblivious as the people in the comments section? Heyyyy, are you the kid in the limo in that video?

:declining:

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

I'd rather wish they concentrated on the game's writing than on all those novellas and Let's Plays. Stretch goals that aren't directly connected to the game don't do it for me but whatever.

Confirmed Ziets is major incline, even if it's not fulltime. Great news.

 

[a bear named spigot]

I'd rather wish they concentrated on the game's writing than on all those novellas and Let's Plays. Stretch goals that aren't directly connected to the game don't do it for me but whatever.

Confirmed Ziets is major incline, even if it's not fulltime. Great news.

Word. I'm giving money for a video game, not a bunch of books about a video game.

 

[likaq]

Now it is time for Brian Mitsoda stretch goal

 

[General Maxson]

I talked to quite a few people who weren't very interested in the game before the Kickstarter, but were completely sold by the videos and info. Great job, inXile!

Yep. I'm one of 'em. Great Job!

Also: Great Job, Ziets!

Yeah, me too! And now I'm REALLY interested and hyped. :D

I'd rather wish they concentrated on the game's writing than on all those novellas and Let's Plays. Stretch goals that aren't directly connected to the game don't do it for me but whatever.

Confirmed Ziets is major incline, even if it's not fulltime. Great news.

 

[Haba]

Much as I'm still butthertz about inXile starting this before WL2 is out, one has to wonder if all these RPG kickstarters getting millions in days from preorders based on a partial design doc alone might convince the suits there's a market for decent PC CRPGs.

You better pray to God that it doesn't, you cunt. For the corporate cock is too thick for your fleshy walls.

 

[Bony]

Torment Numenera: Best storyfag game without gameplay (aka go read a book)
Wasteland 2 : Best jagged alliance/fallout gameplay with shit story (aka go play xcom)

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

I'd be fine with that.

 

[grdja]

About "convincing the suits". Won't happen, and not because they are out of touch. It won't happen because they are in it for the money and nothing else.

Invest $100 mil in a AAA title, and you could see $100 mil profit if you sell well (say over 5 million sold in first couple of months). That is both insane ROI and simply a shit load of money. If you invested $5mil in a niche game you'd have to sell 250,000 copies to make same ROI, only earning you couple million bucks. There is a market to push out one AAA every 4-5 months. To get same income from non popamolle games you'd have to push out 20 of those in same time frame. And since you don't own infinite slaves (devs) you can produce only fixed amount of games, so you send your slaves to work on AAA titles that can bring in boat loads of cash.

 

[A user named cat]

So CMcC is a fellow Michigander? Hope you put aside your Torment work this weekend when the Wolverines play Indiana.

 

[Wizfall]

It's great to see the campaign going so well.
Not exited about live orchestra though (must cost a bunch of money) and absolutely not convinced by Tony Evans (a DA writer for Torment is a shame and NWN 2 campaign was awfull).
Ziets is good news indeed.

 

[Grunker]

Colin McComb is like the storyfag's Josh Sawyer.

Except for his respect of the legacy his own work is based upon.

 

[Stinger]

It's great to see the campaign going so well.
Not exited about live orchestra though (must cost a bunch of money) and absolutely not convinced by Tony Evans (a DA writer for Torment is a shame and NWN 2 campaign was awfull).
Ziets is good news indeed.

Tony Evans' formspring clearly shows he only wrote a small amount for DA2 and generally just did grunt work on that game. He was also involved in Kotor 2, MotB and lead designer of SoZ.

Kotor 2 and MotB are great from a story perspective and SoZ is great from a gameplay perspective (though the story is pretty barebones), honestly it doesn't sound as bad as you're suggesting.