Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Beta Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Kem0sabe]

yeah the visuals and the design in some places are really good. i would even be interested in the story if i didn't know that the creative lead and some of the writers are retards or mediocre at best.

will probably buy at 10-15$.

Yarr it now, buy it later on sale...

 

[Abu Antar]

I dunno about cut content and ks lies etc.... But the backgrounds are fucking gorgeous

It's a big mix. Some backgrounds look great, others look decent at best and I've seen a couple places with very bad texture work.

 

[Starwars]

And, at least for me, the art-style doesn't always work very well. I get that the setting is supposed to be sort of a mix of pretty much everything and not really "coherent". But playing the beta, it kinda felt like some things were just "plopped down" at random on the maps.

It's not a great looking game I think, and that's coming from someone who loves the whole IE style of graphics.

 

[Father Foreskin]

I like the background where Fargo is grinning in his cuckshed while Techland removes the features little Jimmy cant understand in his xbox game

 

[Luckmann]

And, at least for me, the art-style doesn't always work very well. I get that the setting is supposed to be sort of a mix of pretty much everything and not really "coherent". But playing the beta, it kinda felt like some things were just "plopped down" at random on the maps.

It's not a great looking game I think, and that's coming from someone who loves the whole IE style of graphics.

This is such a small spoiler I'm not going to bother hiding it; in the first "real" map, the market, there's this "clock" that is encased in a shine. I had no idea what that was, and it looks completely out of place. It looks like something has just been "plopped down". It gets better once you've "fixed" it, at least a little, but it looks terrible until then, like you have no idea what you're looking at and it just looks out of place.

Not even in a good way, like it's something weird you can't make heads or tails out of, but like it just doesn't belong.

Most (all?) areas also feel very small, which doesn't help. It's a bit hit/miss, honestly.

 

[DosBuster]

Looks like Chris Keenan got promoted to VP of Development now that Torment has wrapped up.

https://twitter.com/rangerkeenan?lang=en

 

[StaticSpine]

Looks like Chris Keenan got promoted to VP of Development now that Torment has wrapped up.

https://twitter.com/rangerkeenan?lang=en

But he's still wearing his bull-hat.

 

[LESS T_T]

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/16/1...nded-games-sequels-obsidian-inxile-failbetter

“The biggest difference in working with our audience [and not a publisher] is the trust factor,” Fargo explains. “They give us the money upfront to bring to life the vision that we pitched to them. We can be more flexible in our development, allowing us to jettison things that don't make sense anymore and give greater focus to the parts that feel good. Publisher's often overly rely on the contract milestones and can force you to walk a path that doesn't make sense in the changing environment of development.”

TRUST

 

[StaticSpine]

Developer Insights - Art Team Q&A

TORMENT·16 ФЕВРАЛЯ 2017 Г.
We're back today with some answers from our Art Team regarding your questions. You asked some really thoughtful questions and we had an absolute pleasure answering them. We hope you're enjoying the inside scoop as much as we like providing it. Don't forget to tune in to our next Q&A to answer more of your questions!
Which critter or character in the game has the largest number of states/poses/animations?
The player characters have the most animations since they are essentially "in every scene." And as you might expect for a game like Torment that is mostly populated with bipeds, there is a fair amount of sharing of animation across the cast of characters. The creature with the most animation under the hood is the Sorrow fragment. This many-tentacled quadruped had to not only navigate but engage in combat with multiple attacks.
@ Concept Artist: During your work were you closer to the writers, or Monte Cook?
Monte Cook provided direct feedback for all aspects of the game, but for most of the day-to-day work the writers were our source for those critical details that were based on narrative or the lore of the Ninth World.
@ Storyboard Artists: Did you ever come up with any crazy angles or shots during conception that the director shut down in less than 2 seconds?
On this project, there were not many opportunities for crazy angles, etc. because we use a camera that is fairly standard for RPGs. The one place where we could be more creative with composing shots was in our mere illustrations that are peppered throughout the game. In those cases, we avoided conflicts by having the same person play both roles, storyboard art AND director... problem solved.
How did you cooperate with Monte Cook Games to find the particular Numenera art style and make it fit into Torment?
We frequently made our work-in-progress available to Monte Cook Games for review and feedback. From those exchanges we began to develop a visual vocabulary for what makes sense in the Ninth World. We were also constantly referencing several Monte Cook publications about the world of Numenera that helped to guide us about all aspects of the world of Numenera.
How has the team taken inspiration from real world cultures to develop the aesthetic of a world as conceptually far out as Numenera?
Developing a game based on Numenera was extremely freeing and enriching, considering the rules we were working with. The nature of humanity one billion years from now meant that we would be looking at some combination of elements from just about any ancient and modern culture you could think of from the world we know, and then using that as a launching place to imagine technologies and customs no one had ever seen before.
For one thing, we knew that it was important to depict humans as having evolved over the millennia to have fewer racially distinct features. We borrowed from a broad range of races and cultures to accomplish this. Alternatively, when it came to story or gameplay elements, we took the approach that anything that seemed too reminiscent of a culture or practice we'd heard of before would automatically pull us out of the ultra-futuristic tone of the Ninth World, so we made a special effort to avoid those familiar themes.
What was the most challenging piece to produce?
Great question. There are several levels of the game that take place in a The Bloom, described as "an interdimensional slug beast that reaches through time and space." From an art perspective, this meant creating environments that were made almost entirely of flesh. Besides making sure that all the important areas of The Bloom had their own characteristic aesthetic, we were also challenged to make sure these large areas of "meat" didn't look like just a solid mass of indistinct muscle tissue. We eventually struck on the right balance of interesting (some would say disgusting) biological features, an appropriate color palette, and lighting solutions that help the player understand where they should go and how to get there, even if they are feeling uneasy along the way.
Could you explain or try to describe your workflow/pipeline in level/environment design?
Design is a term that has different meanings depending on the industry or even on the context of discussion. Since these questions are asked of the art team, I'll focus on the art pipeline, but I can say a little something about the story and gameplay design along the way. Initially our lead game designer gathers all the requirements of the story - events that have to happen in a zone, characters and factions who need to be introduced, and themes that we want to emphasize. Brainstorming yields ideas for conflicts, locations, and quests, and eventually these get honed into a document called a zone brief that is a high level walkthrough of the zone. From this zone brief, a full zone design document is created that describes the important elements in enough detail that the next step is a top-down sketch of the zone and even a 3D blockout of the area. In this state, the general dimensions of the scene can be tested in our actual game engine (Unity). Even initial scripting of key moments can begin, while the artist begins building the actual level.
The blockout provides a base upon which our concept artist can do a paintover, essentially a fairly rough sketch that captures the general look of the level, including ideas for color palette, lighting, and important physical features. This part of the process requires feedback from quite a few people, since the art director will want to speak to the aesthetics of the concept, the level designer will verify that the important gameplay elements are represented, and engineers and producers will want to check technical and practical feasibility of the design.
With a final blockout and concept image to work from, the level artist then begins the process of building and texturing the level in a 3D package (3Ds Max or Maya, our studio uses both). In a typical game engine, the next step would be to bring all this 3D geometry into the engine, but on this project we used the Pillars of Eternity (PoE) engine by Obsidian. This PoE engine gave us the opportunity to generate very high fidelity renders from the 3D packages I mentioned above and to use those renders in engine, instead of relying on the game engine to render ALL geometry in real time. The engine uses height map data to determine how to sort dynamic elements like characters, visual effects, lighting, and other 3D elements that aren't in the render, so the end result is a seamless integration of animated 3D objects with a rendered 2D background.
Finally the work of the level artist and the level designer is all pulled together to make an environment ready for visual effects, sound effects, and testing!

facebook

Nobody asked why the character portraits are so ugly. I don't believe this!

 

[Kem0sabe]

facebook

Nobody asked why the character portraits are so ugly. I don't believe this!

Was going to say same thing.

 

[FeelTheRads]

It's not like they'd answer questions that criticize them.

You asked some really thoughtful questions

Yeah, all it's missing is "can you explain how are you so awesome???" to be truly mindbending.

 

[Lhynn]

Framing matters.

If T:ToN came out completely from the blue, by a new indie team who want to pay homage to PS:T, it would get a different reception than it will now, when it's made by industry veterans following a hyped-to-the-max Kickstarter with Rothfusses here and MCAs there and stretch goals up the wazoo.

Certainly not from me, i dont give a shit about who makes the games.

 

[anus_pounder]

It's getting closer! Who else is hyped for this game?

 

[2house2fly]

I've heard good things about it despite the shady nature of the cut content so I'm certainly looking forward to playing, anus_pounder.

 

[undecaf]

If the game turns out to offer an overall experience I can have decent fun with, I'm all good. In hindsight I certainly shouldn't have given it as much money as I did, but I've adopted the sort of "fuck it" mentality. I didn't pledge for stretch goals, but the core idea behind the game. If it goes sour, lesson learned the hard way.

 

[Junmarko]

It's getting closer! Who else is hyped for this game?

Bizarro Richard Garriott wasn't involved, so how bad can it be?

 

[Haplo]

It's getting closer! Who else is hyped for this game?

Well, with all that cut content drama and sheep treatment of inExile's customers, I am not thrilled any more, no.
But I do hope to enjoy the game for what it will be.

 

[Harry Easter]

It's getting closer! Who else is hyped for this game?

The Beta was good, so yeah, I am curious.

 

[ozymandiusz]

Looks like Chris Keenan got promoted to VP of Development now that Torment has wrapped up.

https://twitter.com/rangerkeenan?lang=en

What is that shit on his head? Does he think it is funny or what? What's next, japanese cosplay? God i hate people like him. fgt.

 

[tormund]

Looks like Chris Keenan got promoted to VP of Development now that Torment has wrapped up.

https://twitter.com/rangerkeenan?lang=en

What is that shit on his head? Does he think it is funny or what? What's next, japanese cosplay? God i hate people like him. fgt.

Yeah, how dare he express his unique individuality...

 

[Luckmann]

Looks like Chris Keenan got promoted to VP of Development now that Torment has wrapped up.

https://twitter.com/rangerkeenan?lang=en

What is that shit on his head? Does he think it is funny or what? What's next, japanese cosplay? God i hate people like him. fgt.

Yeah, how dare he express his unique individuality...

If your "unique individuality" is expressed primarily through your clothes, you're probably a faggot and your personality little more than vapor.

 

[duanth123]

Looks like Chris Keenan got promoted to VP of Development now that Torment has wrapped up.

https://twitter.com/rangerkeenan?lang=en

What is that shit on his head? Does he think it is funny or what? What's next, japanese cosplay? God i hate people like him. fgt.

Yeah, how dare he express his unique individuality...

Because nothing says unique individuality like the wearing a mass produced consumer product originally meant for children

Spoiler

and cute asian girls.

 

[Jimmious]

How about we stick on judging his work rather than his choice of clothing/apparel like little bitches?

 

[Daedalos]

I am pretty excited for this release, despite all the crap recently. 28th can't come soon enough.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]