Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Pre-Release Thread [ALPHA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Crooked Bee]

Same day? If Garriott goes for a single player PC RPG and not a social mobile game, this might drive a significant bit of funding away from Torment 2.

Say, Brother None, is Fargo concerned about Lord British's Kickstarter?

 

[Zeriel]

Kiddy-land Ultima and Torment don't really strike me as competing franchises, but then I suppose every last little cent counts.

 

[Crooked Bee]

It seems to me that all "old school RPG" Kickstarters target the same audience, more or less (or at least the audiences that overlap significantly), and we haven't yet seen two of them run side by side, have we? Assuming Garriott goes for a PC CRPG, this kind of competition is gonna be a funny thing to watch.

 

[tuluse]

Didn't Shadow Run Returns launch during the Wasteland 2 drive?

 

[Brother None]

Same day? If Garriott goes for a single player PC RPG and not a social mobile game, this might drive a significant bit of funding away from Torment 2.

Say, Brother None, is Fargo concerned about Lord British's Kickstarter?

Concerned? Well, it could make things interesting, sure. We've had a bit of discussion about it internally, but at this point we're not going to adopt to it in any way, we're just going ahead with our own plans and schedule.

In the movie industry it is common to coordinate among each other to avoid launching block busters at the same time. We communicated our launch window to Kickstarter quite a while ago in that spirit.

 

[Brzęczyszczykiewicz]

Didn't Shadow Run Returns launch during the Wasteland 2 drive?

Shadowrun Returns ended on 29 april 2012 and Wasteland 2 ended 17 on april 2012.

 

[Infinitron]

It's possible that running two "blockbusters" at once might have an unexpected synergistic effect. More eyes on Kickstarter --> more money for both projects.

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah, this will be a first with 2 "big" names at the same time so we don't have any clue what will happen, and it could actually be good for both. 100% going to back Torment... now I just wait to see what Gariott is going to do.... but I'm not expecting something I'll be interested in...

 

[Clockwork Knight]

People backing this sort of project would likely be interested in both, I don't see them as "competing" against each other. The only consequence I see is someone who would give all the money to one project splitting the sum between the two.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Doesn´t sound right they moving forward on a second Kickstarter begging drive when their first Kickstarter project is nowhere close to being finished. They should have sat on this until WL2 was gold.

 

[Akarnir]

Are they really gonna get that much money for this project?

I would be surprised if they get more than 2 Million. Just look at project eternity : they have all the big names, and they were catering to the whole Infinity Games fans: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale AND PS:T. The title was presented as the perfect mix between these 3 titles. This is supposed to be the spiritual successor of these 3 games. And they got 4 Million.

Now here this is only a ''spiritual successor'' of just PS:T. It's not even set in the Planescape setting, and overall it got absolutely nothing to do with Planescape Torment. It's not even fantasy. I personally don't mind that much, but a lot of torment fans were there for the fantasy and plane travel stuff.

All it features is an inner emotional journey of the player or something.
That's not very specific. Inner philosophical journey ,or whatever people call this, is not exclusive to ''Torment''.

So they are basically pitching a random Game that has some philosophical/psychological/emotional/MATURE themes. They shouldn't expect more success than any other reputable studio pitching a random project (that looks good).

I will probably back this game, because I believe InXile can deliver a good RPG with a good story. But I'm not backing it because it's a Torment ''sequel''.

My bet : they get the same amount as the Shadowrun return guys.

 

[Infinitron]

Are they really gonna get that much money for this project?

I would be surprised if they get more than 2 Million. Just look at project eternity : they have all the big names, and they were catering to the whole Infinity Games fans: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale AND PS:T. The title was presented as the perfect mix between these 3 titles. This is supposed to be the spiritual successor of these 3 games. And they got 4 Million.

Now here this is only a ''spiritual successor'' of just PS:T. It's not even set in the Planescape setting, and overall it got absolutely nothing to do with Planescape Torment. It's not even fantasy. I personally don't mind that much, but a lot of torment fans were there for the fantasy and plane travel stuff.

All it features is an inner emotional journey of the player or something.
That's not very specific. Inner philosophical journey ,or whatever people call this, is not exclusive to ''Torment''.

So they are basically pitching a random Game that has some philosophical/psychological/emotional/MATURE themes. They shouldn't expect more success than any other reputable studio pitching a random project (that looks good).

I will probably back this game, because I believe InXile can deliver a good RPG with a good story. But I'm not backing it because it's a Torment ''sequel''.

Random projects that look good don't have Monte Cook, Colin McComb, Kevin Saunders, etc.

And they don't have the word "Torment" in their name.

 

[Akarnir]

Random projects that look good don't have Monte Cook, Colin McComb, Kevin Saunders, etc.

And they don't have the word "Torment" in their name.

But are you really expecting them to raise as much as PE or even wasteland 2?

It's basically not a sequel, not a revival of a long lost once super popular genre. All it has is the Inner journey stuff. That doesn't mean it won't be good. Just that it's not as ''big'' as other project.

And I'm pretty sure the ''Planescape'' Name would actually ring more bells than ''Torment''.

 

[Infinitron]

Random projects that look good don't have Monte Cook, Colin McComb, Kevin Saunders, etc.

And they don't have the word "Torment" in their name.

But are you really expecting them to raise as much as PE or even wasteland 2?

Probably not. I'd like to think that two million dollars is doable, though. That's nothing to sneeze at.

 

[ghostdog]

Since they have the tech and part of the personnel ready, maybe they should work up to a prototype with some basic gameplay before starting the kickstarter. Something like that will certainly increase KS funds... if it looks good, that is.

 

[Kem0sabe]

If shadowrun managed to get it done for much less (in 2d even), i imagine that they could do it with 2 million.

 

[Roguey]

Random projects that look good don't have Monte Cook, Colin McComb, Kevin Saunders, etc.

And they don't have the word "Torment" in their name.

The latter will make a difference, not so much the former. Most people don't know or care who those people are.

 

[Infinitron]

Random projects that look good don't have Monte Cook, Colin McComb, Kevin Saunders, etc.

And they don't have the word "Torment" in their name.

The latter will make a difference, not so much the former. Most people don't know or care who those people are.

They will after they introduce themselves in an AWESOME pitch video.

Plenty of PE's backers probably didn't know who Sawyer, Cain and maybe even Avellone were, either, I'll bet. But they do now.

 

[Rake]

Random projects that look good don't have Monte Cook, Colin McComb, Kevin Saunders, etc.

And they don't have the word "Torment" in their name.

But are you really expecting them to raise as much as PE or even wasteland 2?

Probably not. I'd like to think that two million dollars is doable, though. That's nothing to sneeze at.

This.
Wasteland 2 success is no repeatable.In my opinion he managed to gather that much money not because wasteland/fallout but because of the whole "publisers are teh eval" thing.If not for that it would be close to what Shadowrun made.The campain was marketed as a stance against the publising model, and it resonated for that reason. By now the novelty of that has weard of. 2 millions are not a bad sum. Shadowrun makes a game in 2D and it looks good for that amound. The only possible problem is the size of the game, but until then Fargo will have W2 sales to help T:ToN along

 

[Zed]

Random projects that look good don't have Monte Cook, Colin McComb, Kevin Saunders, etc.

And they don't have the word "Torment" in their name.

The latter will make a difference, not so much the former. Most people don't know or care who those people are.

I think you're wrong.
They'll read Torment and go "oh, so do they actually have any Torment devs on this?" and go "yeah, I guess they do". It will legitimate the fact that it's called Torment.

 

[Roguey]

They will after they introduce themselves in an AWESOME pitch video.

Plenty of PE's backers probably didn't know who Sawyer, Cain and maybe even Avellone were, either, I'll bet. But they do now.

Avellone has a creepy cult of personality going on, Tim Cain is held up as the father of Fallout (to the exclusion of others), and Josh has been marketing himself as an online presence for over ten years. These guys are Guido Henkel/Brenda Brathwaite/Tom Hall-tier.

 

[Infinitron]

These guys are Guido Henkel/Brenda Brathwaite/Tom Hall-tier.

No, they're above that tier, but below the Cain/Avellone tier. Don't be so binary.

Also, what Zed said.

 

[Roguey]

These guys are Guido Henkel/Brenda Brathwaite/Tom Hall-tier.

No, they're above that tier, but below the Cain/Avellone tier. Don't be so binary.

I disagree. Cook has a name in P&P circles, but who knows who Saunders or McComb are? I'd put them below Tom Hall even (whose Commander Keen successor failed).

Also, what Zed said.

Or they could perceive it as a band getting back together without the lead singer.

 

[Infinitron]

Cook has a name in P&P circles

...enough of a name to get $111 average pledge per backer on his Kickstarter. And most of those people will probably pledge to Torment. Ka-ching!

but who knows who Saunders or McComb are?

McComb can gain instant cred for being MCA's second in command in PS:T and for being a Planescape co-creator. Kevin Saunders has actually worked on recent games, so he has that working for him.

Anyway, we don't know who else they might be bringing. Got any ideas?

 

[Akarnir]

The question is, Are people really gonna react to ''Torment'' ?

Sure the monocled gentlemen on the codex really knows it's implication, but I'm pretty sure that most people that played PS:T would probably react to ''Planescape'' more than ''torment''. As the first is less generic, and above all, evokes the entire setting.

In an hypothetical case, If I had to choose the name, I would pick Planescape 2 over Torment 2.