Games

[Steven Berg]

Torment 2 coming from inXile, with several people who worked on Planescape: Torment and TSR's Planescape setting. It's not based on AD&D and Planescape, but instead on Monte Cook's upcoming Numenera RPG.

http://www.numenera.com/

Numenera is a science fantasy roleplaying game set in the far distant future. Humanity lives amid the remnants of eight great civilizations that have risen and fallen on Earth. These are the people of the Ninth World. This new world is filled with remnants of all the former worlds: bits of nanotechnology, the dataweb threaded among still-orbiting satellites, bio-engineered creatures, and myriad strange and wondrous devices. These remnants have become known as the numenera.

Player characters explore this world of mystery and danger to find these leftover artifacts of the past, not to dwell upon the old ways, but to help forge their new destinies, utilizing the so-called “magic” of the past to create a promising future.

Interview with Brian Fargo:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01 ... nt-sequel/

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 – How much are you thinking of working in overt links to/echoes of PST as opposed to broader thematic commonality? And what are the legal restrictions there – for instance, if you wanted to include a smartass talking skull with a dark secret, could you include a smartass talking skull with a dark secret?

Fargo: Rather than overt links, we are trying to recapture the feeling that players experienced through PST –both while playing it and after having completed a playthrough. We will remain true to the essence of PST, but we’ll also be looking for ways to improve the areas in which PST could have been even better. Fortunately, besides our personal experiences, we have years of feedback from other passionate PST fans to draw upon. We certainly would not infringe on any copyrights but with that said there are very few elements in RPGs that can be protected. There are several games with talking skull heads, for example, if we wanted to incorporate things of that nature.

[Qpo]

https://www.facebook.com/Torment.inXile

And on the GREAT news front.... Mark Morgan has agreed to compose the soundtrack for our new game. Torment: Tides of Numenera.

[Steven Berg]

The official site is open: https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com

There's not much on it yet except for a forum where you can vote on rewards for the Kickstarter campaign.

[shubn]

Kickstarter is live: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... f-numenera

[icycalm]

Half a mil in less than a day lol.

[shubn]

And it's now funded!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/421386

You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!! We just funded in six hours!?!?!

Our heads are still spinning at the incredible response we have had from today's support of our Kickstarter campaign. We had plans to roll out our stretch goals and to write our Kickstarter updates but never in our wildest dreams did we think we would fund this quickly!!! We are joyfully scrambling right now to get a longer update and some stretch goals in front of you as soon as we can. We should have more to say later today.

You are all unbelievably awesome and we could not be happier about receiving your trust in us. For many years we have wanted to get back to making this style of RPG but it appeared that the market was going everywhere but that direction. Almost every article and new game was focused on being an MMO, multi-player or micro-transition based. This wasn’t our style and we couldn’t generate interest in the classical narrative type of RPG that we all grew up making and playing. Thank you for backing our vision once again and we will not let you down. We will continue to communicate and and make sure we solicit input such that the game is hitting all the right notes.

Our goal is to make great RPGs for you all for the rest of our careers.

Thank you,

Brian Fargo and the team at inXile

[icycalm]

If I were a fag I'd say that all this is very heart-warming. However, I am not, so I'll just say it's awesome.

[movie]

http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/07/torment ... narrative/

Torment: Tides of Numenera hit Kickstarter last night and surpassed $900,000 in the space of six hours. Developer inXile Entertainment has spoken with us about the game’s proposed phase-based battle mechanic, which will ultimately be decided by the project’s Kickstarter backers.

As part of an interview you can read here next week, we spoke with inXile’s project director Kevin Saunders and creative lead Colin McComb about the many combat mechanics the team is considering, and how fans will get to decide which one makes the cut.

McComb explained, “What we’re favouring for combat is a phase-based combat system. But how we’ve approached it is we want it to be a stronger combat system than Planescape: Torment had. We’ve defined the main characteristics, so we want there to be strategic elements.

“By ‘strategic’ I mean the customisation of your character outside of combat, like your choices in terms of what class you are, what capabilities you have and what equipment you’re using. Within combat we want tactical decisions that are planned.

What you do away from the battlefield will also have a profound impact on how characters behave in combat, similar to Obsidian’s Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer.

“We also want a tie-in with the narrative,” McComb continued. “There will be aspects from the creative side that influence the gamplay. One example of this is what we did for Mask of the Betrayer, with you being the Spirit Eater, and having powers that had effects on combat that changed depending on what you did outside of combat.

“We want to have a focus on the quality of combat encounters over quantity, so this isn’t going to be an action RPG where you slay mobs of minions and get lots of treasure. The combat will be relevant to what’s going on.

McComb explained that combat will also be avoidable if players wish to use words, rather than weapons, “In the tradition of Planescape: Torment we want combat to be avoidable in many if not all circumstances depending on the choices you make.”

Ultimately however, the game’s Kickstarter backers will have the final word on which format inXile rests on, even if it is currently favouring phase-based combat. “So with all of these goals in mind for our combat, we think it’s agnostic of whether its real-time or pause-based like Planescape: Torment was, or if it’s phase based,” McComb concluded.

“What we’re intending to do is lave that call to our backers. We’ll present what we envision a different options for combat, and see what kind of input we get. For us it’s important we accomplish those goals from the combat system.”

[Steven Berg]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/421842

Stretch Goals

Every dollar we receive from the Kickstarter (outside of expenses for reward fulfillment) will be invested in making Torment a better game, while retaining the focus on the pillars we’ve described. That is, the game will be improving in various ways all along the way. That said, we will also be describing explicit Stretch Goals so that you can see how we plan to enhance the game and also what we’re hoping to achieve. Thanks to your enthusiasm and support, we have already passed what would have been our first Stretch Goal and are excited to announce that, though you will play Torment as a specific character, we will provide you with the choice to choose your character’s gender when you begin a playthrough.

Besides the obvious impacts of PC gender (e.g., character model, animations, increased localization work for languages for which gender matters, etc.), there will be appropriate reactivity from NPCs in the game world. This doesn’t mean that the overarching story will depend on your gender, but the level of reactivity will be significant and noticeable. Shown below is a concept piece for the female PC, drawn by Nils Hamm. Nils is still working on the male PC and we’ll show you him in a later update. (Again, this isn't all that occurs by going from $0.9m through $1.2m, just a major element we want to call out.)

$1.5 Million: Richer Story – Writer Mur Lafferty and Designer Tony Evans join the Writing Team, plus a Bonus Novella)

Upon reaching $1.5M, we will expand the richness and reactivity of the story through adding two new writers to our team. We have designed the game’s storyline to be highly scalable and modular, and this allows us to bring in additional writing talent to enhance Torment’s story through deeper content and new areas and characters – both optional ones and on the critical path.

At $1.5 Million, two excellent writers, Tony Evans and Mur Lafferty will be contributing to the game. In case you aren’t yet familiar with their past work, here’s a little information on each:

Tony has been a game writer and designer since the late 1990s and has worked on more role-playing games than any sane designer should, with time served at both Obsidian and Bioware. Tony worked on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Dragon Age 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Mask of the Betrayer (he designed the Skein and wrote One of Many, among other things). Tony was also the lead designer on Storm of Zehir.

Mur is an author from Durham, NC. She’s written for several role-playing games including Vampire, Mage, Exalted, and World of Warcraft the RPG. She started podcasting in 2004 with her show Geek Fu Action Grip, and in 2005 began producing the award-winning podcast I Should Be Writing. She's published several audiobooks via podcast, and her debut novel, The Shambling Guide to New York City, is coming out in May. She was a 2012 nominee for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction or Fantasy.

Additionally, Torment (and Wasteland 2) writer Nathan Long will be writing a novella for Torment. Nathan’s novella will be included in the Novella Compilation, and all backers receiving that reward will automatically receive this fourth novella, too.

We haven’t talked much about Nathan in the past and it’s high time to correct that. Nathan has been a superstar on the Wasteland 2 team and we are honored to have him as part of our team. Nathan is a screen and prose writer, with two movies, one Saturday-morning adventure series, and a handful of live-action and animated TV episodes to his name, as well as eleven fantasy novels and several award-winning short stories. He hails from Pennsylvania, where he grew up, went to school, and played in various punk and rock-a-billy bands, before following his dreams to Hollywood - where he now writes full time - and still occasionally plays in bands. His latest novel is Swords of Waar, the sequel to 2012's Jane Carver of Waar, and he realized his life-long dream when he began working as a game writer for inXile Entertainment.

$2.0 Million: Monte Writes, Mark Composes, and Goo Oozes

We will continue to increase Torment’s story depth and reactivity as Monte Cook also joins our writing team, contributing directly to in-game content. Monte is focused on Numenera, but we’ve been working directly with him already, seeking his guidance on how to best explore Numenera’s Ninth World. Later in the project, we will also be collaborating with Monte on the adaptation of Numenera’s tabletop rules to best suit a computer role-playing game. But at this Stretch Goal, Monte will become even more involved in Torment team and will add his writing talents as well. (Fortunately, Torment’s schedule allows for his creative work to begin later so that it won’t interfere with Numenera.)

At this Stretch Goal, Mark Morgan will write more music for Torment to complement the additional game areas and content we will be adding. Furthermore, he will incorporate a live orchestra into his work. Of course, all of this new music will be automatically including in the soundtrack (digital or CD) for backers who are receiving that reward. We will also provide the soundtrack reward in the lossless FLAC format for those who desire it.

Our initial plans for Torment included four possible companions for the player and at this Stretch Goal, we will be adding a fifth, which we’ve nicknamed “The Toy.” (That’s not its in-game name. ;) ) The Toy is a changing ball of goo: Is it a pet, an abandoned toy, a dangerous weapon? Whatever it is, it responds to the way you treat it by changing its appearance and abilities to reflect what it perceives as your desires. Its ultimate secrets are... well, you'll have to find out.

Housekeeping (including Pay Pal)

A couple other notes: First, it may be a while before we update the main Kickstarter page to reflect the content of this (and upcoming updates). You see, while finalizing our Kickstarter page, we reached the character limit allowed for a Kickstarter page (see below). So we are going to have to reorganize some of the content on our page to allow us to add new information. It might be a bit before we get to that, so please excuse any outdated content.

Second, we know that some would like to pledge through Pay Pal. Fortunately, our masterful developer Joby Bednar had already constructed the foundation necessary through our Wasteland 2 campaign. Unfortunately, we had some additional work to do for it and weren't expecting it to be necessary quite so soon. Joby, who also came in during the wee hours this morning to update our Torment website expects to have our Pay Pal store up tomorrow – we’re sorry for the delay.

When the Pay Pal store is available, any Tier that has not sold out on Kickstarter will be available through Pay Pal for those who choose. Any Tier that sells out will then also be closed on Pay Pal. This isn’t an automated process, so the Pay Pal option may be available for a short time after the Kickstarter one closes.

What’s Next?

Over the next days, we have more updates planned in which, besides any news related to the Kickstarter, will be providing some more details about our plans for Torment, building upon the information from our initial Kickstarter page. Some of these details will be explained through video updates from members of the Torment team, so you’ll get to learn both about the game and about the people who are (or will be) working on it.

[shubn]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/422515

Update #3

Torment Video Series Begins

Here is Colin to introduce to you the series of videos we’ve prepared to give you more information about Torment as well as to meet many of our talented team (the “talented” part comes with the second video – Colin is exempt from that adjective). Colin will explain more about what we have planned for you over the coming weeks and will also talk about Torment’s themes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-aVZ_QaSc

Digital Strategy Guide Added to $28+ Tiers

We will create a digital strategy guide for Torment, and this reward will be added to all Tiers $28 or higher (But there is no $28 Tier, you say? Read on! =) ). The digital strategy guide is also available as an add-on for $7.

New True Believer Tier Coming!

Tomorrow, March 8th at 1 PM PST, we will be opening up a new $28 True Believer Tier. Our initial $20 Tier sold out more quickly than we expected, which meant that many people missed out on the opportunity to be a True Believer of Torment. Some of our international audience, as well as those who wanted to pay with PayPal had no such opportunity.

This Tier will include the following:
1. DRM-free Digital Game (PC, Mac, or Linux)
2. Planescape: Torment Developer Retrospective
3. Access to the Official Torment Community
4. Digital Strategy Guide
5. Digital copy of Colin McComb’s novella (not the entire Novella Compilation)

This new True Believe Tier will be limited to 20,000 backers. It will also be available through Pay Pal until it sells out on Kickstarter. Of course, $20 True Believers, and those who joined us “late” at $25 can change to this Tier as well, gaining the digital strategy guide and Colin’s novella.

Out of fairness to our $35, $45, and $65 Tier backers, we will add Colin’s novella to these Tiers as well. We aren’t adding anything else extra to the $50 and higher Tiers at this time, but hope that Nathan’s novella and the additional novellas we hope to add to the compilation, plus the strategy guide, compensate for Colin’s novella being given out to the $28 and $35 Tiers. (Note: Colin's novella is still included in the Novella Compilation. But that single novella is also a reward for the $28, $35, and $45 Tiers.)

More Stretch Goals

We reached our $1.5m Stretch Goal soon after I sent out Update 2 last night, which means that Mur and Tony both join our writing team. Yay! (And welcome!)

We’ve received requests for a little more detail in terms of how we’ll be expanding the game as we surpass various Stretch Goals, so we want to further define the impact of adding these writers by noting that a new area, the Crystal Dimension, will also be added to the game due to reaching this milestone. Here’s a brief description:

In strange and distant worlds, life flickers toward awareness even amid the most brutal landscapes. For instance: massive mountains of crystal heave from the land and pierce the sky under pale suns, their light refracting and bending around cunning spires never touched by human hands. The infants of this land are giants, vaguely humanoid crystalline monsters torn from the land itself and given shape and purpose by the elders, who share the light and heat from their ever-diminishing bodies, chipped and worn by age.

$2.0 Million: Monte Writes, Mark Composes, Ruins of Ossiphagan, and Goo Oozes, +2 Novellas

In my fatigued state last night, I forgot to mention that at this Stretch Goal, Mur and Tony will each also be writing novellas that will be added to the compilation for all Tiers that receive it (or for those who purchase it as an add-on). Also, at the $2m mark, we will be adding the Ruins of Ossiphagan to the game:

The erupting volcanoes and surging lava fill the air with acrid smoke and choking fumes. The bones of an enormous beast lie sprawled across the obsidian fields, its ribs splayed open as if it had been torn open by some unimaginable predator. The ossified bones have been hollowed out as homes by some intrepid or foolish citizens, and the wind howls through the openings in a mournful whistle like a giant flute. In the wastes beyond, creatures of flame and focused minds trawl the lava and skim its valuable nutrients.

Also, as a surprise addition to all (including our dear colleague Colin who is learning about this commitment right now as you are) after the Kickstarter ends, Colin’s going to be doing a play through of Planescape: Torment for you all, providing his developer commentary as he goes. Which areas and characters did he write? And what was he thinking when he wrote them? How fast of a reader is he? Does he have anything good to say about the combat? What is his answer to the question: “What can change the nature of a man?” Learn all of this and more!

$2.5 Million: George Ziets, Death Mechanics – The Castoff’s Labyrinth, Monte’s Novella, New Companion, Colin’s Apology (Part 1)

Ziets!

We are thrilled to announce that George will be joining Torment as a writer at this Stretch Goal. This is a personally meaningful addition to me. You may know George from his role as Creative Lead on Mask of the Betrayer, where he led the story and character design for the game. Working on that game was one of the highlights of my career and I have George to thank for much of that. His creative aesthetics are perfect for the themes we are exploring in Torment and I’m very much looking forward to collaborating with George again.

New Novella

Monte will be writing a Torment novella at this mark as well. For a sample of Monte’s creative writing for Numenera, you might check out his short story, The Amber Monolith. http://www.numenera.com/the-amber-monolith/

Companion

This Stretch Goal will also bring the 6th companion. Some noted to us that maybe I said too much in describing “The Toy” in Update 2, so we’ll leave this one mysterious for now.

Castoff's Labyrinth

We’ll also be adding the Castoff’s Labyrinth, an area that will play into our treatment of death in Torment at $2.5M. Expanding upon this “labyrinth of the mind” will also serve as an ongoing Stretch Goal for us from this point on. We’ll be providing more detail about this area, and Death Mechanics soon, but here’s a piece that Colin wrote describing it:

"Death is the end. That's what they say. But that's not entirely true, is it? When Death crashes over you like a looming wave, you don't die. Your body knits up fast and your eyes stare off. You move and twitch. So what is it you're seeing? Where do you go when you die?"

When you open your eyes, you're in a chamber with four... no, six... make it five walls. Call it five. It's almost definitely five walls. Each of them has a door of different material, each of them wavers before you, but they become more distinct the closer you approach. The chamber is dark and dripping, a faint tremor like a slow pulse shaking the floor on a long timeline. You put your hand to the door and it opens for you, and before you lies a crumbling stone walkway over fathomless mists. You can see no roof above you, nor stars nor moon. The mists curl and lap at your feet, broken occasionally by stray eddies of wind.

There is a feeling of recognition deep inside you. You know this place. And ahead, across the span, you see a familiar face.

"What are you doing here?" you ask

"You're dead," she says. "What I mean is that you're not dead. You're coming back to life. And now you've got fragments of us in your head. Every time you take our suffering, we get stronger. In here, I mean. But if you want to come back to the world, you need to find your way out of here."

Colin's Apology (Part 1)

Last, but most certainly not least: Upon reaching $2.5m, we will send out a special video from Colin. Those of you familiar with Colin’s very early work may recall that he wrote the Complete Book of Elves for 2nd Edition AD&D. You AD&D players may remember how dreadful this work was, making elves so incredibly powerful and unbalanced that all of our AD&D games were henceforth ruined until 3rd Edition D&D came to save us. (This is a slight overstatement. We could just pretend the book never existed, after all. That’s what I did…) Fortunately, Colin wrote that over 20 years ago and he’s learned much since then. =) Plus he’s the creative guy on Torment and Adam and I aren’t going to let him get too close to the gameplay systems. Just kidding. (Mostly. ;) )

But we’ve always felt that he owes us for polluting our campaigns with his bizarre passion for elves. Thankfully, Colin seems to have gotten through his elf-fetish years. But his penance isn’t yet complete. He has apologized before, but somehow I find it lacking. I don't know about you, but I want to see him say it. So as part of our update celebrating this Stretch Goal, Colin will apologize publicly for this sin of his youth through a special video.

PayPal Ready

Finally, we launched the PayPal store earlier today (thanks, Joby!). You can reach it through clicking “Pledge” at tormentrpg.com. Thank you for your patience.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/423727

Update #4

The Music of Torment

You heard this theme composed by Mark Morgan in our Kickstarter video, but it had to fight for your attention with Colin’s melodious voice and piercing, soulful eyes. So here is Mark’s composition with a montage of Torment art. Mark is looking forward to using a live orchestra in future pieces, thanks to your enthusiastic support!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBc842j4vpU

$3.0 Million: Increased Game Reactivity and Complexity, Cults, New Companion

As we approach our $2.5M Stretch Goal, it’s time to explore what’s next. We're looking into how we might approach having some smaller, more frequent Stretch Goals, but in the meantime, we wanted to share our broader plans for if we reach $3M.

More Legacies, Deeper and Richer Reactivity

We’ve told you a little about the Tides and Legacies already – they are a key component of three of our four pillars, and at $3M we’ll be expanding their impact, especially with respect to our fourth pillar: “Reactivity, Choice, and Real Consequences.” In the upcoming days and weeks, we’ll be elaborating more on the design of the Tides and the Legacy System, but for now I’d like to explain a bit more about how these two concepts relate to each other.

Given that Legacy is the primary theme of Torment, you can imagine that its effects will run deep. Your Legacy depends upon which of the five Tides you favor – as demonstrated through your actions and decisions within the game. At our target funding, we envisioned six Legacies: one for each Tide, and then a sixth for those who have no dominant Tide. Your Legacy (and the Tides) has a variety of impacts on both gameplay and on interactions in dialogue. For example, certain items will provide different abilities depending upon your Legacy, and your Legacy also affects what focus you master. Your Legacy might draw others to you, or make them wary of you. As your actions affect the Tides, you can choose to adopt a new Legacy and embrace your decisions or you can resist their pull – for a while, at least. Some NPCs and creatures will notice and react to the Tidal impact on your Legacy, with some reacting favorably and others... not so much.

Six Legacies yields a lot of potential for reactivity and choices and consequences. But at this Stretch Goal, we take the system much further. Instead of depending only upon one Tide, your Legacy will be based upon your strongest TWO. This increases the number of Legacies to 11 (ten possible pairs, plus an eleventh for when no two reign supreme). By almost doubling the number of Legacies, we unlock many more options for gameplay and opportunities for the world and its people to respond to your choices. Your Legacy can change throughout the game, and doubling the number of Legacies doesn’t double the gameplay time. But it does have a tremendous impact on how reactive and replayable Torment will be. That makes this game a deeper, richer experience and provides you with a host more options to consider and explore as you seek your answer to Torment’s core question. Naturally, this also means that we’ll be creating even more cool, unique items and effects that respond specifically to the paths you’ve chosen.

Cults

We love you all, but it is our responsibility to torment you; that’s why you’re here in the first place. When we reach this Stretch Goal, we will add Cults to bring a little nastiness to your life. Like factions (which we had planned at our initial funding level and will discuss more later), these groups have their own interests, loyalties, and goals. Unlike factions, cults are antagonistic, roving enemies who pick up and move as they will, as the winds blow them, or as rumors of powers, enemies, or wealth summon them. Are they all being manipulated by a shadowy enemy? They might be! They might be entirely disconnected!

Should any of these cults discover who you really are, they'll seek you in accordance with their own principles. But perhaps if you are clever enough, you can discover how to manipulate them to your advantage... and you might need to, if they all descend upon you at once. They will use you as a pawn against the others, and your goals may occasionally align with theirs, with quests and opportunities potentially opening as you interact with them. Make no mistake: they are inexorably opposed to you and your ilk. But if you are persistent, sly, and creative, you might find a way to turn their strengths into yours.

We’ll begin with the following two Cults:

The Children of the Endless Gate: Death worshippers, some call them. They prefer to think of themselves as spirits trapped in flesh, and the horror of their cage pushes them to atrocity. They call themselves liberators and agents of freedom, and when they hunt the slums of the cities they leave no evidence of their passing but a tracery in blood, an ever-wet gate to a realm of pure spirit... and horror.

The Order of Flagellants and Austerities: Once a hermetic and monkish offshoot of the Order of Truth, the so-called Scourges became a mendicant order and set out into the world with the appointment of a new leader a century ago. They are a missionary sect, devoted to cleansing the world of its many sins... among which are a reliance on the numenera, of using powers not rightfully granted with birth, and of pollution of the flesh with extravagances and constructs. A single Scourge alone is no threat, for they act only in communion with their brethren. But a group of them? They feed on the rage of their kin, borrowing strength of will and thew, and run berserk if they are not stopped, laying bare the bones of those who oppose them.

Companion #7

We’ll add another surprise companion, bringing the total to 7. You want blood? You’ve got it.

Reward Tiers

I should say a few things about our reward tiers. We’ve added in several rewards so far: the Planescape: Torment Developer Retrospective (all Tiers), the Digital Strategy Guide (all Tiers $28+), Colin’s novella (for Tiers $35, $45, and $65), and three more novellas for all who are receiving either the digital or printed novella compilation. These are reflected in the tables and images in the KS page and our tumblr, but not in the sidebar on the Kickstarter page..

Next week, we’ll try to work with Kickstarter to get the sidebar Tier descriptions up to date with the extra rewards we've added, but for the time being, please trust the tables and visualizations. (Our PayPal section also still has the outdated visualizations and descriptions – all of the bonus rewards described on tumblr are valid for PayPal donations, too. Again, we should be able to refresh this on Monday.)

New Wallpapers

Last, but not least, we’ve added wallpapers based upon Chang’s concepts “Sojourner of Worlds” and “Sagus Cliffs at Dawn” to the labyrinthine wallpaper we posted a couple weeks ago. Find them on the media section of our website.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/424325

Update #5

Numenera and the Ninth World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnciHOCVVdw

In this video, Monte talks about Numenera and its emphasis on mystery and discovery. He describes the Ninth World and in particular the Beyond (the region in which much of Torment will take place). Monte also talks about the basics of character creation for the tabletop game, including descriptors, foci, and the three primary character types (classes). (We’ll discuss this more in a later update, but for now know that all three character types (Glaives, Jacks, and Nanos) will be options for your PC in Torment, and that you will have (or acquire) a descriptor and focus as well.)

We are embracing the wonder and mystery of the Ninth World and it perfectly fits our goals for Torment. In some ways, Numenera iterates upon design philosophies behind Planescape™, which both Colin and Monte played key roles in creating. Monte notes: “One of the things I loved about Planescape™ was the wild imagination and the pushing the envelope – we could really do anything we wanted to, go anywhere our imaginations took us. And I wanted to achieve the same thing with Numenera.”

A key philosophy behind Monte’s new game is to allow game masters (GMs) a great degree of flexibility. Numenera provides a versatile framework within which we can play. This flexibility extends beyond the creative vision and the setting and into the game rules systems. Numenera’s rules are designed to support the narrative and creative elements of role-playing, being streamlined both to provide great variety in character customization and to keep a desirable pace for the gameplay and story. With a computer role-playing game, we can emphasize story-telling while having a more complex system underneath the hood than would be desired for a tabletop game. Computer games are capable of intricate calculations that could be tedious for tabletop play, so we're able to implement these new systems for Torment without impeding the flow of the game. Our close collaboration with Monte, means we quickly receive his feedback on our new systems. (How much of the complexity you peer into while playing will depend on your preferences – we will leverage the highly customizable user interface and extensive options system that we’ve developed for Wasteland 2 for this purpose).

One example of our extending upon the Numenera rules for Torment is our Legacy System, which along with the Tides, is not part of the core Numenera game. They are elements that inXile has designed specifically for this computer game to achieve our vision for Torment. We’ve discussed the Tides with Monte to ensure they fit well within the Ninth World, and he’s given us ideas about how to even better embrace the concept within the story and setting. As another example, we intend for Torment’s combat system to include more complexity than the core Numenera rules. One of the reasons we chose the Ninth World setting, and the Numenera rules, is because it provides an excellent foundation for Torment, with the freedom to adapt them for the best Torment computer role-playing experience we can devise.

About Stretch Goals and Funding

We’ve noted some explicit Stretch Goals, but we’ve also explained that every dollar we receive from your contributions during this campaign (including the 10% matching from $2M to $3M by @Dracogen!) will be going into the game development budget (along with reward fulfillment). I wanted to explain briefly what we mean. As more funding is available, we can make many improvements that aren’t easily described as a Stretch Goal. For example, at this upcoming milestone, George Ziets will be joining the writing team. This doesn’t just involve George. His writing contributions will allow us to increase depth and complexity, resulting in an even more branching and reactive storyline. More written content requires new art, more scripting support, and more quality assurance and iteration to polish the content. As the game increases in depth and complexity, new interface elements and features will be needed to properly communicate to you everything you need to know. George (and each writer) who contributes to the game creates more work (in a good way) for many who are behind the scenes.

Another important point to mention is the modular nature in which we’ve crafted Torment’s story. What we mean by this is that our story’s design makes it relatively easy for us to add content, especially optional content, but also critical path content in some cases. Our target funding was what we believed was required to make a worthy game that fulfills the vision we’ve presented to you. Additional resources allow us to make it richer, deeper, more polished. Though to some extent, more funds allow us to make a longer game, that is not our focus. Our focus in this regard is defined by our fourth pillar: “Reactivity, Choice, and Real Consequences.” When we talk about adding content, this is where our emphasis is: to make an even more engaging experience, to truly push the envelope in terms of role-playing game reactivity. This is one reason we’re excited about the expanding upon the Legacy System and the Tides – we see possibilities that to us were distant dreams last week when we launched this Kickstarter, when we didn’t realize how much you would support us and the vision for the game we are creating for you (and for ourselves, to be honest – this is a game we are very passionate about.)

We promise to you that all of the funds will be leveraged to best realize the vision we have presented. (Several in our community have expressed opinions along these lines, including GrinningReaper659 and aratuk.) We won’t be using funds from this Kickstarter to add in features that deviate from this vision. We treat the trust you have placed in us seriously, and will maintain our precise focus on creating the game we have told you about. (For example, there is no total this Kickstarter could reach that would lead us to implement multiplayer.) We won’t be trying to broaden our audience – our goal is to provide you with the best embodiment of the game we have presented. Any features we add, any content we add, will be to better deliver on our vision. Especially for a game like Torment, excellence is achieved through focus.

Dialogue and Companions

Compelling dialogue and intriguing companions are at the core of the Torment experience. We’ll use dialogue trees in which you choose the line you speak or the action you take from a list of options, defining your character by what you say and do. We’ll iterate on tried-and-true systems (such as that of Planescape™: Torment) to make conversations even more interesting, but we’ll target the same type of experience. We'll design a new slang unique to the world (just enough to give the world depth, mind you; we won't pound you on the head with how cool our cant is).

You’ll have optional companions who might accompany you on your journey. You will be able to talk with them, delving into their personalities and histories, even shaping them (or driving them away) with your responses. They, too, might have their own things to say about a given situation and will interject whenever they feel like it. That said, you’ll have full control over your party. Some companions might choose to leave you over an extreme situation, but as long as they’re in your party, they’ll go where you direct them and do what you tell them.

We’ve been asked some questions about what types of relationships the PC might have with their companions. Our position is this: adhering to our four pillars, we are going to craft nontraditional, complex, and believable characters. We are going to develop the companions with enough depth that we understand their motivations and personality. And then we will write them to respond appropriately to the situations they encounter. Love, which comes in many forms, is certainly relevant when exploring themes of legacy, abandonment, and mystery – and we expect to explore this emotion in ways that fits the story and characters. Meaningful friendships, even feelings of affection, will be possible, but relationships of the flesh would be inconsistent with our narrative.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/427226

Update #6

The Meres

Colin describes the Meres, which are the devices by which you’ll inhabit the bodies of other castoffs. You’ll learn about these early in Torment and they will be one of the tools at your disposal to solve various situations – or simply to explore more of the world, your heritage, and the nature of the Tides. Many of the Meres will be optional (or even hidden), and they are one of several ways in which the story is modular and reactive – which Meres are available to you at different points in the game will depend in part upon your choices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZQxpuR6Tw

$2.5M Achieved!

Thanks to you continuing to spread the word and add to your pledges, we’ve reached the next stretch goal, meaning that George Ziets will be joining the writing team! Welcome, George - Torment awaits! We are also adding a sixth companion.

Additionally, Monte will write a novella that will be added to the digital and printed novella compilations. (We’ll talk more about the nature of the novellas soon. You may think seven is too many... not so! We have many stories to tell...)

We will also implement the Castoff’s Labyrinth. Death in Torment will not be the same as “game over,” and there’s more to it this time than waking up in a mortuary. Your body is mostly immortal. Your consciousness, on the other hand, is a twisted place. When you die, your consciousness travels somewhere else, to a labyrinth of the mind.

The Castoff’s Labyrinth is a strange realm, a dreamlike maze of jungles, stairways, tunnels, and ruined cities. It’s your mind, but you wouldn’t know it from all that’s in here (I mean, what the hell is that dead, tentacled thing the size of a mountain range?). When you die in the game, you could always just reload, or maybe find the easy way out of the maze and back to your body. But you’d be missing out – it’s our goal to make gameplay after death compelling enough that you won’t even think about reloading.

The Castoff’s Labyrinth is a bizarre and interesting gameplay area, one of haunting exploration and discovery. As it grows, its secrets become deeper and more complex. Its depths are called Fathoms, and each brings new secrets and -- for the determined -- new rewards. What types of secrets and rewards? One will be lost cyphers: Each time you die, a new cypher (a single-use numenera) appears in the Labyrinth that you can take back with you. As the Labyrinth gets bigger, more of these random cyphers will become available the deeper you go. More types of secrets are attached to upcoming Stretch Goals, some of which are described below.

For every 3000 Backers beyond 45,000 (roughly when the $2.5m Stretch Goal was reached), we will extend the Castoff’s Labyrinth by one Fathom. So at 48,000 Backers, we’ll be at Fathom 2, at 51,000 Fathom 3, etc. (As of this writing, we are well on the way to Fathom 2!) Each Fathom adds deeper playable content and reactivity, and more of the features reached through the Stretch Goals (e.g., like increased quantity and complexity of the Reflections discussed below).

We’ll soon have a graphical representation up to better show the Castoff's Labyrinth's twisted progression to deeper Fathoms. (Backers through both Kickstarter and PayPal will count toward determining the labyrinth's Fathoms.)

New $2.75M Stretch Goal (and an addition at $3M)

Many have requested more frequent Stretch Goals now that we’re in the slower period of the Kickstarter campaign. In addition to the Castoff’s Labyrinth gaining Fathoms, we are excited to announce the following at $2.75m (as suggested by manaf82):

Over a decade ago, an enthusiastic writer and designer broke into the games industry through a job in QA at Interplay. One of the games he worked on as QA was Planescape: Torment. It didn’t take long for Brian Mitsoda to prove his creative capabilities and move into design, eventually leaving Interplay and Black Isle Studios and becoming a key writer for the acclaimed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. I met Brian in 2005, when he joined me as the creative lead for Dwarfs, a grim prequel to Snow White that I was the lead designer on at Obsidian. Brian has since founded his own company, DoubleBear Productions, whose game Dead State, met with great success on Kickstarter last year. Brian will contribute his creative talent to Torment, bringing him back full circle in terms of his career. And what could be more fitting for a game that explores one’s legacy? (Fortunately, the schedules for Torment and Dead State make this possible.)

At this Stretch Goal we will also add Reflections of Companions and NPCs to the Castoff’s Labyrinth. These Reflections have different dialog and information than their living counterparts, and you will learn secrets about them that would otherwise remain hidden. (But are these secrets really about them? Or are they about you?) The more Fathoms within the Labyrinth, the more Reflections there will be, and the deeper their dialogues become.

Finally, we are adding another Castoff's Labyrinth feature to the $3m Stretch Goal: Secret Meres. These Meres (dependent upon the Fathoms) are hidden within the Labyrinth and are accessible only from your own mind.

New Stretch Goal Idea Forum

We have opened a new idea forum on our Torment Community specifically to get your input on what you’d like us to focus on for Stretch Goals. Already your ideas on our general Torment Kickstarter forum have helped lead us to the Castoff’s Labyrinth, George Ziets, and Brian Mitsoda as Stretch Goals. This new forum is specifically for Stretch Goal ideas and voting and will help us plan the path ahead – we have our own ideas, but we want to hear more of yours. We’re starting by limiting the number of votes to just 6 so that everyone has to choose carefully what is most important to them (but of course you can post comments anywhere). We’ve prepopulated this forum with some of our thoughts, as well as several others you’ve mentioned in the forums or comments already. Please share more.

Over 3500 of you have already joined our User Voice forums – but if you haven’t yet, please register at our website and add your voice!

Colin’s Apology (Part 1)

In case you missed it, here is Colin’s best attempt at being apologetic for the imbalanced Complete Book of Elves. (Are you convinced he’s really sorry?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwDWx1cAqP4

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/429326

Update #7

New Concept: The Ascension of Kex-Lianish

We’ve received many requests from you to give you some more tools to help spread the word and get more people interested in Torment. The more we raise, the better the game we can create. We are excited to share with you Andree Wallin’s first Torment piece, The Ascension of Kex-Lianish, which shows a crystalline dimension to which you may travel (or perhaps not). It’s available as a wallpaper at our website.

Art lovers – the three concept pieces you’ve seen thus far (Chang’s The Sojourner of Worlds and Sagus Cliffs at Dawn and Andree’s The Ascension of Kex-Lianish) are all options for the Signed Limited Edition Print that’s included in the $1,000 Limited Edition Signed Print tier, as well as the $5,000 and $10,000 tiers. (After the campaign, you will pick which of the available pieces, including these, you’d like.)

Choices, Consequences, and the Tides

Adam describes Tides and Legacies a bit further, and explains some of how they will contribute to Torment’s reactivity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIwnMpWMon4

Novella Compilation – From the Depths

The Novella Compilation features standalone novellas by Colin McComb and Monte Cook andas well as From the Depths, five interlinked novellas by Adam Heine, Mur Lafferty, Nathan Long, Ray Vallese, and Tony Evans. Colin's novella will be tied more directly to the story of our game, with backstory on some of the characters or companions (no major spoilers, of course). Monte's novella will be a more proper introduction to the Ninth World and the Steadfast.

From the Depths will be a series of novellas interlinked, not in their stories or characters, but in their connections to the Tides and Torment's part of the Ninth World. Each novella will take place in the history of one of Torment's locations, and will revolve around the stories of individuals who, through their actions, embody one of the Tides. We’ve talked about how the Tides are complicated and nuanced concepts – through these stories, you will gain a deeper understand of what each Tide means, and how each manifests itself.

You'll read the tale of Luthiya, a young girl who lived in Ossiphagan, back when the town faced destruction by the Fire Wights, and the extraordinary measures she took to save the lives of those around her. And the more personal tale of Reen, who led an expedition into the heart of a murderous city in an insane attempt to cure his wife's deadly illness. The third novella is about the abhuman Baji, forced to choose between his people and a group of air-breathing refugees on the brink of death. Then we tell the tale of Zelor, the artist exiled to a world of creatures who could not see, hear, or – apparently – feel, and how he awoke the fires of their minds. Finally, you'll read about the Great Chila – long before she was ever called Great – and the role she played in the conflict between the rulers of Sagus Cliffs and the fugitives living within the Bloom.

All seven of these novellas are included in the compilation, available at the new $39 tier, the $50 tier and all tiers $75 and up (Colin's novella is included in all tiers $28 and up). They are also available as a digital add-on to ANY tier for $15. Any new novellas we may add will automatically be included with this reward.

The printed version of the novellas is included in all physical goods tiers $250 and higher. It will be a limited edition print run that’s only available to backers. (Note that while we are localizing the game text in French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish, these novellas will only be available in English at this time.)

New Tier at $39

For those eager to learn more about the Ninth World, Torment, and the Tides, we are adding a new Lore Aspirant Tier at $39 that includes:

1. DRM-free Digital Game (PC, Mac, or Linux)
2. Planescape: Torment Developer Retrospective
3. Access to the Official Torment Community
4. Digital Strategy Guide
5. Digital Novella Compilation, which includes all novellas (currently 7)

This limited Tier is the same as the $28 one, except that it also includes the Digital Novella Compilation (at $4 less than it would be at the add-on price of $15).

Second Fathom Achieved

The Second Fathom of the Castoff’s Labyrinth was reached this morning as we surpassed 48,000 Backers! We’ll have the Second Fathom available soon, but in the meantime here is the first, sketched by artist Dana Knutson. (This may not be going exactly where you expect - one's mind is not always predictable...)

torment-pic2.png (298.51 KiB) Viewed 34702 times

Community News

We have opened a new idea forum on our User Voice for ideas about the game. We have prepopulated it with a number of decisions we’ve already made that define the game and our plans – most (if not all) of these are things we’ve talked about before. (Use the filters to see the "Will Do" and "Won't Do" ideas.) We opened this forum in part because many of the ideas being put into the other forums were game suggestions so we wanted those to have a proper home. We’ve also closed down the Torment Kickstarter forum, as we had moved Stretch Goals into their own and this one had largely served its purpose already.

Since Wednesday, more than 600 new members have joined the forums, bringing us to over 4000! Register at our website if you wish to join us.

We also have a couple new community sites we’d like to call out:

First, Pawel "Ausir" Dembowski has established an official Torment wiki – the place to check up on Torment information we’ve released thus far.

And a Polish version of our tumblr has been set up and is being run by Grimuar Sferowca. We’re excited to have their help in offering our Polish fans the latest Torment news!

Finally, Brian, Monte, Colin, and I are planning an AMA on Reddit next Wednesday, March 20 from roughly 9 AM to noon PDT. We’ll send more information next week. Remember to follow us on our Facebook and tumblr pages (and @BrianFargo), if you’d like more frequent news about Torment.

[Steven Berg]

First screenshot revealed: http://www.vg247.com/2013/04/01/torment ... -revealed/

Torment-Tides-of-Numenera-first-gameplay-screen-600x337.jpg (46.69 KiB) Viewed 34664 times

The image is from an area called the Bloom, and InXile told us it was created using 2D pre-rendered background techniques. The Bloom itself is a sentient location which has the ability to reach across multiple realities using its living tendrils.

It’s a maze-like environment that hides many dangers, and has the power to transport adventurers away to other worlds in an instant. Traders who explore other realities and dimensions use the Bloom as a trading hub, where they exchange items from different worlds.

You may also remember the Bloom from this rather neat piece of concept art.

What do you think so far?

Meanwhile you can check out my interview with inXile’s Brian Fargo about adding Obsidian developer Chris Avellone to the Torment Kickstarter stretch goals, and my first interview with project director Kevin Saunders and creative lead Colin McComb on the game’s plot, gameplay, moral tides and more.

[Heell]

Another screenshot:

A Unity test video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4DJSEcjMsE

From the kickstarter update 14:

Sagus Cliffs

On Monday, you saw our first game screenshot, which was set in the Bloom. Today we have for you a second, which is set in Sagus Cliffs. Though we were very excited when the Bloom screenshot came together, we felt that it alone painted too narrow of a picture of what Torment would look like. We wanted show you (and to prove to ourselves) another environment to demonstrate some of the variation in architecture and color palettes that you’ll see in Torment. Here is our first attempt at a less organic location. (Higher resolution version available here.)

The city of Sagus Cliffs borders a large inland sea, winding its way down to the water through switchbacks and cutout caverns. The city is vast, both vertically and horizontally, exhibiting a wide variety of architectural styles as its layers were stacked upon each other across the ages. Some buildings are built out far over the water below, precariously holding through elaborate winches, pulleys, and wires. Some have no such support, practically hovering under their own power. But the old ways still hold – literally – sometimes clinging to the last scavenged beams on which they were originally erected, with bridges of coherent light helping to hold together the city’s economy. At the base of the cliff, the ocean crashes and swirls around the rubble of fallen houses, the city extending downward even here – with some structures diving beneath the waves.

[Some guy]

A track from the game has been released: https://soundcloud.com/destructoid/sagu ... ark-morgan

It accompanies the Sagus Cliffs area in the game.

[Ununpentium]

http://www.vg247.com/2013/04/05/torment ... urs-to-go/

With three hours left on the Kickstarter clock, Torment: Tides of Numenera has hit $4,028,412 thanks to 71,911 backers, and that’s not even counting the over $176,000 earned through PayPal. The latest round of money tossed at the project has made the project the current Kickstarter record holder for most funding, besting Project Eternity. The project with the most funding from all areas was Star Citizen and its $6.2 million. To celebrate the milestone, inXile posted another piece of concept art, showing off a male playable character. Enjoy.

[icycalm]

First Glimpse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coWnxfSFtKk

This early alpha footage of Torment: Tides of Numenera shows the choice-based focus in the RPG.

Looks pretty good zoomed in. I wish they showed it a bit zoomed out as well. Voice acting is great. Not sure what I think about the art direction. It's good, but not quite on the level of the original, I think. Still, have to see more of the game to be able to tell with more confidence.

[infernovia]

A World Unlike Any Other Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybqE8FlLrqg