Torment: Tides of Numenera now open for backing!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 6, 2013

Torment: Tides of Numenera is now an official Kickstarter project, as of this morning. I know. It’s a Kickstarter. If you have faith (I do), this is a gimme for RPG fans. And as of right now, almost a third of the extra-cheap limited slots for early backers are already taken, so there’s probably only a few minutes left to get going on this one at the bargain-basement pre-order deal ($20). Not that an extra $5 is a big deal for the next tier. I went higher still, ‘cuz I enjoy soundtracks, and I am a fan of Mark Morgan’s work. Like I said, I have faith.

So you can go back Torment: Tides of Numenera on Kickstarter right now if you want to get in early.

Torment: Tides of Numenera is a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment. It’s by InXile, the guys working on Wasteland 2, run by Brian Fargo, the guy who founded & ran Interplay (which published Planescape: Torment). A few of the original developers are involved in the new project, and it takes place in a new campaign setting by Monte Cook, one of the main designers of the Planescape setting back in the day. Colin McComb, also on this team, was one of the other key designers of the original setting. If you feel a designer can actually get better with age and experience, this suggests that Numenera can be everything Planescape was, and more. Personally, I wasn’t fond of the PS setting anyway, and I thought Torment was its sole redemption.

And Chris Avellone, lead designer of the original, has given his blessing (warning, colorful language):

So as Kickstarters go, this is pretty low-risk. Established team w/ track record, a pretty decent foundation, modeled after a critically acclaimed game that some of the team was directly involved with. The key points should warm the hearts of most western-style RPG fans: Story driven, single-player, iso view, join up w/ NPCs, and it promises the thematically “deep” narrative with lots of personal choices. Again, if it mirrors its spiritual ancestor, it should do well.

But there’s a lot more details at the Kickstarter page.

And with that, I leave you to decide. As I’ve said before, I like Kickstarter and have been a frequent backer, but I do have certain misgivings about recommending projects to others. After all – it’s always a gamble. I have little doubt personally that this project will get funded (they’re nearly halfway there only three hours in!), or that it will achieve fruition – and be available for sale in a couple of years. So you can simply wait until then if you choose, and help make it more profitable in the end. Your call.

But either way, I’m excited about this one…

Filed Under: Game Announcements - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Califer said,

Which reminds me, I totally need to dust off my Torment CD and play it for once.
Xenovore said,

Looks interesting. (Although I’m somewhat disappointed that it will be single-player only; it seems perfect for some co-op play.)
Braindead said,

funny, it’s already been backed. this might be a first for a Kickstarter that asks for quite a large amount…

22,443 backers
$1,153,129 pledged of $900,000 goal
30 days to go
Andy_Panthro said,

I backed it, and I appreciated how they told Wasteland 2 backers how it wouldn’t delay things or affect it’s quality. The two projects are in very different stages of production, with different people working on them because of that.

Also, it’s already fully backed (and then some!) Total as of posting this: $1,155,436 (fastest time to reach $1M)
alanm said,

I dunno man. Call me cynical, but I’m reminded of the Shaker debacle. When a company with a big project already on the go offers up another Kickstarter I can’t help thinking that they’re mostly aiming to smooth out their cash flow.

I confess I haven’t studied the Tides Kickstarter pitch in detail, but a cursory scan of the front page suggests they’ve got nothing but ideas and concept art. I’m not inspired with confidence. These might be developers with the best credentials and best intentions, but when all the $$$ is in one bank account and the Wasteland project needs a couple extra months of polish, what would you do in their shoes?

Like my grandma used to say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Rampant Coyote said,

You certainly aren’t wrong, alanm. I mean, it’s a management issue at this point – ideally, you want to keep all 1.5 teams going full-bore with no significant slack. The reality is, you build some slack into the schedule so that if there’s slippage, you don’t have to immediately start laying people off. You build a buffer.

The low risk here is that Fargo’s been doing this since I was in Junior High, and knows his stuff. Not that he’s impervious to mistakes – including bad ones (Stonekeep, anyone?). That’s why I say there’s always risk. But I expect the chances of successful release of both games to be pretty well north of 50/50.
BarryB said,

The PS:T team was put after its release on developing one title; removed, put on another; then fired. My understanding was that this was all on Fargo’s watch, and with his final approval. PS:T was a decent seller, but not the world-buster they’d wanted. I understand the need for cash cows, but I’ve never seen Fargo as someone who really was gung-ho on doing great RPGs, but one of the leaders in the games industry who wanted to make his company much larger.