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Twee as gently caress posted:Who the gently caress are inXile?! Chris Avellone and Black Isle are those who made PT:S great, how can it not be poo poo without him or the original team involved? Interplay's RPG division (out of which came Fallout) and Black Isle Studios were Interplay studios. Brian Fargo founded Interplay. Adraeus fucked around with this message at 06:57 on Feb 21, 2013 |
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Feb 21, 2013 06:46
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You guys are weird. Colin McComb and Monte Cook were the lead designers on Planescape at TSR after the creator David Cook left the project. That's the original Planescape, on which Black Isle's Planescape: Torment is based. McComb was a designer on Planescape: Torment at Black Isle, too. FYI: http://colinmccomb.com/?p=157
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Feb 25, 2013 08:37
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There should be a Kickstarter goal for changing the title back to just "Torment" from the awkward, oddly maddening, uber-geeky, and even unscientific "Torment: Tides of Numenera". How to name a reboot is a fairly standard process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reboot_(fiction) Despite the fact that the people involved are Planescape experts, if I were to consider backing this project, I'd want inXile to show me that they're really creating a successor to Planescape: Torment and not simply a standalone expansion for "Monte Cook's Numenera". The choice of setting and the decision to add this particular subtitle haven't left me with a great impression. Adraeus fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Feb 27, 2013 |
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Feb 26, 2013 05:09
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Great Rumbler posted:So, you think they should name it Numenera: Torment or something along those lines? I'm not really sure what your complaint here is. No, I think they should get rid of the subtitle. It's too late to complain about the name of the setting, so I won't.
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Feb 26, 2013 07:28
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FRINGE posted:They have not claimed its a 'reboot' in the way you implied. "Torment: Tides of Numenera continues the thematic legacy of the critically acclaimed Planescape: Torment." They've attached Planescape: Torment to everything they've communicated about the game. The message is clear: "Fans of Planescape: Torment, Torment is back!" They're most definitely billing Torment as a reboot. Torment is Battlestar Galactica vs. Battlestar Galactica. FRINGE posted:1) It is a Torment game (that is how they are moving forward with the branding) Torment is not "attached" to Numenera; it is Numenera. Torment is a Numenera game with Planescape: Torment-inspired themes. Hell, the antagonist (or perhaps alter ego) is essentially a carbon copy of The Nameless One with a slightly different flavor. "One of these humans discovers a way to use the numenera to grow strong, to cheat death, to skip across the face of centuries in a succession of bodies. But he discovers an unexpected side effect: You." In the end, the "Torment" name, like the revived Black Isle Studios, is just a name and their hope is that a bit of the magic that made Planescape: Torment special (read: fans with wallets) will rub off on this game. FRINGE posted:"Torment: [TITLE]" is a perfectly fine way to start a new (hopefully) successful and ongoing line of stories. Actually, it's not. Not in this case. They're trying to get us excited about playing another game in the world of Planescape: Torment, despite the fact that we clearly won't be playing such a game, after Planescape's long absence from store shelves. "Torment" alone is not just fine; it's ideal. There's literally nothing else needed because that says everything about how they want Planescape: Torment fans to make their purchase decisions. Honestly though, even ethically, the game should be called "Numenera: The Ninth World" or just "The Ninth World". Adraeus fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Feb 26, 2013 |
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Feb 26, 2013 15:56
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FRINGE posted:They are using "Torment" as their property. In the future they could easily use the thematic premise of Torment and set it in it Grimjacks Cynosure (which is also similar to Sigil), Dantes Inferno, some kind of Dr Who knockoff, or any number of settings. As long as the writing and games succeed, and they maintain control over the Torment concept, they are not stuck with anything. inXile's claim that this game will "continue the thematic legacy" of Planescape: Torment would be like Pete Best claiming that his next solo album will "continue the thematic legacy" of The Beatles because his songs will cover the same themes of love and politics. The themes of Planescape: Torment, whatever they may be, are not protected intellectual properties. Consequently, Torment is inspired by, not based on, Planescape: Torment, and is a completely new, unique, and different game that really has nothing at all to do with Planescape: Torment, sparing a few of the same developers. One would think that they're using part of the name, too, but well, not really. The two names share the word "torment," but while RPG Codex's headline "Brian Fargo has acquired the rights to Torment" led people to believe that Fargo purchased the rights to the name from someone else, he didn't; he actually just filed an application for a new trademark. So, to clarify, Torment is not a reboot of the franchise or a reimagining of Planescape: Torment, but inXile wants us to believe that this game is a reboot or, at least, is somehow related when it's actually not. And, again, "Numenera: The Ninth World" or just "The Ninth World" would be much better, more honest names (despite the fact that I really hate the name "Numenera".)
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Feb 26, 2013 23:58
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Megazver posted:Tell Brian that we get it, but he should probably ease up on the RARGH PUBLISHERS stuff at this point. ...especially since he founded and led one of the largest publishers of the 90s. Brother None posted:Well, we wanted to do a callback, but it's not the focal point of the pitch. The focus is mostly on "this is what we want to do". That segment looked more like a callback to Kixeye's recruiting campaign. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5l-nnR4Bx0 The tinny audio and liberal use of Adobe Audition's silence transformer also don't bode well for the rest of the video, which is actually rather well-done.
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Mar 6, 2013 19:14
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Gravel Gravy posted:If I understand it right, they didn't have any stretch goals set up yet, so these were only just recently hashed out, yeah? Successful campaign runners don't treat stretch goals as afterthoughts. Brother None posted:We have a list of way more stretch goals than that. But knowing what your stretch goals are and communicating them are pretty different things, especially since people do expect indepth updates and graphical representations were possible. inXile planned ahead. I don't know why they didn't prepare updates with media placeholders in advance though... By the way, Brother None, if you intend to interview the team for future campaign updates, hire a professional interviewer (who is not necessarily me!) who can get technical people to say more than a few sentences.
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Mar 7, 2013 19:14
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Brother None posted:Visuals we will get to down the line, and by then we might be talking about things that take more time. I leave those considerations to industry vets like Kevin and Brian. 3D or 2.5D? Will Torment be visually inspired by Planescape: Torment or just thematically? Can we expect that the Unity-based technology developed for Wasteland 2 to be used as the foundation for Torment? Brother None posted:Differs per company. We don't work with publishers anymore. We work with distributors, sure, which could be publishing houses doing distribution, but we don't work with them as publishers. That's us though, we're a small company and can pull this off. You can also pull that off because Fargo is a very experienced publisher himself, so self-publishing (which is still publishing!) is in his wheelhouse. You don't need a publisher if you have the capabilities of a publisher in-house. Brother None posted:That story Feargus told sounds pretty typical for em, tho. Someone's always trying to make a bad deal for someone else. That's business. And that's why when you're negotiating a contract, you have to be on your toes. I don't fault publishers for trying to make the deals that they do. They're not villains, usually (see: Naughty Dog and Universal vs. thatgamecompany and Sony.) They're trying to get the best deals for their companies. And they're sometimes very competent at that. Sometimes they're really not! I fault developers when they walk blindly into a publishing relationship and/or when they don't hire the right people to watch out for their interests. But I think Fargo's criticism is more nuanced than "publishers make bad deals for developers." I think his argument is more that "publishers don't make the deals we want," especially today where metrics and Q Scores are everything.
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Mar 10, 2013 16:12
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Fuschia tude posted:Nostalgia seems to be an even stronger force in this campaign. Helps that Planescape: Torment has been hailed as the best PC game and/or RPG of all time for nearly 15 years.
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Mar 11, 2013 20:04
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Great Rumbler posted:Wasteland 2 and Torment failing, however, would probably erase any possibility of that ever happening and see the end of inXile, especially with how vociferously he's cut ties with traditional publishers. Bad games don't end careers; they extend them. A developer credited with a bad game is far more likely to find work than a developer just entering the industry with a blank credit sheet. Some even wind up doing things like cocreating the Xbox. And a minute percentage of consumers — 2%, in fact — factor who makes games into their purchase decisions, so there's really no risk of reputational harm here. Everyone has to work on something that doesn't meet expectations at least once in their career. I'd also bet that publishers have been beating at Fargo's door since he founded inXile. He's a MVP. Publishers really don't care what you say about them as long as they stand to gain from a relationship with you.
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Mar 11, 2013 22:34
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Brother None posted:None of this is really accurate, I'm afraid. He's not a MVP? Don't tell your boss that. 
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Mar 11, 2013 22:43
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GetWellGamers posted:On the other hand, Daikatana. Daikatana didn't stop John from developing games and starting companies.
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Mar 11, 2013 22:51
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GetWellGamers posted:I'm just saying there is such a thing as a career-ruining game. Not -ending, perhaps, but certainly you can crater your personal stock in the industry with enough stinkers, or one exceedingly intense stinker. If Daikatana was just a bad game, there wouldn't have been an issue. You can get away with bad games. You just can't get away with bad communication, but even then, you can recover, eventually, because bad communication about bad games really isn't quite the same thing as saying "I'd like my life back" and then being photographed on your yacht while your company blackens the Gulf of Mexico, devastating the coastline, the economy, and the wildlife. Great Rumbler posted:He's been bouncing around from project to project and company to company for 12 years... That's two things: the game industry and dedication. Most developers aren't willing to put up with more than a couple of moves before quitting game development altogether and settling down. Even fewer still are willing, let alone capable, of starting more than one studio in their lifetime. In any other field, yeah, "bouncing around" would often rightly be considered a bad thing, but that's what most game developers have to do to make a living. Great Rumbler posted:...with virtually nothing that anyone remotely remembers having come out of that period. This coming from someone who had nearly a decade of high-profile hits. Ravenwood Fair had 25 million players in six months. The entire Doom franchise has seen around half of that. I know the cofounders of High Moon Studios (Darkwatch, Transformers). They later cofounded Appy Entertainment, which develops mobile games. If I'm remembering correctly, one told me that the games they've developed at Appy are the most successful games they've ever made. The problem is that a) the market is dramatically larger than the console and PC games that the consumer press cover, and b) what people think is memorable is in large part shaped by that coverage.
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Mar 12, 2013 00:04
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Great Rumbler posted:But that's basically my point. For a good while after Daikatana he was just "making a living," not being the rockstar game developer with his lavish studio and making whatever games he wanted. The latter was where his successes got him, Daikatana cut him down to "just making a living." That's a considerable change in career trajectory. Or just a change in perception. Here are some photos of the Ion Storm offices. A lavish and swanky interior to many at the time, but the style and amenities are standard fare for studios these days. That space cost them $2M to build, which would be excessive for a startup, but they had a $13M investment from Eidos and 100 employees in 1998. (http://www.fastcompany.com/34914/demons-over-dallas) e: Someone should probably return this thread to the Torment Kickstarter topic. Adraeus fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 01:39
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Great Rumbler posted:I don't care what anyone says, Hunted is a solid bit of fun. Based on the box art alone, I wanted to play The Bard's Tale for many years, but I couldn't find a copy. I finally played the game a year or two ago. I was very disappointed. Interestingly, an old RPG Codex review pointed out that The Bard's Tale was billed as a "re-envisioning of the series" while the game had little to do with the original Bard's Tale. "We don't have the rights to the content of the original series so we don't carry over any elements directly from the first game." —Eric Flannum, lead designer of The Bard's Tale I wonder if Hunted: The Demon's Forge was billed as a reimagining of Fargo's first commercial game as a designer, Demon's Forge.
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Mar 12, 2013 04:49
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Brown Moses posted:Looks like the Veronica Mars Movie Kickstarter is on track to knock Torment of the top spot for fastest million raised. I was an extra in Season 1, Episode 16. Locked eyes with Kristen Bell, or so I'd like to believe! Grueling 14-hour days for just two scenes. Everyone was dead tired and just staring off into the void. Even the SAG extras, who are usually prima donnas because they get special treatment, were quiet. I'm surprised that the minimum for this movie is only $2M, but then again, Veronica Mars had minimal props, used cheap locations like public schools, and was all dialogue. Megazver posted:Well, they were worried about the new releases and they wanted you to buy the tree editions. Still doesn't make any sense. My publisher had DRM for many years, which only annoyed legitimate customers. They've been distributing DRM-free ebooks for several years now and haven't looked back. In fact, I think they saw their overall sales go up. I still send out a lot of DMCAs and we have access to a global antipiracy division, but we do takedowns really only to protect the IP.
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Mar 13, 2013 22:36
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