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[ilium]

Looks amazing! Can't wait!!


Looks almost too good actually... I hope it'll run on my laptop ._.

 

[Denton]

What? People are saying RPG's are dead?

Pretty much all publishers are, or at least were, when both inXile and Warhorse tried to pitch their rpgs to them.

I am so motherfuckingly happy that crowd funding exists.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

That last part was a bit unnecessary even though a lot of gamers do not like to read.

I dunno. Torment (and WL2) will turn off so many because you're reading so much compared to even the most verbose CRPGs. I mean, they're really on the level of the most wordy text-adventures, just with a graphical layer to them. I think it's an important thing to note even if it bugs some people for whatever reason. I don't know if everyone is going to dig the non-combat direction of the Torment game (despite that being quite faithful to the Planescape game), either, so I think it might be something to emphasize in the push toward its eventual release, whenever that is. I view it as a badge to wear and a way to advertise how this game differentiates. Otherwise, people might get the idea that they're going to play a BG or ID game that does have plenty of direct conflict.

 

[Ruuppa]

There was voice acting in the original.

Yeah, but not on mooks like a dude you feed to a Beholder 15 minutes after meeting him.

I'm not bothered about VA in RPGs, as long as it doesn't affect the depth of the dialogue and stuff. And with the walls of texts I saw in the trailer, that doesn't seem to be the case, and the PC isn't VA'd so that's a big plus in my books.

 

[Tildom]

So many memories... I'm delighted with the trailer and I can't wait to play the game

 

[Acosta]

I'm in love.

In the visual aspect, I hope they deliver on the most urban settings, the original mock up of that city still resonates in my dreams.

I really enjoyed what I saw in terms of dialogue and that they decided to highlight a fast version a quest being a manipulative bastard, really good take. The otherworldly hints were great, but I want weirder and rich environments if possible. Awesome music, but that was a given.

 

[RPG_Fanatic]

Looks fantastic so far. I will definitely be pre-ordering this at the earliest opportunity.

 

[Nocturnal]

Looks amazing and very immersive, it's on my watch list.

 

[Geoff9920]

Wow, that was a lot more VA than I was expecting. I like how they handled it though. I like how the UI slides up and you suddenly see a wall of text.

 

[FlyingSaucer]

I'm in love.

In the visual aspect, I hope they deliver on the most urban settings, the original mock up of that city still resonates in my dreams.



I really enjoyed what I saw in terms of dialogue and that they decided to highlight a fast version a quest being a manipulative bastard, really good take. The otherworldly hints were great, but I want weirder and rich environments if possible. Awesome music, but that was a given.

I guess the Bloom is the initial location of the game and you have to escape it, like the Mortuary in P:T.

Next to it are the Sagus Cliffs, which will probably be the first urban hub of the game and, I guess, where your image is set.

 

[berzeli]

So if I correctly understand this page on their website the game is handled by the creative leads of NWN2: MotB. That so gives me confidence in its writing; George Ziets is an amazing writer, on par with Avellone IMO.

 

[Baron_Calamity]

Very nice. Happy I backed this.

 

[Amir0x]

The way the text is formatted is very nice and easy to follow. Good to see tradition continues.

Edit: Also the way The Maw looks is SO RAD.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

What can change the nature of RPGs?

Nostalgia, apparently. Well, nostalgia and crowd funding.

 

[Turin Turambar]

Pretty much all publishers are, or at least were, when both inXile and Warhorse tried to pitch their rpgs to them.

I am so motherfuckingly happy that crowd funding exists.

Well, specific types of RPGs.

Bethesda doesn't have a problem with their rpgs, nor EA with Dragon Age or Mass Effect or CD Projekt with W3, etc.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Crowdfunding is amazing and im really happy to have backed this, but isnt only 83k backers actually validating publishers' fear of Rpgs? I thought there were a lot more peoples supporting this game, and of course its not representative of sale numbers but its not something to brag about?

 

[Altazor]

Crowdfunding is amazing and im really happy to have backed this, but isnt only 83k backers actually validating publishers' fear of Rpgs? I thought there were a lot more peoples supporting this game, and of course its not representative of sale numbers but its not something to brag about?

in terms of raw numbers, it probably isn't that much but... wasn't it (at some point) the most-backed Kickstarter project, taking the Wasteland 2 spot? And if the word of mouth (and the whole freakin' plus of having incredibly talented people behind it) is good enough, I assume that number will extend to cover all those who haven't backed the KS for a number of reasons or were undecided or somehow missed its existence. It'd be great for this to pull numbers similar to Divinity: Original Sin. I want more CPRGs.

 

[Labadal]

I dunno. Torment (and WL2) will turn off so many because you're reading so much compared to even the most verbose CRPGs. I mean, they're really on the level of the most wordy text-adventures, just with a graphical layer to them. I think it's an important thing to note even if it bugs some people for whatever reason. I don't know if everyone is going to dig the non-combat direction of the Torment game (despite that being quite faithful to the Planescape game), either, so I think it might be something to emphasize in the push toward its eventual release, whenever that is. I view it as a badge to wear and a way to advertise how this game differentiates. Otherwise, people might get the idea that they're going to play a BG or ID game that does have plenty of direct conflict.

The statement is completely true, but they way they have it in the trailer is stupid. If i was a gamer that didn't particularly like to read everything in-game, I'd probably be like: Hey, fuck off!

But I like to read and Torment is making me giddy with excitement. (So are the other crowdfunded games I have bought/supported.)

 

[Woo-Fu]

Well, specific types of RPGs.

Bethesda doesn't have a problem with their rpgs, nor EA with Dragon Age or Mass Effect or CD Projekt with W3, etc.

In other words Action RPGs are alive and well, as are genre mixes that feature RPG elements.

 

[Ithil]

Looking great.

 

[epmode]

Crowdfunding is amazing and im really happy to have backed this, but isnt only 83k backers actually validating publishers' fear of Rpgs? I thought there were a lot more peoples supporting this game, and of course its not representative of sale numbers but its not something to brag about?

These are people buying the game ~two years ahead of time. Before a single real screenshot exists. Paying more than retail price in some cases. So you can't directly compare funding levels and backer counts to sales data for finished products.

Crowdfunding numbers are good for determining enthusiasm for a particular game or genre, though, and there's clearly an interest in relatively complicated party-based RPGs. You only have to look at Divinity: Original Sin for proof. Larian pulled in $1M during their crowdfunding phase and they've already covered the entire cost of the game's production (which was a lot more than $1M).

The problem is that many publishers beating the dead genre drum are only interested in properties that can generate $100M or more in profits. These modest success stories are barely a blip on their radar.

 

[ScepticMatt]

I really like the character animations.

The weakest part to me really seems to be the UI design, but it's still miles better than WL2. Seems to be a bit of an inXile weakness in general.

I just finished Divinity:Original Sin. The discrepancy in dialogue UI is immediately apparent.

 

[Denton]

Well, specific types of RPGs.

Bethesda doesn't have a problem with their rpgs, nor EA with Dragon Age or Mass Effect or CD Projekt with W3, etc.

Kingdom Come is as Elder Scrollsy as they come, had impressive team and demo and still didn't get signed.
But yeah, for dialogue heavy RPGs the impossibility to get signed by publisher is even more extreme.

 

[Denton]

Crowdfunding is amazing and im really happy to have backed this, but isnt only 83k backers actually validating publishers' fear of Rpgs? I thought there were a lot more peoples supporting this game, and of course its not representative of sale numbers but its not something to brag about?

*cough*

Divinity had 20k backers.

It sold over 500,000 copies in first two months.

 

[Sotha_Sil]

Fantastic art direction, and that's just a quick glimpse of things. The early concept art for this game was off the hook, it looks like they're capable of living up to it.

 

[Nikodemos]

*cough*

Divinity had 20k backers.

It sold over 500,000 copies in first two months.

Best selling Larian title, too.

 

[Vlodril]

If people missed the actual kickstarter it was mostly based on here is a video about how publishers are idiots and will not let me make this game for the last 20 years. please help.

so the little jab at the end is right up with the rest of their campaign.

Hell roberts did the same thing with the announcement of star citizen (well not so pubs are idiots more of the i am a pc space sim game and i am dead thing).

 

[Almighty]

*cough*

Divinity had 20k backers.

It sold over 500,000 copies in first two months.

Divinity definitely proved that great word of mouth can move units on the PC.

 

[Altazor]

If people missed the actual kickstarter it was mostly based on here is a video about how publishers are idiots and will not let me make this game for the last 20 years. please help.

so the little jab at the end is right up with the rest of their campaign.

Hell roberts did the same thing with the announcement of star citizen (well not so pubs are idiots more of the i am a pc space sim game and i am dead thing).

IIRC Wasteland 2's initial concept video was a sketch about the ridiculous ideas some publishers had for the game when Fargo pitched it to them? The derision was there from the start... and I guess, in some ways, it was justified.

 

[hemtae]

A few things regarding the UI from here

Thanks for all of the feedback, Andy86c, and others! Some notes on the Conversation UI (and some related topics), as shown in the video:

• Its maximum size is customizable by the player. It's a little subtle, but you can see this in the video -- in the second conversation with Artaglio, the maximum size was lowered by the player, and thus the text portion didn't scroll upward. The current version actually can condense down another 25% or so, but this isn't shown in the video. We haven't finalized the range of options that will be available.

• We haven't implemented it yet, but font size will be customizable by the player, too. We made the font a little large for the video so that the text would be more readable when the video isn't full screen. We haven't finalized the range of text sizes that we will support. The barkstring text size might also be adjustable and we made it a little larger for purposes of readability in the video.

• We plan to make the "help" text be togglable by the player (i.e., the yellow text reveal that Lore: Civilization was why you could see that first player response that's chosen). (We haven't implemented this option yet.)

• We are undecided on how much detail to expose for Tide changes. We may allow an option like you see in the video. But even in that case, we are thinking about more subtle effects and not brazen text like that. For the video, we wanted to convey the presence of the Tides and since we hadn't reach a final design or implementation for this aspect, we went this route. (This is one of the very few things shown in the video that was "fake" -- though the Tides are implemented and can be increased in dialogue, those "Tide rises" messages were just added to those lines in the conversation, instead of being generated programmatically.)

• Correct -- most conversations won't be voiced, actually. The Companion global dialogues will be partially voiced. Key story conversations will be voiced, at least partially. Some major NPCs will have a few lines where we feel that the player hearing their voice will particularly help in establishing the character.
  
  We do intend to voice companion barkstrings, such as Matkina's statement upon reaching the yellow glyphs. Companion interjections will be voiced in conversations that have other characters voiced, as shown in the second conversation with Artaglio. Were Artaglio not voiced, Matkina wouldn't be either.
  
  (To be honest, Artaglio is a minor enough character (in the current design, you never have to talk to him) that he probably wouldn't be voiced in the real game. We partially voiced him for purposes of the video, to illustrate how our voiced conversations might be, and also because voice adds a lot to the scene and the video. (The voice actor was our talented audio director, Alex Brandon, so it was essentially free.))

• We plan for character barkstrings (e.g., the guards outside the gate, Matkina) and descriptive text (e.g., the putrid remains, the heat generator) to have different looks to better differentiate them. We haven't yet implemented the distinction in the display of these types of information, so they appear the same in the video.

• Of course, we do intend to iterate on the Conversation UI throughout development. What you see in the video represents our first, mostly complete, pass. As you might infer by the empty space on the left and some of the elements on the right, there are some other ideas we are still developing and experimenting with. (And of course, the reactions we see regarding this version will have some influence on any changes we might make.) We have a long way to go still before TTON is done, and conversations are the heart of it. So you can bet it will remain a priority for us throughout development.

 

[djtiesto]

I honestly didn't even realise this wasn't the same game as Pillars of Eternity until a couple weeks back. I guess I'll pick it up at some stage.

Same here, I thought Pillars of Eternity was the Planescape sequel for the longest while. Both games look really good, love the prerendered backgrounds.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

I can't believe how beautiful this game is ;___;

Can't wait for the red and silver tide to rise within me.

 

[Wiktor]

Well, specific types of RPGs.

Bethesda doesn't have a problem with their rpgs, nor EA with Dragon Age or Mass Effect or CD Projekt with W3, etc.

Ermm..no. Not specific types of RPGs. What you named are all self-funded RPGs. Internally developed by publishers themselves. That's a lot less risky and more profitable than signing 3rd party dev, especially if they would want to keep the IP.

 

[Arulan]

Ermm..no. Not specific types of RPGs. What you named are all self-funded RPGs. Internally developed by publishers themselves. That's a lot less risky and more profitable than signing 3rd party dev, especially if they would want to keep the IP.

I think that has more to do with the lack of independent developers which are large enough to acquire such contracts, Obsidian is one of the few. But even with in-house studios, do you really think Bethesda or EA would fund a Pillars of Eternity, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Divinity: Original Sin, or Wasteland 2? They're vastly different games from what AAA developers, even ones who focus on RPGs are making. They're not going to sell anywhere near the millions of copies they're used to seeing.

 

[Purkake4]

Looks great, can't wait.

Hope they tone down the numenera color stuff in the dialogue though. We don't need to be keeping track of every little change, it should come together naturally over the course of the game.