(no subject)
Okay, I know I've already posted about this, and I have no idea how many people there are left on my flist who 1) are at all interested in RPGs and 2) still actually read LJ, but my conscience will prod me if I don't do this, SO:
Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter (Ends in 3 days!)
It's a game being crafted by much of the original Planescape: Torment team, to follow the same overwhelmingly story-driven vision that made PS:T one of the most highly-praised games of all time. So far, what I've seen of the views of the dev team, the writing and the concept art leads me to believe that it's well on its way there, and maybe it can actually tack on a combat AI that isn't terrible. FINGERS CROSSED.
As they explain it:
How Is Torment: Tides of Numenera Similar to Planescape: Torment?
We’re crafting Torment with the goal of creating a gameplay experience like that evoked by Planescape: Torment (or PS:T). We want Torment to challenge, reward, surprise, and entertain you in ways that PS:T did. To do that, we examined PS:T carefully, and took these four pillars as our foundation:
A Deep, Thematically Satisfying Story. The philosophical underpinnings of Torment drive the game, both mechanically and narratively. Your words, choices, and actions will be your primary weapons.
A World Unlike Any Other. The game has a fantastic, original setting, with awe-inspiring painterly visuals, imaginative locations, truly offbeat items, and massive feats of magic. In Numenera, however, “magic” is actually something surprisingly different.
A Rich, Personal Narrative. The story is thoughtful and character-driven-epic in feel but a deeply personal narrative, with nontraditional characters and companions who have their own motivations and desires that drive them throughout the game.
Reactivity, Choice, and Real Consequences. The game emphasizes replayability and reactivity, and your choices will make a real difference. You can play the game with a different approach and discover entirely new pathways. Most important, we won’t tell you how to play. The best ending is the one you choose, flowing naturally from your actions throughout the game.
These pillars reach through all aspects of the game design, including characters and dialogue, the overarching story, gameplay systems and combat, and aesthetics.
Concept art:
Sagus Cliffs at Dawn, by Chang Yuan (one of the game's major hubs)
Sojourner of Worlds, by Chang Yuan
The Ascension of Kex-Lianish, by Andree Wallin
Oasis of M'ra Jolios (another big city that will hopefully make it into the game!)
A gigantic dome of water shimmers in the middle of a vast desert, seemingly impervious to the cruel rays of the sun's heat. Curved obelisks from another age rise from the sands to cup and surround the bubble like gentle fingers.
This impossible oasis is home to numerous kinds of water-breathing abhumans. Some sport fins for legs like merpeople, some wear flippers for hands, while others appear almost human, being marked with only a dorsal fin from their head to their waist. No two are quite the same. Indeed, some are immigrants from far away, come to this aquatic utopia through strange pathways in reality.
But humans live here too, mostly for trade or work. They use various numenera to breath underwater - implantable gills, breathing apparatuses, portable air bubbles, and so forth. A town of air-breather buildings has grown up around the outside of the dome. These air-breathers are reliant on the dome, as most of their food (and all of their water) comes from within, but they make a good trade in the unique foods, animals, and textiles grown under the water. And of course visitors can find multiple shops in the air-breather town that will provide the varied numenera they need to enter the dome themselves.
The Castoff's Labyrinth, where you go when you die. This is growing downwards by fathoms with every additional 3,000 backers that the project acquires.
Also, a vid experimenting with the 2.5D approach to graphics that the game is planning to take:
I'm just so, so, so excited for this game, and the latest stretch goals look amazing, but uh the game's pretty far off from the 4.5 mil mark that would garner a player Stronghold, so hey, if any of you think this sounds interesting and have some spare change lying around, please do drop a few coins in the jar! (They also have a PayPal account for those who prefer that mode of donation.)
Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter (Ends in 3 days!)
It's a game being crafted by much of the original Planescape: Torment team, to follow the same overwhelmingly story-driven vision that made PS:T one of the most highly-praised games of all time. So far, what I've seen of the views of the dev team, the writing and the concept art leads me to believe that it's well on its way there, and maybe it can actually tack on a combat AI that isn't terrible. FINGERS CROSSED.
As they explain it:
How Is Torment: Tides of Numenera Similar to Planescape: Torment?
We’re crafting Torment with the goal of creating a gameplay experience like that evoked by Planescape: Torment (or PS:T). We want Torment to challenge, reward, surprise, and entertain you in ways that PS:T did. To do that, we examined PS:T carefully, and took these four pillars as our foundation:
A Deep, Thematically Satisfying Story. The philosophical underpinnings of Torment drive the game, both mechanically and narratively. Your words, choices, and actions will be your primary weapons.
A World Unlike Any Other. The game has a fantastic, original setting, with awe-inspiring painterly visuals, imaginative locations, truly offbeat items, and massive feats of magic. In Numenera, however, “magic” is actually something surprisingly different.
A Rich, Personal Narrative. The story is thoughtful and character-driven-epic in feel but a deeply personal narrative, with nontraditional characters and companions who have their own motivations and desires that drive them throughout the game.
Reactivity, Choice, and Real Consequences. The game emphasizes replayability and reactivity, and your choices will make a real difference. You can play the game with a different approach and discover entirely new pathways. Most important, we won’t tell you how to play. The best ending is the one you choose, flowing naturally from your actions throughout the game.
These pillars reach through all aspects of the game design, including characters and dialogue, the overarching story, gameplay systems and combat, and aesthetics.
Concept art:
Sagus Cliffs at Dawn, by Chang Yuan (one of the game's major hubs)
Sojourner of Worlds, by Chang Yuan
The Ascension of Kex-Lianish, by Andree Wallin
Oasis of M'ra Jolios (another big city that will hopefully make it into the game!)
A gigantic dome of water shimmers in the middle of a vast desert, seemingly impervious to the cruel rays of the sun's heat. Curved obelisks from another age rise from the sands to cup and surround the bubble like gentle fingers.
This impossible oasis is home to numerous kinds of water-breathing abhumans. Some sport fins for legs like merpeople, some wear flippers for hands, while others appear almost human, being marked with only a dorsal fin from their head to their waist. No two are quite the same. Indeed, some are immigrants from far away, come to this aquatic utopia through strange pathways in reality.
But humans live here too, mostly for trade or work. They use various numenera to breath underwater - implantable gills, breathing apparatuses, portable air bubbles, and so forth. A town of air-breather buildings has grown up around the outside of the dome. These air-breathers are reliant on the dome, as most of their food (and all of their water) comes from within, but they make a good trade in the unique foods, animals, and textiles grown under the water. And of course visitors can find multiple shops in the air-breather town that will provide the varied numenera they need to enter the dome themselves.
The Castoff's Labyrinth, where you go when you die. This is growing downwards by fathoms with every additional 3,000 backers that the project acquires.
Also, a vid experimenting with the 2.5D approach to graphics that the game is planning to take:
Click to viewI'm just so, so, so excited for this game, and the latest stretch goals look amazing, but uh the game's pretty far off from the 4.5 mil mark that would garner a player Stronghold, so hey, if any of you think this sounds interesting and have some spare change lying around, please do drop a few coins in the jar! (They also have a PayPal account for those who prefer that mode of donation.)