Torment: Tides of Numenera - Update 3

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SasqWatch
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More details on stretch goals and the game itself.
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!
More information.
 
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I'm glad a developer finally will be implementing the Limbo mechanic in a game. I have been wanting it for a very long time and the only game that ever attempted to implement it was the (defunct) MMORPG I was involved with Archaen. I think having somewhere you go after you die and having to find your way out of a maze or do quests to get back is much better then either just respawning or reloading your game and makes death fun. (especially if it changes each time you die)
 
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2 million stretch goal reached.
 
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I think having somewhere you go after you die and having to find your way out of a maze or do quests to get back is much better then either just respawning or reloading your game and makes death fun. (especially if it changes each time you die)

I think that if a game has the ability to easily save your progress, then death mechanics are pointless, since people are just going to go back to a save game. A lot of games are balanced around this and have RNG mechanics that sometimes make a loss inevitable. I guess making interesting death mechanics work is a lot harder than it seems, since without a really tight balance it would likely just cause frustration.
 
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It looks like the amount they get might actually be limited by the the fact that most of the higher tiers are already sold out. They will have to come up with new tiers soon to get more backers.

I bet they didn't consider that to be a possible problem when launching the campaign.
 
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It looks like the amount they get might actually be limited by the the fact that most of the higher tiers are already sold out. They will have to come up with new tiers soon to get more backers.

I bet they didn't consider that to be a possible problem when launching the campaign.
If there is sufficient demand (and complaints :)), they will simply increase the limit. As I had already anticipated, they have increased the limit on the collector's edition box and in fact it is now unlimited at a somewhat higher tier.

I do think that they have thought this through.
 
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If there is sufficient demand (and complaints :)), they will simply increase the limit. As I had already anticipated, they have increased the limit on the collector's edition box and in fact it is now unlimited at a somewhat higher tier.

I do think that they have though this through.

True, but they can't add an unlimited amount of items or NPCs, which is involved in several of the higher tiers.
 
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Come on people, read through your backer comments for better stretch goals. I don't want to see a 3mil stretch goal, "20 more novellas! WITH pictures!"
 
I think I'll be upping my pledge to the $28 tier, when it opens up. And contemplating throwing in $15 for the novella compilation...
 
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Sacred, if those 20 more novellas are integrated within the game like the old Torment had, I want to see a 3 mil stretch goal with it.
 
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Come on people, read through your backer comments for better stretch goals. I don't want to see a 3mil stretch goal, "20 more novellas! WITH pictures!"

To be fair Sacred Path - the comments section there is a giant mess. Its been taken over by retards en large. I'd suggest messaging them or putting it up on the torment user site rather then hoping they find an idea amongst that mess.
 
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I'm not too fussed about the explicit stretch goals. They've made it clear that all the money goes into the development of the game, and it seems they have a good idea of what they want to do.

Actually, I wouldn't be fussed if they just said they're going to spend anything over $3m on a giant party to celebrate how well things are going. My $20 is still just $20 however much others contribute. I backed on the basis that I reckon I'll get my money's worth even if the game's budget is only about a million dollars. Any more at this point is just gravy - more for nothing.
 
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Interesting article about "big backers":
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/03/torment-tides-of-numenera/

Backer Steven Dengler says he will pledge $100,000 (if the Kickstarter reaches the $3 million mark) for a chance to play the followup to the game he calls a “landmark” in his life.

“[Planescape] is the most rewarding game I’ve ever played,” he told Wired in a phone interview.

Dengler, CEO of the currency conversion services site XE.com, is a prolific Kickstarter backer. As an angel investor with a passion for classic PC games, he’s bankrolled Psychonauts publisher Double Fine in excess of $1 million to get new games out the door.

“The appeal of a Kickstarter is as much about rewarding people for what they’ve done in the past as it is helping them to create new [projects],” Dengler says.

Dengler isn’t the only gamer with cash willing to throw down big for a successor to Planescape. Min-Liang Tan, CEO of gaming accessory-maker Razer, announced on Twitter that he’d donated $10,000 to Torment‘s campaign, saying that if the new game is “half as good as Planescape, I will die happy.”

Also kicking in 10 large is Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft, Polygon reported.
 
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Actually, I wouldn't be fussed if they just said they're going to spend anything over $3m on a giant party to celebrate how well things are going. My $20 is still just $20 however much others contribute. I backed on the basis that I reckon I'll get my money's worth even if the game's budget is only about a million dollars. Any more at this point is just gravy - more for nothing.

Then you badly need to re-examine your logic because asking them to spend $2M on a game when they have $3M in the bank means you're only getting 67% of your money's worth.
 
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Then you badly need to re-examine your logic because asking them to spend $2M on a game when they have $3M in the bank means you're only getting 67% of your money's worth.

Not so. He's paying $20 and getting something in exchange for it. If the game he gets is worth more than $20 to him, then he's gotten his money's worth, and it doesn't matter how much the developer spent on making it. If it did, then you'd be getting more of your money's worth buying a $100 million game like Modern Warfare than you could possibly get buying a Kickstarted game with a twentieth of the budget.
 
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I think that if a game has the ability to easily save your progress, then death mechanics are pointless, since people are just going to go back to a save game. A lot of games are balanced around this and have RNG mechanics that sometimes make a loss inevitable. I guess making interesting death mechanics work is a lot harder than it seems, since without a really tight balance it would likely just cause frustration.

I think if they make it fun and potentially rewarding then even with save and load it would be useful. They could make it so you can get some kind of reward or consequence for dieing based on the amount of time since your last death and they could integrate it with the story where new elements only come from dieing and if you just reload you will lose out on a part of the game.

They could do it so that like in the explaination in the kickstarter you take on the suffering of other people when you die and in small amounts maybe that could enhance your character but in larger amounts that will start giving you penalties and in the long run their suffering could drive you crazy and that would be game over. If you are dieing over and over I agree that you should reload but you should balance reloading with the part of the game that only comes from you dieing.
 
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