Tides of Numenera - $4.75M Stretch Goal

InXile entertainment has a new $4.75M Stretch Goal on the games website that will offer George Ziets' The Gullet. The clock is running out so take a look yourself.

Progress: Approximately 40% Complete!

Deadline: 10/16/2014

All pledges are applied to improving Torment: Tides of Numenera, but with this Stretch Goal, one specific improvement we can commit to is restoring the Gullet to the Bloom, per George Ziets' original design. We had cut this area to control scope of the Bloom zone. Restoring it to the design would complete George's original vision for the Bloom and increase its scope by roughly 10%.

Without spoiling much, here is how George describes the Gullet:

Deep in the guts of the Bloom is a jumble of fleshy veins and cavities, known to natives as the Gullet. It surrounds a foul organic stew, containing the minds and memories of those devoured by the Bloom. The pulsing of a titanic heart reverberates from somewhere below… if you find yourself trapped here, the sound will drive you mad.

Few reach this place by intention. Most are eaten by a Maw and emerge in the Gullet, half-digested, to spend the final days of their lives in screaming agony. Transdimensional echoes of the Bloom's victims wander through the tunnels, lost and insane. Bizarre creatures, bred by the Bloom in its guts, burst from their wombs to hunt. Forgotten machines and artifacts lie half-submerged in Bloom-flesh, plucked from distant worlds of the past or future.

The only way out of the Gullet is down… to follow the sounds of the Bloom's beating heart and descend to a place where the Bloom's consciousness is at its most malignant and aware.

More information.

Why would I want to visit such a place? It sounds uninhabitable and annoying.

Originally Posted by rjshae
Why would I want to visit such a place? It sounds uninhabitable and annoying.

I'd go with

Forgotten machines and artifacts lie half-submerged in Bloom-flesh, plucked from distant worlds of the past or future.

And maybe to

descend to a place where the Bloom's consciousness is at its most malignant and aware.

If say you wanted to confront the entity or ask something of it?

Yea, doesn't sound interesting to me either, I agree with the first post. This is one goal I couldn't care less about if they reach it or not.

Wait, what? They want us to actually pay for content they had to cut? That sounds a lot like certain DLC schemes. I've already backed by the project by quite a bit, so I'll pass on that one.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Wait, what? They want us to actually pay for content they had to cut? That sounds a lot like certain DLC schemes. I've already backed by the project by quite a bit, so I'll pass on that one.

No, they want more backers who will pay same price for whole content and as a result all backers will get more content for the same price of the full game.

New backers won't get lured in by a "10% increase to the Bloom". It's definitely intended for existing backers, as only existing backers have that level of interest.

Originally Posted by Maylander
New backers won't get lured in by a "10% increase to the Bloom". It's definitely intended for existing backers, as only existing backers have that level of interest.

Well it is for anyone that wants to contribute. For instance, I plan to buy the game at some point. If I could just give them money now, I would so I could help with this as I also gain more once game is out. Maybe some other people like me will buy now as they have the money but they didn't want to buy until the game is closer to being finished.

But wouldn't you already have backed it if you could? Is this little thing really enough to make you go from "perhaps" to "yep, now I want to back it"?

Originally Posted by Maylander
New backers won't get lured in by a "10% increase to the Bloom". It's definitely intended for existing backers, as only existing backers have that level of interest.

It could give existing backers the impetus to talk to non-backer friends and convince them to back the game.

Originally Posted by Maylander
But wouldn't you already have backed it if you could? Is this little thing really enough to make you go from "perhaps" to "yep, now I want to back it"?

Well I didn't back Pillars of Eternity until few days before they closed the backer portal to new people.
My plan is to do the same for TToN as the game is so far away and there is no point in backing it before then. But these kind of Stretch Goals would make me back it now if I could afford it now.

I think it sounds awesome. I'm sure the final game is going to be crazy.

In other words, they spent all their money on design and are now realizing they have about 8 hours of actual gameplay so they need more content. Or not…