Torment: Tides of Numenera - A Shifting Tide

In the 49th Kickstarter update for Torment: Tides of Numenera, we learn that Kevin Saunders is leaving and is sharing information on Alpha Systems Test C0. Chris Keenan will be heading the team from now on and lets us know that the game is still goign to beta this year.

The feedback on C0 has been outstanding, and it's been gratifying to see that players grok the core Crises concept and what we're trying to accomplish, which Jeremy described last update. More importantly, we learned a great deal about various improvements to make. As we mentioned in the C0 Release Notes, the UI in particular and communicating the gameplay systems to players are still being iterated on and the Alpha Systems testers have given us much useful feedback that we are taking into account. The team will be continuing to improve the Crisis gameplay experience, as even more of you will see in the beta test release before the end of this year.

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An important part of our process is getting the game in your hands and iterating based on your feedback. Releasing the Crisis Alpha Systems Tests was a big step for the team. We've been happy to receive detailed feedback on what can be improved, and very gratified to see our backers respond that we're heading in the right direction.

Now, it's on to working towards the beta release. The level art is largely done, and we're making good progress on the general game systems, level design and UI elements . We'll keep you posted on the progress of the beta release in the upcoming updates, as we have full intentions on releasing the beta this year. I look forward to leading this incredibly talented team and working with all of you to bring Torment to completion!

More information.

Uhhh- having a Project Lead leave during development does NOT bode well.

yeah. scary moment. if he had valid reasons they probably wouldve mentioned. this way its pretty clear somethings wrong

InXile have their hands full. What with TToN, WL2C and Bard's Tale IV. A project lead leaving does sound very ominous indeed.
Ah, well. Hope for the best, expect the worst.

Well, I guess it wouldn't REALLY be a classic cRPG without some sort of troubled dev happenings as per tradition---as such was pretty much par for the course on the lot of them.

Still, I suppose time and further details down the line will paint a clearer picture.

Bad new overall, since Torment was great so far with Kevin, but Chris Keenan is taking over who was the Project Lead on the abysmal "Wasteland 2 and the recently released Director's Cut", so his bad decisions may spill into into Torment from W2 now. Not good.

Originally Posted by mercy
Bad new overall, since Torment was great so far with Kevin, but Chris Keenan is taking over who was the Project Lead on the abysmal "Wasteland 2 and the recently released Director's Cut", so his bad decisions may spill into into Torment from W2 now. Not good.

I actually quite enjoyed Wasteland 2. It wasn't the second coming of Fallout, but it is a solid RPG. As for Torment: Tides of Numenera, changing leads partway through production certainly doesn't seem like a healthy thing, but Broken Age also had production snags and still came out pretty good in the end. I hold out hope.

As long as there's not a major shift involving a significant code change it will hopefully work out all right. *crossing fingers*

Originally Posted by Pappy
Uhhh- having a Project Lead leave during development does NOT bode well.

That does not necessary mean the worst, for Planescape it was the same with Guido Henkel leaving Interplay at the beginning of the beta - still was a good game. But don't giving him the usual praise for his commitment is clearly a strange thing. At least he got the chance to communicate his leaving personally, so it doesn't seem that bad at all, but it's still strange.

Perhaps he got a paying job?

Originally Posted by Avantenor
That does not necessary mean the worst, for Planescape it was the same with Guido Henkel leaving Interplay at the beginning of the beta - still was a good game.

Yes PST was a good game but Guido Henkel was "only" the Interplay producer and not the project lead. It would be "the same" if Avellone had left back then.

As long as Colin McComb stays and endorses the final game, I will rest easy

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Perhaps he got a paying job?

Could be related. Someone should text him and see where he went.

He will be project lead for Assassins Creed: Torment.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
Could be related. Someone should text him and see where he went.

He asked Codex to find him a new job like they did for MCA.

Originally Posted by Moriendor
Yes PST was a good game but Guido Henkel was "only" the Interplay producer and not the project lead. It would be "the same" if Avellone had left back then.

That's not completely correct. For example Guio also contributed to the code and signed Lustmord to do the soundtrack for Planescape (compare first trailer), which was later canned afaik by his successor Kenneth Lee for a quick shot from Mark Morgan. It's correct, that most of the time he managed time tables, milestones, hire and fire or reportings to the upper management. But that seems comparable to what Kevin has done for Numenera. Guido wasn't responsible for the creative direction (which is also true for Kevin Saunders), but without his management PsT might have never seen the day of light. I did an interview some years ago where he mentioned, that MCA and McComb were creatively phenomonal but needed too much time to finalize their stuff, which was his job to give them the presusre to do, what's necessary, especially after Interplay honchos discovered that there was a Planescape game still in the making.

Isn't the game nearing completion? If so, this might not have much of an impact.

I think he joined the development team of Grimoire to fix the last 4 bugs.

Well, given what we've seen from the game so far it doesn't surprise me they are changing project leader.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Perhaps he got a paying job?

(: This makes it sound like they weren't paying him for T:ToN. I actually expect a Project Lead on a major development to stay until it's finished, not be shopping around for a bigger paycheck. Also I never got the impression there was a lot of "poaching" in games development. Most everyone is underpaid, everywhere.