Planescape: Torment - Spiritual successor

It will easily hit that goal. The spike Wasteland 2 got when they announced he would be helping with writing was rather large.

It's great to hear they got MCA, he wrote the majority of PS:T himself.
 
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I'm worried this game will be a big disappointment. Following up PS:T; that's some pretty large narrative shoes to fill. Since the task is almost impossible, the game play must be really really top notch instead.

I hope they can deliver, but I'm not going in expecting a masterpiece.
 
eloj said:
I'm worried this game will be a big disappointment. Following up PS:T; that's some pretty large narrative shoes to fill. Since the task is almost impossible, the game play must be really really top notch instead.

I hope they can deliver, but I'm not going in expecting a masterpiece.
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It'll be hard to top the originality of PST but I think it will be good. I wouldn't say "better" per se, but this is exploring some of teh same themes and styles of PST.

Also they have something that PST didn't have, George Ziets.

Mask of the Betrayer was a great game and an excellent story.

With him + the devs at InXile and Chris coming back on board, I have hope.
 
Stiler said:
It'll be hard to top the originality of PST but I think it will be good. I wouldn't say "better" per se, but this is exploring some of teh same themes and styles of PST.

Also they have something that PST didn't have, George Ziets.

Mask of the Betrayer was a great game and an excellent story.

With him + the devs at InXile and Chris coming back on board, I have hope.
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Now that they have added Chris Avellone to the team also I think they are excellent shape ... the other thing working in their favor is that they are outside of the publisher system since they went with the KS funding approach ... the publishers are like any other large corporation and they often make decisions or add requirements that can ruin an otherwise good game ... InXile is essentially operating as an Indie house but with a decent budget ... I think they have an excellent chance to create the game they want and one that will please most of their fanbase :cool:
 
I think they will hit the narrative at least pretty close to what we saw in PS:T. They have the writing chops and the right editors to keep it tight.

That said, if it turns out to be 75% as good as PS:T storytelling, it's still going to be much better than just about any other video game story to date.
 
I've been keeping an eye on this project and with the number and quality of their writers, I think we are going to be in for something special.
 
I like how they're going with GOG as a distribution option. I've backed Wasteland and Torment and I'm looking forward to having both in my GOG library.
 
Just joined Kickstarter and donated. Also tried to get in on wasteland 2, but it seems they are fully funded and i am too late to the party. Oh well.
 
spugnor said:
Just joined Kickstarter and donated. Also tried to get in on wasteland 2, but it seems they are fully funded and i am too late to the party. Oh well.
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The $45 tier of the torment kickstarter includes a copy of wasteland 2
 
I admit I am not a backer - I cannot afford to back any games right now, or else I would. However, as a fan, the new stretch goals worry me. Has anyone else noticed that "companion quests" is now one of the late-tier "stretch goals?"

Shouldn't these have been included already? I know the original Planescape: Torment did not have them before fan-added content (if I remember correctly), but that was the *old* Torment from 1999. Any sensible fans not on a desperate (but ultimately doomed) mission to cure nostalgia are not looking for a re-creation of the exact same gameplay of Planescape. We are looking for a game that is what this game describes itself, a "spiritual successor," that will take many of the core concepts from Planescape to use as a foundation for the new game, while still using new gameplay/design mechanics that have been developed since then (at least the good ones).

So I hope this is not a signal that their priorities are "old school for the sake of old school," rather than "old school in the areas where quality is old school, new school in the areas where quality is new school." I completely realize games like Dragon Age Origins, KOTOR, and Mass Effect do not hold a candle to a game like Planescape, and they all had their own problems, but they are an example of "new gameplay" such as not having to semi-permanently "drop" characters from your party, and your game/character's story, because there isn't room (and therefore companion quests not being a priority in games such games). Those new games did not handle that particular aspect much better, but it was better.

Hopefully this ends up a bunch of worry over nothing...but does anyone else have any similar concerns?

P.S.
MrBtongue did a good (as always) video on a slightly similar topic. He was not concerned about the same thing, but was definitely worried about them trying TOO hard to stir up Planescape nostalgia in their game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bwdIdVHelg
 
There were companion quests in PS:T and there are companion quests in T:ToN. Stretch goals are for adding more, and more content. Companions were one of the best things about the original game. They were well written and really added a lot to the game itself. They know that, and are writing the game accordingly.
 
HardwareSearcher said:
I admit I am not a backer - I cannot afford to back any games right now, or else I would. However, as a fan, the new stretch goals worry me. Has anyone else noticed that "companion quests" is now one of the late-tier "stretch goals?"

Shouldn't these have been included already? I know the original Planescape: Torment did not have them before fan-added content (if I remember correctly), but that was the *old* Torment from 1999. Any sensible fans not on a desperate (but ultimately doomed) mission to cure nostalgia are not looking for a re-creation of the exact same gameplay of Planescape. We are looking for a game that is what this game describes itself, a "spiritual successor," that will take many of the core concepts from Planescape to use as a foundation for the new game, while still using new gameplay/design mechanics that have been developed since then (at least the good ones).

So I hope this is not a signal that their priorities are "old school for the sake of old school," rather than "old school in the areas where quality is old school, new school in the areas where quality is new school." I completely realize games like Dragon Age Origins, KOTOR, and Mass Effect do not hold a candle to a game like Planescape, and they all had their own problems, but they are an example of "new gameplay" such as not having to semi-permanently "drop" characters from your party, and your game/character's story, because there isn't room (and therefore companion quests not being a priority in games such games). Those new games did not handle that particular aspect much better, but it was better.

Hopefully this ends up a bunch of worry over nothing...but does anyone else have any similar concerns?

P.S.
MrBtongue did a good (as always) video on a slightly similar topic. He was not concerned about the same thing, but was definitely worried about them trying TOO hard to stir up Planescape nostalgia in their game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bwdIdVHelg
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Consider the difference in budgets though ... the publisher titles were probably in the 5-10 million range ... these Kickstarter titles are high budgets for an Indie title but still a fraction of the publisher offered budgets ... I think the stretch goals reflect that ... these are all serious titles with teams of programmers, artists, writers, and other technicians ... they do have to balance their requirements with the resources, time, and money involved ... I wouldn't worry too much about the stretch goal systems ... I really think it is more of an artifact of enticing funding throughout the drive in a KS campaign rather than a paradigm shift or sea change in gaming design :cool:
 
kbrickley said:
Consider the difference in budgets though ... the publisher titles were probably in the 5-10 million range ... these Kickstarter titles are high budgets for an Indie title but still a fraction of the publisher offered budgets
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Every dollar goes a lot farther, though, when you consider that they don't have executives and shareholders taking a chunk of the money. I work for a company that would still be profitable even if they gave every employee a $40,000 a year raise. It's incredible how much cash the upper levels eat up.
 
All of these added stretch goals are also pushing the publishing date further away. However, I really hope they reach $4.5 million as I would love to have that stronghold.
 
grausch said:
All of these added stretch goals are also pushing the publishing date further away.
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That's not how it works. The bigger the game gets, the more people are hired to work on it. Stretch goals aren't pushing back Wasteland 2 or P:E.
 
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Actually it is probably good for them to push the delivery date now than later ... that is one of the big unknowns with these crowd funded projects, how will the audience react to schedule slips ... software is notorious for schedule slips (and many are very necessary ... showstopping bugs for instance) ... if the companies are able to handle these professionally and if the crowdfunding groups don't go full metal crazy or something then hopefully the new system will work
 
Ah, a few months extra doesn't bother me at all. We've already waited 14 years for a game like this.
 
3.8M and 10 hrs to go. Wow.

I wonder if other devs will notice this enthusiasm and follow suit, content wise.
 
I'm guessing 4.4 million to finish. People are showing that quality writing really means something in the gaming industry.
 
4 million with 7 hours to go. Thus 200k in 3 hours. Looks like the estimate of 4.4 million could be accurate. Hopefully they'll reach 4.5 million as I really would like that stronghold.
 
Getting close to the 4.1M mark (including the Paypal contributions) with just 5 hours to go. I would also love to see a stronghold in the game.

If this goes anything like the Project Eternity kickstarter there will be a surge in backers during the last couple of hours so hopefully there's a chance at 4.5M.
 
Paypal as of 1 hour ago was $127,505 (per the tumblr site) plus $ 4 million on Kickstarter puts us at $4.125 million. That means in the last 3 hours funding increased by $125k. We might make $4.25 million, but $4.5 million looks to be a little too far away.

Pity about the stronghold...
 
4 hours left, eh?

Is Wasteland 2 supposed to be a FPSRPG/like Fallout?
I'm debating on getting the $45 package
 
Fallout isn't an FPS, nor is Wasteland. Isometric/cavalier oblique/top down. Wasteland was the game that sparked the creation of Fallout, but it does differ in quite a few ways. Still mature post apocalyptic, but with more dark humor.
 
I wonder if Brian Fargo's and Steve Dengler's $100k each are included in the Kickstarter amount. Doesn't look like it and if they add those amounts to their current funding we might get very close to the $4.5 million mark.
 
grausch said:
I wonder if Brian Fargo's and Steve Dengler's $100k each are included in the Kickstarter amount. Doesn't look like it and if they add those amounts to their current funding we might get very close to the $4.5 million mark.
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They don't add to the stretch goals.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Fallout isn't an FPS, nor is Wasteland. Isometric/cavalier oblique/top down. Wasteland was the game that sparked the creation of Fallout, but it does differ in quite a few ways. Still mature post apocalyptic, but with more dark humor.
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Well, I said that because of the pictures in the Wasteland 2 kickstarter look alot like Fallout 3. I didn't mean Fallout 1 specifically, but 3 or anything after, since 3 is the FPS/RPG hybrid or whatever.

So WL 2 isnt like that? It's 2D perspective, isometric?
 
LeviathanZERO said:
Well, I said that because of the pictures in the Wasteland 2 kickstarter look alot like Fallout 3. I didn't mean Fallout 1 specifically, but 3 or anything after, since 3 is the FPS/RPG hybrid or whatever.

So WL 2 isnt like that? It's 2D perspective, isometric?
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3D isometric with adjustable camera. Think Dragon Age style perspective, party based, Fallout-ish world.
 
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