It's been a busy day for inXile. The studio, which is the first to successfuly crowdfund two games on Kickstarter, now has over $3.5 million (includes $70K raised through PayPal) pledged towards Torment: Tides of Numenera. And there's still two days remaining.
The new total now means Chris Avellone can officially join the creative team. Avellone was lead designer on Planescape: Torment, the inspiration behind Torment: Tides of Numenera, and will provide valuable feedback on all creative elements of Tides of Numenera. This includes story, characters, and gameplay areas. In addition, he will also help create an eigth companion for the game, working alongside Colin and Monte Cook.
Looking to make the most out of the next two days, inXile has outlined further stretch goals extending to $4.5 million. These goals include an even more complicated morality system, a player stronghold, and new locations; all of these were ideas culled from the original vision when scoping the project.
That's not all, though. InXile has also released the game's second screenshot. "Though we were very excited when the Bloom screenshot came together, we felt that it alone painted too narrow of a picture of what Torment would look like. We wanted show you (and to prove to ourselves) another environment to demonstrate some of the variation in architecture and color palettes that you’ll see in Torment," project lead Kevin Saunders explained. The screenshot above, which is set in Sagus Cliffs, is inXile's attempt at a "less organic" location.
The city of Sagus Cliffs borders a large inland sea, winding its way down to the water through switchbacks and cutout caverns. The city is vast, both vertically and horizontally, exhibiting a wide variety of architectural styles as its layers were stacked upon each other across the ages. Some buildings are built out far over the water below, precariously holding through elaborate winches, pulleys, and wires. Some have no such support, practically hovering under their own power. But the old ways still hold – literally – sometimes clinging to the last scavenged beams on which they were originally erected, with bridges of coherent light helping to hold together the city’s economy. At the base of the cliff, the ocean crashes and swirls around the rubble of fallen houses, the city extending downward even here – with some structures diving beneath the waves.
Unfortunately, it wasn't all good news coming out today. As a result of all the new features being implemented due to stretch goals, inXile has had to delay the launch of Torment: Tides of Numenera. "While we do not yet know what our final development budget will be, we do know that we’ll need a few months past the December 2014 launch date we first proposed at $900,000," Saunders wrote earlier.
If you'd like to contribute towards Torment: Tides of Numenera, visit the game's Kickstarter page.
