But again, Planescape Torment allowed all that, and made you really feel like you were this guy making the decisions. The fact that he looked the exact same every time did not deter from that at all.
But that was an integral part of the theme of PST: That the same person could become someone different based on differing circumstances. The same appearance, but a completely different personality based on the situation in which it awakened and reacted to its surroundings, and all, ultimately, the same person, based on the fact that you absorb the previous incarnations into yourself. It works in that specific situation. Torment: Tides of Numenera is exploring different themes, and need not use the same technique. Do they want to give us a character which is not our own, which has multiple defined pasts, as in PST, or do they want to give us someone we can define ourselves?
I consider a character to be defined by their actions, not by what they look like. So in my opinion, not being able to customize your character's appearance has little effect on your ability to define your character overall.
I consider a character to be defined by their actions, not by what they look like. So in my opinion, not being able to customize your character's appearance has little to no effect on someone's ability to define their character.
If character appearance makes no difference to characterization, then it will not harm their narrative in the slightest to let people make alterations to their presets, but it may help those of us who like to connect the two. If character appearance does affect characterization, then they need to ask themselves to what extent they want to define the character as opposed to letting the player do so.
I too don't care much for his looks. He is again very specific person defined by his actions. I guess they could allow customization if they wanted to, but I understand why they don't want to. Also don't forget that TNO's unchangable look allowed PS:T for beautiful personalized movies that BG could not afford.
While I can retract part of my criticism (ironically, the part which has been ignored by this discussion). I sent Colin McComb a question on Formspring and got an answer back:
Reading your interview about Torment on the Penny Arcade Report, I get the sense that you want to downplay player romances as a thing, and I can get behind that. Could you speak to whether or not LGBT characters will be in the game at all?
CMcComb 1m Sure they will. But we're just going to put them in, and we're not going to make a big deal about their inclusion. In other words, they're here, they're queer, and so what?
Now if he'd made that kind of statement straight off instead of babbling about the ball of goo, it might have saved some confusion.
As far as appearance customization goes, if it's a question of resources, then that's the perfect excuse to make it a stretch goal so that they can ensure the resources are there. If it's a question of drawing a specific character, well, they've already shot that in the foot by letting you choose between a male and female PC and writing things differently depending on that choice; I don't think letting the player give their PC a different color of hair will have quite the same footprint.
Considering the people working on it (And I don't just mean Avellone), I have no doubt that it will be very well written indeed. But considering it's a Planescape: Torment sequel, I assumed that was a given. Rather, I hope the lackluster gameplay of PS:T will be kept in mind this time, and replaced with something interesting.
With over 4M in funding, does that pretty much guarantee they will take it through to release?
I'd say it definitely helps. It all comes down to how well they've worked out their budget ahead of time and how much room they've left themselves for problems and delays (which will inevitably arise).
My impression has been that past projects have gone off the rails either due to running out of money or because the dev team self-destructed. The latter seems unlikely with this group, considering everyone's a professional and has a lot of respect for everyone else.
I will definitely be saddened if they blow the budget and fail to release a good game regardless of reason. This is an exciting project and the funding has to have exceeded their initial aspirations.
I will definitely be saddened if they blow the budget and fail to release a good game regardless of reason. This is an exciting project and the funding has to have exceeded their initial aspirations.
The trick is that sometimes these projects are brought down by their own success in funding too much. They do way better than expected and don't realize what that means in terms of extra trouble and expenses in getting out all those rewards. Or else having to use that extra money on the game leads to the game's scope expanding dramatically, which leads to delays, which creates all sorts of additional expenses, etc. This article has some good comments from the developers of FTL (one of the first real video game success stories of Kickstarter in terms of actually getting the game out the door and doing well) on why they'd be leery of doing another crowdfunded project.
That said, I think Torment had the advantage of seeing how well Project Eternity did and had an inkling that they could do just as well. And the setup of stretch goals showed that they had plans in place for what to do with that extra money. So yeah, I'm optimistic about it being successful (though I also expect that it will take longer to release than the originally projected date of December 2014).
@TheCoffeeGod Thread Necromancy is thread necromancy, my good man. The Cowled Wizards have been informed and it may be an idea to either seek legal redress or flee the jurisdiction.
Fleeing to Sigil or another extraplanar judiciary may be beneficial, but as your attorney I cannot legally advise as such.
Comments
As far as appearance customization goes, if it's a question of resources, then that's the perfect excuse to make it a stretch goal so that they can ensure the resources are there. If it's a question of drawing a specific character, well, they've already shot that in the foot by letting you choose between a male and female PC and writing things differently depending on that choice; I don't think letting the player give their PC a different color of hair will have quite the same footprint.
Here is a brief lighting and technology test that shows a 3D character on a 2D pre-rendered background.
Colin's reaction to Chris Avellone joining the Design Team.
And 8th Fathom added to the Castoff’s Labyrinth.
But considering it's a Planescape: Torment sequel, I assumed that was a given. Rather, I hope the lackluster gameplay of PS:T will be kept in mind this time, and replaced with something interesting.
Looks like it ended at:
74,405 Backers
$4,188,927
Beating out Project Eternity as the 2nd most funded game thus far!
My impression has been that past projects have gone off the rails either due to running out of money or because the dev team self-destructed. The latter seems unlikely with this group, considering everyone's a professional and has a lot of respect for everyone else.
That said, I think Torment had the advantage of seeing how well Project Eternity did and had an inkling that they could do just as well. And the setup of stretch goals showed that they had plans in place for what to do with that extra money. So yeah, I'm optimistic about it being successful (though I also expect that it will take longer to release than the originally projected date of December 2014).
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/610476
New update.
Fleeing to Sigil or another extraplanar judiciary may be beneficial, but as your attorney I cannot legally advise as such.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/653368
New update.
New update.