Torment: Tides of Numenera pushed back to Q4 2015
InXile will release Torment: Tides of Numenera a year later than originally planned, after the studio moved the RPG's release window from early 2015 to the fourth quarter of the year. The Planescape: Torment spiritual successor was first targeted for December 2014 before Inxile pushed it into 2015 towards the end of its Kickstarter campaign.
That said, the news isn't a huge surprise. InXile is also working on fellow fundraised game Wasteland 2, which the studio recently revealed will launch in August. As Torment Project Lead Kevin Saunders noted in an extensive post, the second game's schedule was always in flux while until the Wasteland 2 plans were set in stone.
"Wasteland 2's success in Early Access allowed us to spend more time improving it," Saunders said, "which also meant we had more time in preproduction on Torment. We've had more time to prototype, improve tools, iterate on our processes, etc. before entering full production. This has been a great thing for everything... except for our release date.
"Now that we have a more certain roll-off plan for the production team from Wasteland to Torment, we're better able to predict the shape of our schedule."
Torment: Tides of Numenera surpassed Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity to become the most funded Kickstarter game ever back in 2013, raising nearly $4.2 million. Fans bought in to the isometric RPG based in Monte Cook's Numenera tabletop setting, especially with Planescape: Torment lead designer Chris Avellone joining the project. Interestingly, a year later, inXile has spent less than 20 percent of the game's development budget so far.
"For the last while, we've been in what I've called a 'limited production' mode," Saunders explained. "During this phase, the emphasis has been on proving out our design and pipelines (i.e,. how exactly we get anything from being an idea to being fully implemented in the game). This is typical for preproduction, but the distinction I'd make is that we've been creating actual game content, which is unusual in the industry.
"During this time, we've had relatively few people creating content and have been allowed time to experiment and iterate, prioritizing getting things figured out over getting things done. This leads to greater productivity, fewer mistakes, and ultimately a better game. This goal is generally somewhat at odds with completing feature X by date Y, which is typically what you do during production to ensure that the game can be completed to the quality desired given the time and/or resources you have available."
[Image: InXile Entertainment]
