Torment Breaks Kickstarter Record

[chadachada123]

I'm a backer, despite never playing Planescape: Torment or any of the other heavy story-based RPGs of the day.

I am pretty optimistic about it, from everything the developers/writers have said so far, and from this video gushing about Planescape's incredible storytelling:

 

[BartyMae]

statements about being the most funded kickstarter

Um...what about the Ouya? ...didn't that get eight million or so?

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I kicked in $80, looks good and exciting Mid Tier Development Projects deserve support... especially with Triple A development being in a bit of trouble these days...

 

[Terrible Opinions]

statements about being the most funded kickstarter

Um...what about the Ouya? ...didn't that get eight million or so?

Awkwardly written story. Highest-funded game on Kickstarter. The Ouya was well ahead of it, and Veronica Mars is also past it with five days to go.

 

[Spacefrog]

statements about being the most funded kickstarter

Um...what about the Ouya? ...didn't that get eight million or so?

Awkwardly written story. Highest-funded game on Kickstarter. The Ouya was well ahead of it, and Veronica Mars is also past it with five days to go.

Not to mention the pebble who gathered 10.2 million (A quite silly amount if you ask me)

It took me about 20 seconds to find that information
I really thought that, news sites like this would would have enough people yelling bad journalism, on the slightest error, to take that kind of time for checking errors both facts and language.
Even the source, rock paper shotgun got it right so my guess is that it is purely because of rush on the escapists part.

As others mentioned there are other games who have gathered more money by using other means of crowdfunding.

In short there's no need to sensationalise the amount that they gathered, the fact that they met their goal is enough.

And that alone IS enough of a reason to celebrate, the concept art looks fantastic and there's a good foundation for a story, that alone sold it on me

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Well we're certainly going to have many potentially great RPGs in the next year or two. I wish all the best for InXile, Wasteland 2 has looks promising and hopefully Torment will follow suit.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

With the exception of uncertain quality, the only downside about Kickstarter is the games take forever to come out. Most games get announced 5-6 months before launch and that's an acceptable period to get your fans excited. Takes too long and the wait might kill the hype.

Surely it's no longer a problem for the Kickstarter developers to try and break-even since they've already been fully funded, therefore they don't have to worry about their games' reception at launch.

In any case, Torments looks so damn good!! I will patiently be waiting.

 

[Xelzeno]

Well, now I can only hope that they will get to my Stronghold goal!

 

[IanDavis]

I personally have seen a few great projects that have barely made it or failed... currently I'm very sad about Pulse, because I know the team is capable of delivering a great game... but it seems actually original ideas don't sell.

The top three most-funded-game-projects are an Android-based console, an RPG that's not actually a sequel and is in fact set in a different world from the first game entirely, and a completely original RPG. They got (rounded) $8 million, $4 million and $4 million respectively.

Those original ideas sure seemed to sell well.

lol I love that you had to explain in such depth to prove that it was "not really a sequel, just using a famous name"....
and yeah.. project eternity.. all original... didn't sell it as an old school rpg at all...all the art even looks like Baldur's Gate......
Look I'm not trying to tell you not to be happy about this, just to look out for the situation that very well could be happening. Keeping a leveled head. Even if you don't like them you should be able to see that there is at least a hint of truth in my observations.

 

[Robeltu]

It beat my estimated total by $1.2 million, I am impressed at how well it did, as well as pleased.

I have never been that into fantasy as a genre, but this does look interesting, so I am glad I backed it. Although it does feel strange effectively pre-ordering a game over two years before it's release.

I thought the same thing about pre ordering it two years in advance, but I decided screw it, I trust inXile to deliver, and I got the £30 reward that got me Wasteland 2 as well. Bring on the RPGs

 

[ellieallegro]

I was going to buy it anyway so I treat it as a pre-order.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Well it surpassed my 3million prediction so I'm happy to hear that. Chris Avellone joining the team was the best news I've heard this week.

I have high hopes that this game will do well, no doubt about it.

 

[LordMonty]

This is a good day for RPGs I've back this any many others on kickstarter and hope this evidence goes on to prove the corperations like EA are a dying breed of greedy fools who miss what making many wonderful smaller games achieves over big gun games(which i like as in Battlefeild but don't make stupidly large numbers of them e.g MOH) are the only way to make cash and please the masses.

Blizzard making Hearthstone is what pleases me in a way as its something small and intresting in the same vein, i may not be blown away by it but it bodes well for creative thinking with them at least.

 

[lacktheknack]

I personally have seen a few great projects that have barely made it or failed... currently I'm very sad about Pulse, because I know the team is capable of delivering a great game... but it seems actually original ideas don't sell.

The top three most-funded-game-projects are an Android-based console, an RPG that's not actually a sequel and is in fact set in a different world from the first game entirely, and a completely original RPG. They got (rounded) $8 million, $4 million and $4 million respectively.

Those original ideas sure seemed to sell well.

lol I love that you had to explain in such depth to prove that it was "not really a sequel, just using a famous name"....
and yeah.. project eternity.. all original... didn't sell it as an old school rpg at all...all the art even looks like Baldur's Gate......
Look I'm not trying to tell you not to be happy about this, just to look out for the situation that very well could be happening. Keeping a leveled head. Even if you don't like them you should be able to see that there is at least a hint of truth in my observations.

I didn't have to... I could have accurately just said "a spiritual successor", which just doesn't get the same point across. Since I wanted to get the point across, I typed more. (Bonus typing: "Planescape: Torment" is to "Tides of Numenara" as "System Shock 2" is to "Bioshock". Bioshock is still an original property.)

And no, I don't see the truth. You ACTUALLY said "original ideas don't sell", which I proved to be false. You can't say that Project Eternity isn't original just because Baldur's Gate is the same genre and style. That's like saying "Dungeons and Dragons is not original content, because Lord of the Rings exists".

At any rate, what we can learn is that CRPG players have been feeling very unloved. It's not so much that "unoriginal ideas don't sell" as much as "there's a humongous fanbase just WAITING for this day". If you want more completely original properties to do well on Kickstarter (as in, completely original down to the genre), find one that has a good pitch, good rewards and attainable goals (the trifecta of perfection that inXile's attempts have all had) and advertise it.

I'm not ignoring these projects because I don't like their ideas, I'm ignoring them because I don't know they exist.

 

[IanDavis]

I personally have seen a few great projects that have barely made it or failed... currently I'm very sad about Pulse, because I know the team is capable of delivering a great game... but it seems actually original ideas don't sell.

The top three most-funded-game-projects are an Android-based console, an RPG that's not actually a sequel and is in fact set in a different world from the first game entirely, and a completely original RPG. They got (rounded) $8 million, $4 million and $4 million respectively.

Those original ideas sure seemed to sell well.

lol I love that you had to explain in such depth to prove that it was "not really a sequel, just using a famous name"....
and yeah.. project eternity.. all original... didn't sell it as an old school rpg at all...all the art even looks like Baldur's Gate......
Look I'm not trying to tell you not to be happy about this, just to look out for the situation that very well could be happening. Keeping a leveled head. Even if you don't like them you should be able to see that there is at least a hint of truth in my observations.

I didn't have to... I could have accurately just said "a spiritual successor", which just doesn't get the same point across. Since I wanted to get the point across, I typed more. (Bonus typing: "Planescape: Torment" is to "Tides of Numenara" as "System Shock 2" is to "Bioshock". Bioshock is still an original property.)

And no, I don't see the truth. You ACTUALLY said "original ideas don't sell", which I proved to be false. You can't say that Project Eternity isn't original just because Baldur's Gate is the same genre and style. That's like saying "Dungeons and Dragons is not original content, because Lord of the Rings exists".

At any rate, what we can learn is that CRPG players have been feeling very unloved. It's not so much that "unoriginal ideas don't sell" as much as "there's a humongous fanbase just WAITING for this day". If you want more completely original properties to do well on Kickstarter (as in, completely original down to the genre), find one that has a good pitch, good rewards and attainable goals (the trifecta of perfection that inXile's attempts have all had) and advertise it.

I'm not ignoring these projects because I don't like their ideas, I'm ignoring them because I don't know they exist.

What?! I never really said original ideas didn't sell! What the hell? Did you read the whole post? It was a comment on the fact that some very original ideas in kickstarter with a lot to show have not succeeded.. NOT a belief, but an observation of the weird behaviour of the audience.
I said that its odd that people complain a lot against samey generic games in AAA, but seem to be wanting reboots, revivals and less variation in the independent funding platforms. Get it? The irony?

We all say we want new and exciting, but at the end of the day, people seem to get excited over really familiar things, and thus we get 10 slenderman clones and remakes and 20 minecraft wannabes, and a ceaseless stream of huge revivals of older school games.

If you don't want to see that these projects are pulling nostalgia cards all over the place, then I suppose there is no point even discussing with such lack of objectivity. Of course original ideas can exist in any genre, but its different when you publicize them as "what was great about our old games that publishers don't appreciate anymore"...

You really want proven and visible in your kickstarter? honestly? Don't you see how that will modify the ecosystem of the platform?

You see, when you use your existing prestige and fame to publicize your project in a fully democratic medium for startup projects, it becomes a profoundly unfair playing field. Of course this doesn't disable smaller projects directly, but it still responds to supply and demand. Tough luck for the small ones, I guess its always the case but it's also a bit sad, because as you said.. you just DONT KNOW of these projects.
The thing is that they don't have a way to reach massive media outputs to display their efforts.
Project Eternity and Torment have been in practically -all- mainstream media sites. And a smaller developer, no matter how good, won't be able to get there simply because as people have said they are "not proven".
Part of the whole principle of this platform is enabling possibly unproven but talented teams to fund projects that you wouldn't know existed in any other way, and unavoidably this dynamic breaks the balance and casts a shadow on the smaller worthy endeavors.

 

[Little Gray]

I personally have seen a few great projects that have barely made it or failed... currently I'm very sad about Pulse, because I know the team is capable of delivering a great game... but it seems actually original ideas don't sell.

The top three most-funded-game-projects are an Android-based console, an RPG that's not actually a sequel and is in fact set in a different world from the first game entirely, and a completely original RPG. They got (rounded) $8 million, $4 million and $4 million respectively.

Those original ideas sure seemed to sell well.

Lets be honest here Torment sold itself entirely by plying on the nostalgia people have for PST and not on its own merits. You are right though original ideas can sell on kickstarter. Its just they need to distract people from what they are actually making and rely on a really famous developer or other game.

 

[Colt47]

Well, the other problem Kickstarter games have to deal with is the Game Engine crunch. One of the issues with the AAA made games these days is that they are all using a licensed engine that limits the visual style, sounds, and other aspects. How many games this generation have used Unreal Engine 3 or the Crytek engine for example?

Then there is the other extreme with Japan, where companies like Square Enix build a new engine for every game they make and toss the old one out. The result is fairly easy to see given the limited scope of Final Fantasy XIII and the disaster that was the launch of Final Fantasy XIV: Extended development cycles and fewer hours actually put into building the real game.

Thankfully, most of the games on Kickstarter are using simpler game engines or are using a less commonly deployed game engine.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Thing about Kickstarter projects are that if they suck then its tough. They could be complete shit. Yes there heart is in the right place, they have the passion and the will to make something awesome. But the talent? The skill? Its difficult. Thing with big companies is that they have business plans. They consider the games and whether they are worth making, will they make a profit? Unfortunately alot of the kickstarter games will make zero profit an isnt that the point? To get payment to make the sequel? It will fail, i bet all kickstarter projects will fail to make a profit or a future for the people involved. Its a shame but making what you want doesnt mean anything. Doesnt make it successful or make you money regardless of kick starter. You need marketing and promoting to make it sell. For now, it seems people are making things for the sake of making them. An thats why you need big companies behind your creation. You need that clout and money etc Its different from the C64 days when you could make a game in your bedroom.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

Thing about Kickstarter projects are that if they suck then its tough. They could be complete shit. Yes there heart is in the right place, they have the passion and the will to make something awesome. But the talent? The skill? Its difficult. Thing with big companies is that they have business plans. They consider the games and whether they are worth making, will they make a profit? Unfortunately alot of the kickstarter games will make zero profit an isnt that the point? To get payment to make the sequel? It will fail, i bet all kickstarter projects will fail to make a profit or a future for the people involved. Its a shame but making what you want doesnt mean anything. Doesnt make it successful or make you money regardless of kick starter. You need marketing and promoting to make it sell. For now, it seems people are making things for the sake of making them. An thats why you need big companies behind your creation. You need that clout and money etc Its different from the C64 days when you could make a game in your bedroom.

The FTL developers have said that they made enough money to self-fund their next project. Legend of Grimrock - not Kickstarted, but still a recent small-budget indie project - has sold over 600,000 copies (though many undoubtedly through humble bundles). Assuming non-completely-fucked-up budgeting, every copy sold is pure profit, with only a fraction of it going to distributors like GOG and Steam.