In the latest of a series of delays, inXile Entertainment’s Torment: Tides of Numenera, an RPG funded by Kickstarter in March 2013, has been delayed until 2016 and undergone a change in project lead from Kevin Saunders to Wasteland 2’s Chris Keenan.
Torment is a game with a great deal of legacy behind it. Not just the legacy of the Numenera realm of Dungeons & Dragons, but particularly in terms of video game RPGs. Planescape: Torment, developed by Black Isle Studios in 1999, is one of the most influential RPGs in video game history; a true groundbreaker in terms of how video games tell stories, lessons from it have radiated through every major RPG developer of the 21st century.
That historical weight came to bear in March 2013 when inXile, of Wasteland 2 fame and comprised of many Planescape veterans, came to Kickstarter in search of $900,000 to make Tides of Numenera, a spiritual successor to Planscape- the campaign would raise $4.3 million, a Kickstarter record. At the time, the game was slated for a December 2014 release.
However, the weight has come bear in other ways; Torment: Tides of Numenera has been delayed three times now. To early 2015, to December 2015, and now to sometime in 2016, according to an update on inExile’s Kickstarter page from project lead Kevin Saunders – who also announced his departure from inExile Entertainment.
“With the major creative and production decisions now resolved, and the team charging full speed toward completing the game, inXile and I have decided it is time for me to depart from the studio,” Saunders said. He expressed his pride in the game, calling it an “extraordinary title” and that he was leaving it in capable hands.
Saunders was formerly a senior designer at Obsidian Entertainment, most known for work on Neverwinter Nights 2 and Knights of the Old Republic II. Chris Keenan will be replacing him: the project lead on inXile’s successful Wasteland 2 and other inXile Kickstarter project, The Bard’s Tale IV.
It was Keenan who broke the news that Torment: Tides of Numenera will be delayed until 2016. “As a fresh set of eyes on the project I can tell you it’s shaping up to be the awesome experience you all expect and deserve,” Keenan said. He also expressed a need to not rush the final stages as a reason for delaying the game until 2016, and that “we (inXile) have full intentions on releasing the beta this year.”
Torment: Tides of Numenera follows the “Last Castoff”: the final body of the consciousness of an ancient man who discovered how to be reborn into a new body, unknowingly creating a new consciousness in the old body that has no memory of its former actions. Hunted by a unknown force called “The Sorrow,” the Last Castoff must find his or her former master in the Ninth World.
Torment: Tides of Numenera is in development for PC, Mac, and Linux. You can check out the official Kickstarter page to gleam the whole picture as it stands so far.
