Colin McComb apologizes for missed stretch goals - "We should have communicated the cuts earlier."

[RadonGOG]

Shit happens.

Are you sure shit was the word you were looking for?

[Firkraag]

Shit happens.

Are you sure shit was the word you were looking for?

Yeeeee~s...?

[marceror]

That's a bit of honesty from a dev. Perhaps more than I needed to know, and certainly more than I wanted to know. "I got a serious infection" would have been sufficient, me thinks.

[Firkraag]

Well, the bit about being absent at crucial moment of the production was quite important, I think.

[marceror]

Well, the bit about being absent at crucial moment of the production was quite important, I think.

Right. In other words, "I got a serious infection, which resulted in me being absent at a crucial moment." No other info required.

[Dork Mage]

Note that Markland was specifically asked what the antibiotic was for....

[marceror]

Note that Markland was specifically asked what the antibiotic was for....

I guess you're right. He clearly had no choice but to tell everyone all the details, because, someone asked him a specific question. It sucks getting backed into a corner like that!

[Firkraag]

Don't be such a drama queen. It clearly wasn't all the details.

The problem isn't how much was said, but when.

inXile learned a lot from this project. Sadly, the project itself suffered as the price for that knowledge. I doubt, that Last Castoff's story could be told again for the first time, but I do hope, that - like Obsidian - inXile would turn that experience into other great games, using the same engine and ruleset.

Maybe, some other story set in Numenera. Or maybe something completely different.

I loved, how Tyranny was small, yet managed to tell a very good and satisfying story.

[marceror]

Bah, not all the details. Just more than were necessary. Just my opinion. I don't think I"m being dramatic for mentioning it. I guess we could go back to the forum having no conversations if that suits ya'll better.

[Firkraag]

Okay.

Unless there's a conversations, that can change anything, I'm completely chill with the silence.

[Arsene-Lupin]

Has InXile learned, though?

It's been two years since the Bard's Tale 4 crowdfunding campaign ended, and they've had very little to show for it. Their interaction with the community isn't improving, it's getting worse.

[jsaving]

I do agree that inXile hasn't increased the volume of their communication, but they are more careful about making promises they can't reasonably keep. And that's a good thing all around.

[D-D]

Monty Markland has posted more stories about his time as a producer at inXile.

I was purely a producer on Torment. I offered to serve as a stopgap art director because I suspected the art director was color blind, but in general I focused on time & money concerns and pressing the creative team on adequate answers to satisfactorily deliver the product to the Backers.

He talks about inxiles finances:

Yes, the amazing story is that huge chunks of the Torment Kickstarter money were spent to finish Wasteland 2.

Archive this one.

And portrait quality in Torment:

I sat in an office and argued with Kevin Saunders about white people being prohibited in Torment for weeks in 2013.

I said the majority of the CRPG audience was white people and it was financial suicide to literally prohibit white characters from existing in the game.

And I was right.

I don't think Saunders wanted it. He just wasn't built to fight the onslaught of idiocy and incompetence from the top. I feel sympathy for Kevin.

Ppl tell him he might get sued for leaking, he responds:

If I was worried about any of this or likely to buckle, I wouldn't have fought about it and many other things with a variety of people from 2013-2014 on Wasteland 2 and Torment.

Somebody wants to sue, bring it on. I've got thousands of emails to put into discovery. Let's rock.

He's posting more at: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.ph ... 041/page-4

[Lix]

Well, he's certainly not holding anything back. The e-mail looks pretty credible to me, and the discussion about changing the demands made of external art contractors might explain why the portraits kept getting worse and worse as time went on.

inXile's strategy of lauching a Kickstarter for the next game to pay for finishing the current game has been obvious for a while now - they don't seem to have a lot of capital in reserve. That's why I'm eager to see whether BT4 will suffer cuts due to Torment doing badly, and how WL3 will turn out if BT4 doesn't do well. But maybe gumi's VR multiplayer lootbox thing will get them enough cash to help finish those games.

Always fascinating to get a look behind the scenes.

[IHaveHugeNick]

Well that's a spicy meat ball.

[D-D]

Markland made a list of 15 things that went wrong with Torments developpement:

1) No clear treatment of story during pre-production. All story related discussions were gibberish. Colin McComb was not qualified to be the lead writer, partly because he was in Michigan, approximately 2,000 miles away.

2) Playing Russian Roulette on game engine. Either use PoE engine or WL2 Unity. There was no other real option.

3) Not recognizing the complexity of the art pipeline for a 2.5D world and ignoring the expert opinion of a guy who worked on PST in regards to that pipeline.

4) Having no competent art director.

5) Not pushing back on MCG nonsense.

6) Not properly staffed for pre-production.

7) Not properly staffed for detailed 2.5D backgrounds.

8) Not providing health benefits to most junior team members.

9) Not announcing obvious release date shift based on reality on ground.

10) Not prioritizing a streaming system upfront for a game that required some level of streaming.

11) One animator on the team.

12) Ridiculous optimism regarding the number of levels that could be built in the time alotted.

13) Focusing large energies on "fixing" bad PST combat not by using available combat system of WL2 or PoE, but instead using doublespeak to create elaborate nonsensical crisis.

14) Relations with external contractors were poor.

15) Internal morale was poor.

[phimseto]

I've been monitoring the discussion, and it's unfortunate to see such posts. My understanding is that Mr. Markland left during Torment's development, and what I've read doesn't reflect what I've experienced nor my understanding of the game's production history and the people involved. We've previously given extensive insight into Torment's development both during and after the Kickstarter, so keeping these types of claims out in the open is neither helpful nor constructive. As a result, I'm closing this thread to avoid it getting bogged down in idle speculation.