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Planescape: Torment successor takes Kickstarter by storm

Colin McComb and Brian Fargo's Planescape: Torment successor has finally arrived on Kickstarter, with a massive bang.

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Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
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Michelle Starr
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Colin McComb and Brian Fargo's Planescape: Torment successor has finally arrived on Kickstarter, with a massive bang.

(Credit: inXile Entertainment)

It hasn't even been live for eight hours, and already Torment: Tides of Numenera has smashed through both its US$900,000 funding goal and the US$1 million mark — beating even Ouya to its first million.

We'd heard about the project back in early December, when Colin McComb — who worked on Planescape: Torment with Chris Avellone — told Eurogamer that Avellone had given the project his blessing, and that the game was already in pre-planning.

Avellone himself is currently working on Project Eternity, which closed out at nearly US$4 million.

The game itself is not a true sequel, but rather a "spiritual successor" to Planescape: Torment, set in Monte Cook's world of Numenara. A single-player isometric RPG, it will be available for PC, Mac and Linux, completely DRM free. It's estimated to arrive in December 2014.

InXile Entertainment described the game's similarities to Planescape: Torment:

  • A deep, thematically satisfying story. The philosophical underpinnings of Torment drive the game, both mechanically and narratively. Your words, choices and actions will be your primary weapons.

  • A world unlike any other. The game has a fantastic, original setting, with awe-inspiring painterly visuals, imaginative locations, truly offbeat items and massive feats of magic. In Numenera, however, "magic" is actually something surprisingly different.

  • A rich, personal narrative. The story is thoughtful and character driven — epic in feel, but a deeply personal narrative, with non-traditional characters and companions who have their own motivations and desires that drive them throughout the game.

  • Reactivity, choice and real consequences. The game emphasizes replayability and reactivity, and your choices will make a real difference. You can play the game with a different approach and discover entirely new pathways. Most important, we won't tell you how to play. The best ending is the one you choose, flowing naturally from your actions throughout the game.

To get the game, it'll cost you US$20 for the early bird tier (although it's going fast); but the rewards for paying more are gorgeous, including the ability to contribute ideas to the game, art books, novellas, signed prints, statuettes and your name on a tombstone in the game.

With over 20,000 backers and US$1,059,342, at the time of writing, the project is blowing up fast. Head on over to the Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter page to read more, and get your backing in.