Well, the Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter not only launched yesterday, but quickly broke the Kickstarter record for shortest time to reach the $1 million mark. The project had reached its $900,000 funding goal in just six hours, and topped a million dollars soon thereafter. As I write this, not quite 36 hours after the fundraising campaign got underway, inXile Entertainment have garnered nearly $1.9 million in support.
Indeed, at this rate, they're in a good position to give Star Citizen's $8-million haul a run fot its money (pun intended!). Clearly, RPG fans everywhere wanted a Planescape: Torment sequel, and now they shall have the next-best thing.
Tomorrow, though, I suspect we'll face the question of whether, in addition to a Torment spiritual sequel, RPG fans everywhere are not also hungry for a proper spiritual sequel to the Ultima games. The countdown clock on the Lord British Presents website will run out at 10 AM (Central Time) tomorrow, and we'll all get a look at what Richard Garriott has in store for us at that time.
Some have speculated that whatever he has in store will be coming to Kickstarter as well. Whether that's true or not, Garriott himself has let a few details slip about the game he'll be announcing, which appears to be the Ultimate RPG he has been touting for a while. But contra what it says on the website of his development company, Portalarium, the game is no longer being considered for release on social platforms such as Faceboook. Rather, it will in fact be a full-on, standalone PC game, one which promises to be a return to the roots of Garriott's greatest games: the Ultima series.
It probably won't be an actual Ultima game, though, since Electronic Arts now owns that IP. But a spiritual sequel is certainly a distinct possibility...a probability, even.
And honestly, I find that prospect rather more exciting than a Torment successor. Not that what inXile are doing isn't awesome in its own right; don't mistake my meaning! But Ultima is near and dear to my heart, and that series is the reason I count myself a gamer. The thought that its original creator might be up to some of his old tricks -- and working some of his old magic -- again is exciting beyond words.
And I mean, let's face it: with a Wing Commander spiritual successor in development, with what's likely to be an Ultima spiritual successor announced tomorrow, and with promising old-school-like RPGs being promised by the likes of Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment, it kind of feels like 1997 or so all over again. There is a thrill to all of these announcements and pending announcements I haven't felt since I was in high school.
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