Brian Fargo returns to Kickstarter with Torment

Brian Fargo has returned to Kickstarter with his studio InXile Entertainment to crowdfund $900,000 to develop RPG title Torment: Tides of Numenera.

The project, which has already garnered $330,000 from nearly 6,000 backers in its first few hours, will be a single-player isometric and story-driven RPG.

The game will be developed using the Unity engine, with planned platforms for release including PC, Mac and Linux.

The launch of the new crowdfunding campaign follows the success of the developer’s previous Kickstarter project Wasteland 2, which raised almost $3 million from more than 60,000 backers.

Despite being crowdfunded in March last year however, and with the developer beginning a new Kickstarter campaign, Wasteland 2 has still yet to see release, although it is currently slated to launch toward the end of the year.

A description on the website claims that the developer has taken to crowdfunding before Wasteland 2’s release to improve the cost-effectiveness of development.

“We’ve discovered that the best way to create a deep and rich RPG is to begin the pre-production process long before the production team have finished their current project,” reads the Torment Kickstarter description.

“If we waited to begin the design work for a large scale RPG until after the programming team has completed their work, our budget would increase by 50 per cent or more. This would result in the hiring and firing process that happens all too often in our industry. We want to break that model and keep our great team together. This is why it makes sense for us to begin work on Torment now rather than later.”

As well as receiving Kickstarter funding, the project’s description states that InXile boss Brian Fargo will front up extra funds if the title hits its funding goal of $900,000 but fails to reach $1 million. If the project exceeds $1million, Fargo will contribute ten cents for every $1 pledged up to $2 million.

Revenue from the sales of Wasteland 2 will also go into the title.