George Ziets joins inXile full time

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/797498
 

Ziets here.

 

Hello, all. It’s been a while (almost exactly a year, in fact) since I last spoke on Kickstarter. Last time, I was announcing that I’d be working as a contractor on Torment. This time, I’m announcing that I’m joining the team full time. Or at least, I will be joining the team full time, just as soon as I move back out to Orange County.

 

My new role on Torment will be Lead Area Designer. Until now, this position hasn’t really been necessary, but with production starting soon, area creation will become a major focus for our team. We’re in the midst of detailing our plans for area design in Torment (including aspects of pacing, layout, and reactivity). I’ll be making our approach more concrete, establishing standards for our area designers to follow, and then leading the area design team for the remainder of the project.

 

My role might be surprising to those of you who know me as a narrative designer, but in truth, a lot of the things I’ll be doing on Torment will be similar to the things I did on Mask of the Betrayer. I’ll be making sure that you have multiple ways to solve quests, that your choices are meaningful, and that the repercussions of those choices are felt in many places throughout the game. I’ll be designing characters and quests to reflect both the themes of our story and the fundamental weirdness of the Numenera setting. And I’ll be working with our art team to create cool and bizarre locations to explore, like the floating corpse of Myrkul from Mask of the Betrayer.

 

So what convinced me to come back to an in-house job? After all, I’ve been a freelance designer for the past two years, and that’s not a bad gig, especially when my commute consisted of walking up the stairs to my (not at all creepy) attic.

 

First of all, I love the Infinity Engine games – they’re still my all-time favorites – and this is a chance to work on a thematic successor. While it’s satisfying to contribute to a game like Torment from afar, nothing beats the hands-on experience of designing areas on paper, blocking them out in the engine, working directly with artists to make them look great, and seeing the game world take shape before your eyes.

 

What’s especially great about Torment is that it combines the design sensibilities of the classic Infinity Engine games with a setting that’s weird and unpredictable. As designers, we’re not bound by the conventions of reality. The original Torment could have a giant anarchist golem, a brothel of intellectual lusts, and a pregnant alleyway. Buildings and levels could come in all shapes and sizes. Characters were never conventional archetypes, and inspiration could be drawn from almost anywhere. Numenera gives us the same kind of creative freedom, and that’s typically the sort of environment where I function best.

 

Another big incentive: we’re putting a part of the old Mask of the Betrayer team back together. That includes Kevin Saunders and me, of course, but also Jesse Farrell, who was a content designer (and our QA lead) on MotB. Notably, he was responsible for the awesome “soul contract” dialogue in the Chamber of Dreamers. At present, Jesse is blocking out levels and implementing basic quest mechanics for the first zone we’re fully implementing – the Bloom (the one I described in my Kickstarter video).

 

Oh, and the InXile studio is a block away from the beach, so there’s that too.

[IndiraLightfoot]

This is fantastic news! Ziets is one of my all-time favourites when it comes to CRPG narrative design. Yet another reason to get really excited about ToN.

[Endrosz]

Great news! A game like TToN needs wildly creative people like him!

[BruceVC]

This is fantastic news! Ziets is one of my all-time favourites when it comes to CRPG narrative design. Yet another reason to get really excited about ToN.

 

Yeah I agree, I am so excited with all the games on the horizon like PoE and ToN

[Blarghagh]

Neat.

[C2B]

Makes me more positive for TTON

[Meshugger]

Nice, makes me to look forward to Torment even more!

[Starwars]

Had hoped he would get back to Obsidian but I think he's a great fit for Torment so it's great to see he'll be working full time on that. Awesome!

[Keyrock]

Great news!  Having George on the project full time can only mean good things for TToN.

 

[Labadal]

Great news for the game, I believe.

[Gromnir]

zeits... zeits...

 

that is the guy who did motb right? the game with the ultimate antagonist nobody recalls, and a typical-for-obsidian horrible conclusion?  he contributed to fo:nv, yes? am not certain what his contribution actually was, but fo:nv were an ok game... kinda.

 

*shrug*

 

maybe he runs a charity for the homeless, or is a virtuoso juggler... first man to climb everest with a live poodle in tow? am not getting the fascination with zeits, but perhaps he gots qualities beyond game development of which we ain't aware. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited April 2, 2014 by Gromnir

[rjshae]

Meh.

[BruceVC]

zeits... zeits...

 

that is the guy who did motb right? the game with the ultimate antagonist nobody recalls, and a typical-for-obsidian horrible conclusion?  he contributed to fo:nv, yes? am not certain what his contribution actually was, but fo:nv were an ok game... kinda.

 

*shrug*

 

maybe he runs a charity for the homeless, or is a virtuoso juggler... first man to climb an everest with a live poodle in tow? am not getting the fascination with zeits, but perhaps he gots qualities beyond game development of which we ain't aware. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Gromnir you are horribly and egregiously wrong about Ziets, he is a very talented writer and very creative ...and he knows how to write meaningful Romance

[Gromnir]

 

zeits... zeits...

 

that is the guy who did motb right? the game with the ultimate antagonist nobody recalls, and a typical-for-obsidian horrible conclusion?  he contributed to fo:nv, yes? am not certain what his contribution actually was, but fo:nv were an ok game... kinda.

 

*shrug*

 

maybe he runs a charity for the homeless, or is a virtuoso juggler... first man to climb an everest with a live poodle in tow? am not getting the fascination with zeits, but perhaps he gots qualities beyond game development of which we ain't aware. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Gromnir you are horribly and egregiously wrong about Ziets, he is a very talented writer and very creative ...and he knows how to write meaningful Romance

 

you could be correct that he is a talented writer, but we don't know 'pon which to base that-- surely not motb. am honestly uncertain what he did for fo:nv, but we don't recall meaningful romance in that game, so we doubt you is using that game as a reference. am admitting that we is likely not giving zeits his due, but am not certain what work of his deserves greater Gromnir consideration.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[BruceVC]

 

 

zeits... zeits...

 

that is the guy who did motb right? the game with the ultimate antagonist nobody recalls, and a typical-for-obsidian horrible conclusion?  he contributed to fo:nv, yes? am not certain what his contribution actually was, but fo:nv were an ok game... kinda.

 

*shrug*

 

maybe he runs a charity for the homeless, or is a virtuoso juggler... first man to climb an everest with a live poodle in tow? am not getting the fascination with zeits, but perhaps he gots qualities beyond game development of which we ain't aware. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Gromnir you are horribly and egregiously wrong about Ziets, he is a very talented writer and very creative ...and he knows how to write meaningful Romance

 

you could be correct that he is a talented writer, but we don't know 'pon which to base that-- surely not motb. am honestly uncertain what he did for fo:nv, but we don't recall meaningful romance in that game, so we doubt you is using that game as a reference. am admitting that we is likely not giving zeits his due, but am not certain what work of his deserves greater Gromnir consideration.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

Fair enough maybe someone else can give more information, here is his Wiki information

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ziets

[Amentep]

Or it could be...you know...a personal taste thing.

[HoonDing]

Ziets is a fan of 精霊の守り人 so he's alright in my book.

[Majek]

Really? I like him even more now.

[IndiraLightfoot]

_{As someone that knows almost nothing about Japanese manga and novels, I must say that what I can tell, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit looks amazing!}

_{Thank you for that implied tip, Drudanae!}

 

_{The closest I've been to this kind of literature/art/media, is Aang: the Last Airbender, and its sequel, and I really think those series are brilliant.}

[Meshugger]

zeits... zeits...

 

that is the guy who did motb right? the game with the ultimate antagonist nobody recalls, and a typical-for-obsidian horrible conclusion?  he contributed to fo:nv, yes? am not certain what his contribution actually was, but fo:nv were an ok game... kinda.

 

*shrug*

 

maybe he runs a charity for the homeless, or is a virtuoso juggler... first man to climb everest with a live poodle in tow? am not getting the fascination with zeits, but perhaps he gots qualities beyond game development of which we ain't aware. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

You don't hold MotB on a high regard? Why?

[BruceVC]

 

zeits... zeits...

 

that is the guy who did motb right? the game with the ultimate antagonist nobody recalls, and a typical-for-obsidian horrible conclusion?  he contributed to fo:nv, yes? am not certain what his contribution actually was, but fo:nv were an ok game... kinda.

 

*shrug*

 

maybe he runs a charity for the homeless, or is a virtuoso juggler... first man to climb everest with a live poodle in tow? am not getting the fascination with zeits, but perhaps he gots qualities beyond game development of which we ain't aware. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

You don't hold MotB on a high regard? Why?

 

 

Actually that's a good question, I am interested in the answer

[Gromnir]

we mentioned already that the ultimate antagonist is less than memorable and that the end is terrible. lead-up to some kinda titanic battle in the forgotten realms universe "underworld" only to find that your battle is kinda pointless and what you Really gotta do is fight your Id or some-such silly nonsense. that should be enough. regardless, the sleep mechanic were poorly implemented and added nothing save a minor annoyance factor to the game... unless you is perhaps newish to D&D and didnt know how to build an unstoppable juggernaut character, in which case the skein portion o' the game could very well be frustrating to the point o' utter stupidity. speaking o' skien, motb manages to include the only truly disappointing ravel incarnation in an obsidian/black isle game, but that very well could be chrisA's fault.  only six companions, and 2 gets no real development. so, with only 4 we shoulda' gotten best efforts, yes? no. development o' companions were staying right at the surface-- what you saw is exactly what you got. with the exception o' the bald girl, all characters were little more than their hook. the bald girl, on the other hand, were boring. perhaps game were too short to develop a clone companion that coulds somehow grow beyond the founder's plans for her. or maybe not. we didn't care either way, and that is a flaw. 

 

etc.

 

ultimately, motb had some intriguing pieces that just didn't fit together particularly well and the big picture formed by those individual pieces were kinda disappointing.

 

however, we will concede that as much as we loathe pen & paper d&d at high/epic levels, motb did a good (not great) job o' handling level 30 d&d gameplay... other than aforementioned spirit-eater/sleep mechanic. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Meshugger]

Fair enough, nothing to refute for my part if you find little enjoyment in high-level D&D gameplay. I am so used to vitrol and hyperbole that i was expecting the same old "the spirit-meter sucks! it destroyed my enjoyment playing as demi-GOD!"-whoplada.