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Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]

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Re: Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]

#31

Post by badsectoracula »

v-erne wrote: post #11

>> Tons of Total Babes: This game will have lots of babes that make the player go “wow.” >> There will be fiendish babes, human babes, angelic babes, asian babes, and even undead babes. Well, I did not expected this level of honesty about what target audience really want. It almost like finding "and its also addictive, in most profitable kind of way" in Marlboro brand pitch deck. Its kinda refrshing.

> Well, I did not expected this level of honesty about what target audience really want.

IIRC it was the other way around, the pitch document went overboard with that because it was what the executives/publisher believed audiences would want :-)

Remember this wasn't the design document but the document to convince those with money to spend that money to make the game.

Re: Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]

#32

Post by Dwelve »

v-erne wrote: post #11

>> Tons of Total Babes: This game will have lots of babes that make the player go “wow.” >> There will be fiendish babes, human babes, angelic babes, asian babes, and even undead babes. Well, I did not expected this level of honesty about what target audience really want. It almost like finding "and its also addictive, in most profitable kind of way" in Marlboro brand pitch deck. Its kinda refrshing.

I never knew this game was so amazing. Guess I gotta play it after all

Re: Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]

#33

Post by gilbetron »

My gaming group had a big ole Planescape campaign in 1995/1996, and the DM, myself and my then-girlfriend, now wife, went to Gencon. We met the creators, and did some fun little Planescape sessions they had set up. In our campaign, my wife was playing a red-headed tiefling with a devil's tail named Lilah. Being nerds, we of course told the Planescape devs all about our campaign. My wife even has a sketch of Lilah from Tony D in the (then, just released) Planewalker's Handbook.

In 1997, Planescape Torment came out, and we loved it. However, it was a bit shocking to find they had an NPC named Annah, that was a red-headed tiefling with a devil's tail. We still think Annah was heavily drawn from Lilah!

Re: Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]

#34

Post by Certhas »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #12
jaggederest wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if there's one game worth your time, PS:T is probably it. Arguably one of the best cRPGs of all time.

People have rose tinted glasses when they talk about old games. PS:T was a cut above the other cRPGs of its time mainly because it had adequate writing and an engaging story when most other cRPGs were trite. Still everything after Raven’s maze is just average until the ending where it gets good again and the gameplay outside of dialogue is frankly uninteresting. It’s in a lot of way like the original Dark Soul whose…

Talking about the gameplay outside the dialogue is a bit silly though. Why people still love it are writing and plot. The mechanics were simply the bog standard mechanics of the day and don't matter much.

Which games would you say have bested it in terms of writing/plot? I see a few but not very many really. Disco Elysium would be the first but that also stands alone in terms of quality. (That said, don't get to game much anymore so could very well have missed a lot...).

Re: Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]

#35

Post by hutzlibu »

Dwelve wrote: post #32
v-erne wrote: post #11

>> Tons of Total Babes: This game will have lots of babes that make the player go “wow.” >> There will be fiendish babes, human babes, angelic babes, asian babes, and even undead babes. Well, I did not expected this level of honesty about what target audience really want. It almost like finding "and its also addictive, in most profitable kind of way" in Marlboro brand pitch deck. Its kinda refrshing.

I never knew this game was so amazing. Guess I gotta play it after all

It has a very special (morbid) humor.

Re: Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]

#37

Post by iamacyborg »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #30
valvar wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It’s in a lot of way like the original Dark Soul whose last half is so aweful I’m not sure the awesome first one is enough to redeem the game. What are you talking about? I've never heard this take before. I found it fantastic all the way through. Maybe introducing the lord vessel was a poor design choice, but it's a minor fault.

It’s a fairly common opinion even amongst fans of the Soul games. Basically everything after Anor Londo was rushed through as the budget dwindled and the game had to be released. The catacombs are just a smudgy mess with a couple of uninteresting ennemies and a mid-boss without any worthwhile patterns. The depth is just reskinned old ennemies you have to plod through one after the other before what’s probably the wor…

If you want to see what rushed looks like, compare Revenant[1] before and after the major underground section.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenant_(video_game)

Re: Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]

#40

Post by ineedasername »

Technical limitations made it difficult to deliver on every single aspect of the pitch, but I’d say it filled the spirit of the game intended by this doc.

It goes a long way towards explaining how it so significantly differentiated itself from the more sterile (but battle focused— which was fun too) Icewinf Dale games or the Baldur’s Gate games that had a bit more guardrails build into them.

All of those stand out as exceptional classics, but Planescape was unique among them.

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