Brian Fargo has announced in a Kickstarter update that appropriate level backers of Torment: Tides of Numenera will be getting a beta version of the game on 17 January 2016. The game will also be hitting Steam Early Access nine days later, purchasable by anyone.
"The beta will start you right in the beginning of the game and is quite lengthy for an early beta," explained Fargo, "It covers the game's introductory sequence (some of which you may have already seen a portion of in the alpha) as well as most of the first major location of the game, Sagus Cliffs. Sagus is a very old city that was built on top of ancient structures that predate the return of humanity to the Ninth World. It's split into five main districts: Circus Minor, Cliff's Edge, Caravanserai, Government Square and the Underbelly. As you might expect from a city location, it is rich in lore to discover, characters to talk with and obviously quests to complete!"
Fargo also urged player feedback. He noted that "during the alpha, we had a direct feedback form in the game and we'll likely provide that again, as it turned out to be an excellent way for us to gather feedback in a way that was easy for us to parse and implement."
Torment: Tides of Numenera is a spiritual successor to the spawling, wordy RPG Planescape: Torment, and due to be released sometime in 2016.
