Game News Fargo being serious about crowdfunding Wasteland 2

[Mortmal]

No its not stated anywhere its isometric turn based, nor 2D turn based like the first one, nothing at all except a name and its oldschool, how oldschool ? Remember syndicate shooter, remember xcom shooter, i need more details before putting my money in.Oh yes an the new ultima : ultimate garage sale... I need to know and see more, this era of gaming is so fucked up i dont trust anyone.

 

[Eyeball]

I've a question about all this kickstarter enthusiasm: Is there any specific mechanic in place to prevent you from simply taking the money and running without ever coding one pixel of game?

 

[Morkar Left]

Before I would even consider spending money I would like to read a detailed design document plus an estimated release date and how many people work on it. And that's only because he (or Obsidian) is known in the industry (read: he has skills and couldn't afford to scam people). Otherwise it's completely pointless to talk about something like this.

Wasteland or classical rpgs are too long gone, tech is advanced and a "new classical rpg" has to consider this. And how this changes turn out is up to the developers. AoD seems to do it right, Frayed Knights already proved it (but you can see the small budget behind Frayed Knights).

 

[VonVentrue]

Before I would even consider spending money I would like to read a detailed design document plus an estimated release date and how many people work on it.

As extreme as it may be, I share your sentiment to a degree, but for slightly different reasons.
I'd support such a project from the bottom of my heart if it were to come from a different developer (preferably Obsidian, obviously) - I can't help but question inXile's capability to deliver on the promise of creating a decent sequel (not to mention faithful to the spirit of the original Wasteland) given the company's pretty abysmal track record.

 

[PorkaMorka]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1218794p1.html

Fargo has only been working on the project for a mere 48 hours, and he and the rest of inXile are currently working on a production schedule to see if its feasible. But he does think that it'd take at least a million dollars, and hopes that the Kickstarter will go live in the next month.

He believes it would require at least a million dollars to produce his Wasteland sequel.

A million dollars seems very high. This seems like evidence that he is still in the AAA development mindset.

I wonder what Age of Decadence's budget is? I am guessing not anywhere near a million dollars.

Maybe non AAA developers would use that money more efficiently.

 

[Infinitron]

A million dollars seems very high. This seems like evidence that he is still in the AAA development mindset.

 

[Metro]

I've a question about all this kickstarter enthusiasm: Is there any specific mechanic in place to prevent you from simply taking the money and running without ever coding one pixel of game?

None. Well, let me rephrase that: intentional fraud would result in legal action but it is pretty easy to cloud it under a bunch of caveats and say 'oh we tried but just couldn't get it working and blah blah.'

 

[DarkUnderlord]

He posted another tweet just a minute ago:

I want fans to know that a new Wasteland would be complete old school vibe and made with input from gamers. Made the gamers way.

So it'll have shit graphics then?

 

[almondblight]

That's another reason why this is stupid. The people at double fine only budgeted in 300k for the game (plus another 100k for the documentary). They had a lot of support, became one of the most successful kickstarters of all time, and ended up with 1.8 million and counting. The other studios don't see the 300k figure, they just see the 1.8 million figure and start drooling.

 

[Jaesun]

What the fuck does "old school vibe" mean exactly?

Based on what they have done so far (granted those were all games with publisher demands) that doesn't fill me with any confidence. Yet another shitty action game with a STR stat? Fight rats in the Inn Keepers cellar?

Fargo HAS a history of being a game producer and producing some excellent games, with a well established game development team (Black Isle Studios). He would be better off Producing and collaborating with Obsidian (for this Wasteland 2 remake).

 

[Morkar Left]

Before I would even consider spending money I would like to read a detailed design document plus an estimated release date and how many people work on it.

As extreme as it may be,..

What's extreme about it? It doesn't matter if you write a design document for 5 people called publisher to get a million or to write a design document for 50,000 people to get a million. Spending money without even knowing for what I spend it sounds more extreme to me.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1218794p1.html
A million dollars seems very high. This seems like evidence that he is still in the AAA development mindset.
...
I wonder what Age of Decadence's budget is? I am guessing not anywhere near a million dollars.

Maybe non AAA developers would use that money more efficiently.

I don't think that it is that much money. I think it is safe to say that everybody would expect a game with the quality and production values of Fallout. How many worked at Fallout 1 and how much money do you think did they earn as a salary working on it? You can't really compare it with AoD which gets produced as a hobby in freetime.

 

[DwarvenFood]

That's another reason why this is stupid. The people at double fine only budgeted in 300k for the game (plus another 100k for the documentary). They had a lot of support, became one of the most successful kickstarters of all time, and ended up with 1.8 million and counting. The other studios don't see the 300k figure, they just see the 1.8 million figure and start drooling.

After making a version for PS3, XBOX, IPAD, Android, Wii and FaceBook, the leftover money will be used to film the documentary on location in Hawaii.

But the problem with OBS I think, is the meddling of publishers, complaining that resources are being used for "Torment 2" instead of South Park or whatever they have going parallel. Don't let me even start about Wasteland 2, a better idea would be for Fargo to join OBS temporarily (like Tim Cain is doing) but seeing his recent track record I don't know if he could provide any good input / qualities.

The Kickstarter thing can only turn into a scam if the funding target required is actually met, otherwise there is no money to be taken. I doubt people would want to shell $1M for Wasteland 2, I know I would not. For OBS it's another story, and they would not have to fund everything through Kickstarter, I'm sure some of the guys there can put some of their money where their mouth is and maybe use some company money as well. I'm pretty sure that MCA could get $500K through Kickstarter - provided there is something to show for and more details about game engine, story and combat mechanics. If they could pull off The Black Hound, they would become immortal IMO.

 

[thesisko]

I'm not giving even one dollar to this guy. Atleast MCA and Sawyer seem to have some grasp on decent game design and are actually capable of having an intelligent dialogue about it - all I've heard from Fargo are empty buzzwords. And while Feargus has said some retarded shit in interviews, nothing even remotely approaches the stupidity of inXile's "RPGs always wanted to be third-person cover-shooters" quote.

My take: This guy is just seeing an opportunity to do a project with full funding, free marketing and 70% profit on copies sold - something he'd never get from a publisher.

 

[Roguey]

He believes it would require at least a million dollars to produce his Wasteland sequel.

A million dollars seems very high. This seems like evidence that he is still in the AAA development mindset.

I wonder what Age of Decadence's budget is? I am guessing not anywhere near a million dollars.

Maybe non AAA developers would use that money more efficiently.

A million dollars is nowhere near AAA-standards (think 20 million and higher) and no one's getting a salary on AoD. As a better example, Jeff Vogel does give himself a salary and he said it cost him $120,000 to make Geneforge 4 and estimates would have been 50% higher had he done the graphics/code from scratch.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Don't understand the appeal for Wasteland II. Wasteland itself wasn't a true classic to begin with and most people know the game because of the fact that it inspired Fallout. I'm not saying it was bad or average, it was good. Just not great as some people think it is. Fargo himself has lots of balls talking about crowd funding when all of the games he was involved in the last decade were sub-par.

"Remember Wasteland?"

 

[Vival]

Old news: Fargo being a hack. I'd rather sink some bucks into junk food - higher chance of getting something with substance.

 

[Zed]

My take: This guy is just seeing an opportunity to do a project with full funding, free marketing and 70% profit on copies sold - something he'd never get from a publisher.

I have to admit I think this is very opportunistic.
Besides inXile doesn't really have a great catalog of games. Also I know nothing of the company besides Fargo being some sort of lead.

 

[thesisko]

A million dollars is nowhere near AAA-standards (think 20 million and higher) and no one's getting a salary on AoD. As a better example, Jeff Vogel does give himself a salary and he said it cost him $120,000 to make Geneforge 4 and estimates would have been 50% higher had he done the graphics/code from scratch.

Aside from the huge marketing costs, art, assets and voice-work is what inflates the budgets of "AAA" games. I doubt Fallout 1&2 cost a million dollars, and I don't see why Fargo needs it unless he plans to spend most of that money on the visuals.
By setting that bar so high to start with it's obvious he just wants to make a commercially appealing product unlike Double Fine's project - which started out as something just for the fans with an understanding that they wouldn't necessarily demands nice visuals and voice-acting.

 

[Zed]

It's a different type of investment too. We become investors without requiring any monetary return on our investments. Sign a poster, credits in the game, stuff like that basically cost 0$. The money they get is "more money" than publisher money.

 

[Nope]

While InExile's record doesn't exactly fill me with confidence Fargo's talk on Mattchat went on quite a bit about publisher's driving development and how "the only reason there is a Fallout is because I couldn't get the rights to make Wasteland 2."
He'd have to make a well-outlined design document before expecting much enthusiasm though, if only so people can be sure they're actually making an RPG and not just paying for another Bard's Tale.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

Bets are on: how many zany crowdfunding schemes will we see before the end of the year? Step right, up, gentlemen! You have fun but nobody wins anything (is what I suppose. Could be eminently wrong)

 

[Art Vandelay]

Here's what Brian Fargo had to say during a recent IGN Interview:

He doesn't know if it'd be straight up called Wasteland 2, but he repeatedly emphasized that, despite having thought about it for only 48 hours, it wouldn't be a crazy genre change up. Wasteland, whatever its called, will be "100% faithful to its roots." This means a Wasteland game that "would be focusing on top-down, probably isometric, party based, skill based -- where if you'd just finished playing Wasteland and moved onto this you'd feel comfortable."​

 

[Jaesun]

Here's what Brian Fargo had to say during a recent IGN Interview:

He doesn't know if it'd be straight up called Wasteland 2, but he repeatedly emphasized that, despite having thought about it for only 48 hours, it wouldn't be a crazy genre change up. Wasteland, whatever its called, will be "100% faithful to its roots." This means a Wasteland game that "would be focusing on top-down, probably isometric, party based, skill based -- where if you'd just finished playing Wasteland and moved onto this you'd feel comfortable."​

uh..... well fuck me running. There might be some hope after all?

 

[Infinitron]

Here's what Brian Fargo had to say during a recent IGN Interview:

He doesn't know if it'd be straight up called Wasteland 2, but he repeatedly emphasized that, despite having thought about it for only 48 hours, it wouldn't be a crazy genre change up. Wasteland, whatever its called, will be "100% faithful to its roots." This means a Wasteland game that "would be focusing on top-down, probably isometric, party based, skill based -- where if you'd just finished playing Wasteland and moved onto this you'd feel comfortable, except that it would be on your cellphone."​

uh..... well fuck me running. There might be some hope after all?

FIXED

 

[Jaesun]

He should contact and work with Obsidian on this. Period.