Game News Obsidian to co-develop Wasteland 2 if Kickstarter reaches $2.1mil

[Black]

Great news! We've been contacted by some folks over at Bioware and it seems they want to help with the project! It'd be pretty stupid to refuse their help, since they're a talented and experienced bunch, so we'll try to work something out. Stay tuned!

Welp

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Where is that from? Don't tase me, bro.

 

[Pegultagol]

About camera, with all the talk of games adopting cinematic gameplay and cutscenes and immersion or whatever, I don't know why they fail to nail down camera movement and placement which should be priority on the list of real cinematic presentation in games.

And when this project reaches 3 million, I fully expect Brian Fargo to send hitmen to the past at the turn of this century to Edmonton and Bethesda and also instruct Troika a thing or two about crowd sourcing.

 

[Baron]

I'm now starting to see Brian Fargo as Brad Pitt in Moneyball, calling up companies and trying to trade devs on a shoestring budget.




Or, being savvy, realising he could raise $500K in ticket sales just by purchasing some big league hitters just to rock up during spring training, knock a couple of balls around and sign some autographs...

Damn, I've gotta stop sitting around all afternoon fantasizing about my favourite RPG developments being made into movies played by Hollywood superstars.

 

[eric__s]

I know I'm 13 pages late to the party but

hell yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

 

[villain of the story]

Get real people, it's not happening. It will never reach that amount.

 

[Dexter]

Fake, high-res 2D please xD
http://i.minus.com/iZtiZIaBc5sNi.jpg
http://i.minus.com/ibdymIRBjmXMjo.jpg

Most pure 3D-RPGs still end up looking shit, especially on a small budget.

 

[villain of the story]

They can look right if stupid developers can overcome the impulse to use perspective (COUGH AOD COUGH) WHICH LOOK LIKE UTTER SHIT WITH A PINCH OF VOMIT ON IT and use proper parallel projection with restricted camera angles and achieve the same quality of look as pre-rendered 2D.

 

[Burning Bridges]

They’ve [InXile] just been in touch to say that, if they can reach $2.1 million during the 17 days remaining on the funding schedule, they’ll be bringing in Obisidian Entertainment, including Planescape: Torment mastermind Chris Avellone, to help them make the game.

UPDATE. An important clarification from Brian Fargo via email -- Obsidian will only help design the game, all the coding will be done in-house at InXile:

Also important to note that their contribution is purely in design. We are doing all the code here.

Interesting times indeed.

It's in fact a very bad idea. A game doesn't get better when you have a dozen designers instead of just one or two.

This sounds like either pure PR to me, or a step in a very wrong direction. Daniel Vavra has written a nice article why it is not helpful to have teams that are any larger than necessary.

http://www.warhorsestudios.cz/index.php?page=blog&entry=blog_007

The results are obvious. You have a task for one person, but because somebody is unable to take personal responsibility, you have several people to do that task, because it feels safe. It’s not safe. In fact it’s disastrous. Most of the time, those people will be fighting each other, duplicating their work and protecting their asses. They will hardly produce anything special or try something risky.

You need to have a clear vision for the project you are going to make, you need to have the right people for the right jobs and most importantly you need to avoid idiots. That last part is very hard. But if you manage to do it, you should end up with better work, with less people, fewer problems and for less money.

Currently we have 19 people working for us for the preproduction phase of the project. We plan to at least double this number as the project will move into full production. But our plan is to keep it as low as possible. Instead of trying to make the game by brute force, we want to make it by clever decisions and perfect bulletproof design. One Special Forces member is better than a unit of cannon fodder. Yes, it isn’t easy to assemble a Special Forces team. We had to make compromises. Some people I would love to work with are not available, we had to bet on some younger, less experienced but talented people, but that’s life and I strongly believe, we can and will make it!

 

[Burning Bridges]

And by the way.

The more I hear about WL2, I am beginning to feel some kind of deja vu, like times are finally repeating themselves.

Many many years ago, and in long gone places like rpgdot.com, I remember reading strangely similar discussions about an ambitious, PC-centric hardcore RPG, which was going to be developed by Bioware. In the wake of several multiplatform dissappointments like Kotor, Bioware promised that they were also going to make 1 game exclusively for the PC. The game was still years out, but Bioware said they were going to make sure it would be perfect.

The game was called Dragon Age.

 

[villain of the story]

If we get a new RPG renaissance, I will lose the incentive to bitch about games and have to focus back on my shitty life once more.

 

[Volrath]

Get real people, it's not happening. It will never reach that amount.

Killjoy. raising 300k in two weeks is certainly possible.

 

[Ringhausen]

This is one conniving move

Get a million bucks you were asking for. Get an extra 600,000. Hear about people being excited about an Obsidian Kickstarter. H.. hey here's an idea, you give ME a 500,000 more and you'll get the Obsidian kickstarter, sorta.

CA$$$HING!

 

[commie]

And by the way.

The more I hear about WL2, I am beginning to feel some kind of deja vu, like times are finally repeating themselves.

Many many years ago, and in long gone places like rpgdot.com, I remember reading strangely similar discussions about an ambitious, PC-centric hardcore RPG, which was going to be developed by Bioware. In the wake of several multiplatform dissappointments like Kotor, Bioware promised that they were also going to make 1 game exclusively for the PC. The game was still years out, but Bioware said they were going to make sure it would be perfect.

The game was called Dragon Age.

I think you're exaggerating. In a year you don't have time to fuck around and inXile isn't exactly a big studio with a proud heritage. Getting Obsidian(MCA) to maybe have a team to integrate the dialogues and quests and shit seems like a winner to me, especially with all the fan added stuff to distract from the game.

You also have to remember that this is going to be the only shot inXile will get at this: they can't keep coming with the begging bowl to kickstarter for every project. Brian wants to make sure he gets the best possible chance from the start, and getting some big name support is as much a marketing move to keep the dollars coming in as anything else.

I already expected W2 to be a bit rough and inconsistent as it strives to be both a rebirth of a genre(in mainstream terms) and a vehicle that by necessity has to honor the pledges of people regarding content.

I doubt that inXile will be getting Obsidian or anybody else onboard to help out with a Wasteland 3(unless of course MCA and others actually move to inXile which actually wouldn't be the same thing.)

 

[Burning Bridges]

just saying ..

And is it definite that the game will come out in a year? You see I am still mostly uninformed when it comes the WL2, but my understanding was that the project had not even begun. If they completely design and program an outstanding RPG in one year, it will not only be a premiere for the new funding model, but also a revolution in game development.

So far I'd thought this would drag on for several years, and didn't even bother to check the various threads because of that.

 

[Infinitron]

And by the way.

The more I hear about WL2, I am beginning to feel some kind of deja vu, like times are finally repeating themselves.

Many many years ago, and in long gone places like rpgdot.com, I remember reading strangely similar discussions about an ambitious, PC-centric hardcore RPG, which was going to be developed by Bioware. In the wake of several multiplatform dissappointments like Kotor, Bioware promised that they were also going to make 1 game exclusively for the PC. The game was still years out, but Bioware said they were going to make sure it would be perfect.

The game was called Dragon Age.

I was sure until the middle of your post that you were talking about Baldur's Gate.

 

[Infinitron]

just saying ..

And is it definite that the game will come out in a year? You see I am still mostly uninformed when it comes the WL2, but my understanding was that the project had not even begun. If they completely design and program an outstanding RPG in one year, it will not only be a premiere for the new funding model, but also a revolution in game development.

So far I thought this would drag on for several years, and didn't even bother to check the various threads because of that.

Actually, it's half a year of pure design, a year of development. 1.5 years total

 

[Burning Bridges]

Thanks I really didn't know.

That's pretty ambitious, don't you think?

 

[Infinitron]

Thanks I really didn't know.

That's pretty ambitious, don't you think?

In an engine without cutscenes and voice acting, and with modern tools, it's perfectly doable. Black Isle made good games in this kind of timeframe.

 

[Burning Bridges]

When Maddox' Battle Of Britain was announced in 2003 it was said that it would still be a very long time out, it may even be as late as Q4 2005! The year 2005 sounded like pure science fiction.

Everyone went Oh No, 2005! What am I going to do in the whole time!

Then other saids they'd rather wait, at least the game would be a polished, one of a kind experience by then.

I mean, not this must be relevant in any way but ..

 

[LeStryfe79]

DA:O was pedestrian at worst, but there were times when the derp was intolerable. Also, Bioware can't make an rpg system to save their souls. Everything post d20 stinks to high hell from a rules standpoint. Even Bethesda is better in this regard. d20 is open source, so I can't for the life of me understand what they are thinking. Every system they have created since they abandoned d20 has been shallow as fuck, broken as fuck, and fucked as fuck.

 

[commie]

just saying ..

And is it definite that the game will come out in a year? You see I am still mostly uninformed when it comes the WL2, but my understanding was that the project had not even begun. If they completely design and program an outstanding RPG in one year, it will not only be a premiere for the new funding model, but also a revolution in game development.

So far I thought this would drag on for several years, and didn't even bother to check the various threads because of that.

Actually, it's half a year of pure design, a year of development. 1.5 years total

Yeah that suggests that MCA will mostly be there at the start, for those 6 months, helping out with preparing the game with Obsidian's tools and perhaps engine if they decide to go with that. After that it will be inXile hunkering down and putting everything into practice without input from other parties.

As for the length of time needed, the nature of the funding means they cannot drag it on for years and years. People will give a leeway of up to 6 months if the game really needs it but any more than that and Brian can kiss all the goodwill and support goodbye.

When Maddox' Battle Of Britain was announced in 2003 it was said that it would still be a very long time out, it may even be as late as Q4 2005! The year 2005 sounded like pure science fiction.

Everyone went Oh No, 2005! What am I going to do in the whole time!

Then other saids they'd rather wait, at least the game would be polished by then.

I mean, not this must be relevant in any way but ..

But that was a private project and at the start Maddox's 1C was just a developer of one particular game. From its success, 1C became a publisher that dominated Russia and Maddox lost interest in actually making Battle of Britain. In the end he wasn't even in charge of it. Why not use DNF as an example or Diablo III?

A crowd funded game is a different beast entirely. People expect to see something within a reasonable time frame. Brian, even if he gets 3 million knows that it's not an amount that can be stretched into perpetuity unless he wants 40-50,000 enraged backers screaming for his blood.

I am disturbed by your lack of faith BB...

Get real people, it's not happening. It will never reach that amount.

They need around 17,000 a day...could be done. It will drop off again in a day or two though to the 10,000 or less level. Depends on how much this pickup manages and whether there will be a late surge.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Hopefully you are right.

I don't have lack of faith, I'm just spectic from past experience.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

I'm just spectic

Like an extremely agitated ghost?

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Oh wonderful..."Wasteland 2 to become Story Fag RPG"? Or "Wasteland 2 released in half finished beta state".

Just what I was looking forward to!