Game News Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Now Live!

[Stabwound]

I will predict right here that this is a turning point for CRPGs.

I think we're witnessing a revolution take place.

 

[commie]

I don't really feel confident in the ability of InXile to make a good game.
Now, if it was late dear Sir-tech (more or less the equivalent of Schafer and Gilbert).

This thing works on reputation.

Also, encourage everybody to ignore the shitposter alt above.

I might agree with this if they weren't basically hiring on a whole new team of ex-Wasteland/Fallout developers for writing and design purposes.

As long as they keep that faggot that said that all 'RPG's of old would have wanted to be ARPG's' as far as fucking possible from this(if not even fired) then it should be ok.

 

[Stabwound]

The tactical shooter guys also don't seem to have a very clear idea of what they're going to make, and they're not even aiming to collect enough funds to make the game, just to pitch it to publishers. There's no guarantee there will be a game even if the kickstarter succeeds. They're going to have to do better than that, pure adn simple.

Yeah, their kickstarter is just way too generic in every way. The name of the kickstarter itself "Crowd Sourced Hardcore Tactical Shooter" made me cringe when I saw it. You clearly have to have some kind of actual plan in place; look at all of the successful Kickstarter campaigns. All of them are very clear in what the plan is and what you're actually donating toward. Saying "donate toward my shooting game" is a lot different from "donate toward my topdown turn-based post-apocalyptic RPG which is a sequel to Wasteland, a beloved game. P.S I was involved in all of your favorite childhood games."

 

[Morkar Left]

Well I'd like it to reach 1.5 mil to get as 'complete' a product as possible but I'm actually a bit wary of it going too far as then there's pressure on Fargo just to make everything shiny with cutscenes and full VO work and bloom, lots and lots of bloom, just to justify the expenditure. This project seems to be the kind that works best being lean and mean with just enough money to do everything with focus and efficiency, much like the original.

From the kickstarter page:

t $1.25 million, the money will go primarily into making the world bigger, adding more maps, more divergent stories and even more music. At $1.5 million, the world gets even bigger. You’ll have more adventures to play, more challenges to deal with, and a greater level of complexity to the entire storyline. We’ll add more environments, story elements, and characters to make the rich world come alive even more. We will even be able to bring Wasteland 2 to OS X for Mac lovers.

 

[felipepepe]

The tactical shooter guys also don't seem to have a very clear idea of what they're going to make, and they're not even aiming to collect enough funds to make the game, just to pitch it to publishers. There's no guarantee there will be a game even if the kickstarter succeeds. They're going to have to do better than that, pure adn simple.

That guy was a retard that woke one morning and read at Kotaku that a fat dude had "won" 3 Million on Kickstarter to make a game. He then alt-tabed to Kickstarter, wrote a shitty and vague description of a game and that stupid "this is just to atract publishers" shit. Even if he reached 200k, he could burn all in whores and say that publishers didn't wanted to make the game...is just the perfect example of Kickstarter done wrong, and I'm glad that Wasteland 2 starter before stupid/greedy developers started to flood the site with ridiculous projects.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Well I'd like it to reach 1.5 mil to get as 'complete' a product as possible but I'm actually a bit wary of it going too far as then there's pressure on Fargo just to make everything shiny with cutscenes and full VO work and bloom, lots and lots of bloom, just to justify the expenditure. This project seems to be the kind that works best being lean and mean with just enough money to do everything with focus and efficiency, much like the original.

Nah, he said *all* additional money would go towards three things:
1. more content (as in, game world, NPCs and quests)
2. more platforms (Linux and Mac, in that order)
3. localisation
Which is all good imho. (EDIT: Hah, Morkar beat me to it.)

As for VOs, from what I've gathered they're going for radio transmissions of some kind, so I wouldn't object to them spending additional money towards that either. That could greatly enhance the atmosphere.

 

[commie]

t $1.25 million, the money will go primarily into making the world bigger, adding more maps, more divergent stories and even more music. At $1.5 million, the world gets even bigger. You’ll have more adventures to play, more challenges to deal with, and a greater level of complexity to the entire storyline. We’ll add more environments, story elements, and characters to make the rich world come alive even more. We will even be able to bring Wasteland 2 to OS X for Mac lovers.

Yes I know. That's why I was using $1.5 mil as a reference point and a funding total that I would love to see them meet. Since they'll really have just a year and a half to do it though and really make a worthy sequel with all the expectations that go with it, everything needs to be focused and essential to the game. Too much money can actually make it harder to keep focus as the temptation to add more and more things becomes overwhelming to the detriment of the game. Of course my fears are probably misguided and Wasteland will have to really raise a lot more than 1.5 million for such a potential trap to appear; another half mil would be fine to really polish the game but more than that?

EDIT: Well if what Crooked Bee says is true then it's ok. Making sure that the game is complete first then using extra funds to get it out on as many platforms and regions as possible is a good move. Seems that Fargo does indeed realise he has a limited time to make this and it's going to be well structured and thought out.

 

[Mother Russia]

To be honest though, 900,000 is nothing in todays gaming budgets. I mean, Jeff Vogel's games cost around 250,000 to make per pop, and they are REALLY basic. Fun true (at least, the Exile was a lot of fun) but I do not know if it would be possible to make a good post apoc game with around 1 million bucks only. I mean obviously, speech is out. So is stuff that is taken for granted in AAA game (vast open world, vehicle combat, etc etc)

Oh well, not that I give a shit anyhow, as post apoc settings are not my cuppa tea. No katana's and no magic. (though I would be VERY intrigued if there were martial arts in the game)

 

[riptide]

ANOTHER 10k pledge was taken by Tim Malmros: http://twitter.com/#!/Magenti/

Does anyone know who that guy is? His twitter account is new so it gives the impression he signed up just to tweet about his 10k pledge to Fargo.

Those 10k pledges are going like hotcakes. 6 out of 8 were taken during the first day.

 

[MMXI]

2. more platforms (Linux and Mac, in that order)

I thought it was Mac then Linux in that order.

 

[Aeschylus]

2. more platforms (Linux and Mac, in that order)

I thought it was Mac then Linux in that order.

I think Linux support has more to do with the Engine they choose than with the funding. At least that's the impression I got from reading responses on their forums.

 

[Crooked Bee]

2. more platforms (Linux and Mac, in that order)

I thought it was Mac then Linux in that order.

That's the way I remember it from Fargo's own comment somewhere (on his Twitter maybe?) The way I remember it, he said they put up a poll at the forum and unexpectedly Linux won over Mac, so they're going for Linus first.

But I may be mistaken, of course. Too lazy to search for that.

 

[oldmanpaco]

ANOTHER 10k pledge was taken by Tim Malmros: http://twitter.com/#!/Magenti/

Does anyone know who that guy is? His twitter account is new so it gives the impression he signed up just to tweet about his 10k pledge to Fargo.

Those 10k pledges are going like hotcakes. 6 out of 8 were taken during the first day.

Tim malmros

@Magenti

I work on the web... finding new and excisting things to invest and build upon.
Sweden

Trust fund baby.

 

[J_C]

Yesterday I said that I'm a bit concerned about the viability of this project. What a fool I was! The project is coming along nicely. I assume we will reach 900K in 24 hours. It is not as massive as Double Fine's first 24 hour, but it is still impressive. And who knows when will it stop. 1,5million? 2 million? I can't tell.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Well I'd like it to reach 1.5 mil to get as 'complete' a product as possible but I'm actually a bit wary of it going too far as then there's pressure on Fargo just to make everything shiny with cutscenes and full VO work and bloom, lots and lots of bloom, just to justify the expenditure. This project seems to be the kind that works best being lean and mean with just enough money to do everything with focus and efficiency, much like the original.

From the kickstarter page:

t $1.25 million, the money will go primarily into making the world bigger, adding more maps, more divergent stories and even more music. At $1.5 million, the world gets even bigger. You’ll have more adventures to play, more challenges to deal with, and a greater level of complexity to the entire storyline. We’ll add more environments, story elements, and characters to make the rich world come alive even more. We will even be able to bring Wasteland 2 to OS X for Mac lovers.

If they make it over 1.5 million a toolset would be awsome. It would depend on what engine they are planning to use I guess.

 

[mindx2]

What happened to our wonderfully cynical, pessimistic, grouchy, complaining, self-loathing Codex?!! All this talk of a new cRPG renaissance makes me wonder if I've awoken into a parallel universe!

It's now closing in on $750,000! My own enthusiasm and expectation is through the roof by the way!

 

[lulurkinglurkerlurk]

Unreal Engine maybe? Lots of support from Epic came,so...UE?

 

[jewboy]

It looks like Linux is not yet even being considered seriously. There's a poll on the forums where the consensus seems to be first OS X and then IOS. I don't think the ARM CPU in the Ipad is up for much though. I hope the Ipad is just an afterthought like the consoles. If they happen to choose an engine that will run on on an ARM then fine. As long as my money doesn't go toward it. Not that I have anything against Ipads. They make nice ebook readers. Still better than consoles because you can at least use a keyboard. There is some talk on the forums about including some typed in text responses in conversations, which could be interesting and would be a huge 'fuck you' to the console kiddies.

 

[Wise Emperor]

After getting 1.75 million Brian Fargo will twit : "I'm happy to announce we hired Jennifer Hepler as our lead writer! Hooray for romance!"

Imagine the butthurt.

 

[jewboy]

The Unreal Engine would be much too expensive.

 

[shihonage]

I don't really feel confident in the ability of InXile to make a good game.
Now, if it was late dear Sir-tech (more or less the equivalent of Schafer and Gilbert).

This thing works on reputation.

Yep, I am pretty sure Brian Fargo is more of a "big picture guy", but the crucial deciding element will be the ability of his programmer(s). Tim Cain isn't there with him, yet someone has to write a flexible dialogue and quest engine that doesn't crumble under its own complexity, and remains manageable despite exponentially increasing cross-dependencies as the "free-roam" world grows wider.

 

[20 Eyes]

What happened to our wonderfully cynical, pessimistic, grouchy, complaining, self-loathing Codex?!! All this talk of a new cRPG renaissance makes me wonder if I've awoken into a parallel universe!

It's now closing in on $750,000! My own enthusiasm and expectation is through the roof by the way!

Bro, I haven't been so enthusiastic for the state of gaming in years. I've been walking around with a permanent boner since the Kickstarter was announced. It's not even the game itself, though I've certainly got high hopes for that, it's mostly the possibility that people are going to realize that there is still an interest in turn-based games. This 'one size fits all' modern gaming industry is shit, I'm glad guys like Brian Fargo and Tim Schafer are at least trying to show that there is enough support to make games in different genres again and that every project doesn't need an 8-figure budget.

I really hope this goes over the 1.5 million.

 

[Gregz]

Unreal Engine maybe? Lots of support from Epic came,so...UE?

There's a pretty heated discussion on the inxile forums about the game engine actually:

http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=62

I wish they would use the JA2 engine and keep the graphics at 90s era fidelity, but productivity tools are going to be a big factor with such a low budget.

One poster mentioned that some of the newer engines allow developers to design and build certain scenarios in 1/10th the time it used to take in the 90s. I've never worked with a game engine, but I know software development, and a 10X productivity bonus from your tool set is a big selling point.

 

[Morkar Left]

If they make it over 1.5 million a toolset would be awsome. It would depend on what engine they are planning to use I guess.

Yeah, if such a sum comes out someone should suggest it on their forum.

 

[Stabwound]

Wow, I just saw that no one at all has donated at the $2500 level and they put 100 of them out. It looks like that was a bit of a misstep in the kickstarter campaign. Going from $1000 (which is your own location, NPC or item) -> $2500 for an "EXPLODED BLOOD SAUSAGE" is a pretty big jump, and the description just sounds repulsive if you don't know the reference.

It looks like he should have put more $5000 and $10000 level donation tiers out there, because at this rate they're all going to be gone within the first week.