Wasteland 2 - UPDATE #15

firefly2003 · March 2012

Taking a cue from Double Fine's Tim Schafer, InXile Entertainment's Brian Fargo now wants to create a Wasteland sequel.

Fargo mentioned the idea last month and is now heading the team for the game. Two of the original game's designers, Alan Pavlish and Mike Stackpole, are also back. The soundtrack is being composed by Mark Morgan of Fallout 1 and 2 and the story is being written by Fallout co-creator Jason Anderson. Other members of the team will be added at a later date.

"This is probably the last chance for a Wasteland sequel," Fargo wrote on the Kickstarter page. "We have tried to pitch this game multiple times to game publishers, but they’ve balked. They don’t think there’s any interest in a solid, old school type of game. This is our shot at proving them wrong.

"Supporting Wasteland 2 is nothing more radical than pre-ordering a game from your favorite brick-and-mortar store. We believe strongly enough in this project and in your desire to see it become a reality, that we decided to go ahead with this Kickstarter drive to fund it."

The original Wasteland was first released in 1988 for PC. The Wasteland 2 Kickstarter project is looking for a required $900,000 in funding over the next 30 days.

"We’re going back to the original and building from there. No first person shooter, we’re going top down so you get a tactical feel for the situation," Fargo added. "And we’re not ditching the party play to turn it into some hack-and-slash bloodfest. It’s turn based, tactical, with a storyline that will be deeper and broader.

"We’re determined to keep the gritty, grim and satirical writing. We’re going to pitch those moral dilemmas at you. You’re going to be faced with the consequences of your actions."

As of the time of this writing $100,000 has already been donated.

[Source: Kickstarter] Click On Link To Donate

Original Documentation and Video (Funny) in link above (Source)

Jay Wilson -Game Director at Blizzard Enterainment has pledged 10K$ to the project!!! (Angryrobotics on Twitter)

firefly2003 · March 2012

Wasteland 2 is the direct sequel to the first ever post-apocalyptic computer RPG. The original Wasteland was the inspiration for the FALLOUT series of games, and the first RPG to allow players to split parties for tactical considerations, to face players with moral choices, and to make them deal with the consequences of their actions. It was the first to provide far more than the one-key-for-one-lock style of puzzle solving. It was groundbreaking, which is why IGN named it one of the top 25 PC games of all time, Computer Gaming World named it the Adventure Game of the year in 1988, and it was short-listed for inclusion in the Smithsonian Institution’s current “Art of the Computer Game” exhibition.

Wasteland was set in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world in the American Southwest. Over the course of adventures rangers would receive promotions, acquire new skills and equipment, then face new challenges with outcomes that changed depending on the strategy used to defeat them. The game featured a strong storyline which required painful decisions by players; and a storyline that allowed for maximum re-playability. Wasteland 2, with your participation and insights, will recapture all that and provide more. It'll finally be the game worthy to be a Wasteland sequel, as challenging and rewarding as the original, with all added capacity and dazzle of games today.

For Wasteland 2, we’re getting the band back together again!. Brian Fargo who Executive Produced both Wasteland and Fallout will be heading the team. Alan Pavlish and Mike Stackpole—the original game’s primary designers—are coming back to put the project together, and we’re rounding up as many of the other designers, like Ken St. Andre, as we can. On top of that, we’ll have music by Mark Morgan of Fallout 1 and 2 fame. The storyline for Wasteland 2 was written by Jason Anderson who was the co-creator of Fallout. We have also enlisted the help of the amazing concept artist, Andree Wallin to help craft the Wasteland 2 world.

A sample of Andree's other work can be seen below.

Brian Fargo founded Interplay Productions (By Gamers, For Gamers) in 1983 where he went on to produce and finance some of the biggest RPG's made like Bard's Tale, Fallout 1 and 2, Stonekeep, Dragon Wars, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and more. Creating a new Wasteland will be a point of pride in the long history of games.

Not a month goes by when an email doesn’t come in asking if we’ve ever considered doing a sequel. Emails from gamers who remember Wasteland fondly and want, just as badly as we do, to return to that gritty world where burning through clips might be the only thing that keeps you alive; and where running out of ammo will certainly get you killed. The fact that you, the folks who know and love and play games, keep asking for Wasteland 2 told us that there is a demand for it.

So, we’re coming to you for support.

Financial.

And creative.

After all, since you’re the driving force behind this game, we want to make sure that we’ll be delivering the game you want. Wasteland is ready for a sequel, and with your help, it’s going to happen. As for why you should want to participate, we’ll let Kotaku point out why making Wasteland 2 happen is very important: FanFundWasteland!

With your collective vision, the game that was the godfather to the popular Fallout series will become a reality. Not only will you fund the development, but you’ll have a voice in how the game goes together. We will have forums up for design discussion and soliciting your ideas for what will make Wasteland 2 rock.

This is your chance to influence the kind of game you want to see. With fan funding, you drive the direction of game design and development. If it is important to you, it is important to us.

This is probably the last chance for a Wasteland sequel. We have tried to pitch this game multiple times to game publishers, but they’ve balked. They don’t think there’s any interest in a solid, old school type of game. This is our shot at proving them wrong. And more importantly this could help bring back an entire genre of RPGs. The power of the Indie scene continues and we see this as all part of a bigger trend of bringing control back to the developers.

Supporting Wasteland 2 is nothing more radical than pre-ordering a game from your favorite brick-and-mortar store. We believe strongly enough in this project and in your desire to see it become a reality, that we decided to go ahead with this Kickstarter drive to fund it.

Nuts and bolts time.

We’re going back to the original and building from there. No first person shooter, we’re going top down so you get a tactical feel for the situation. And we’re not ditching the party play to turn it into some hack-and-slash bloodfest. It’s turn based, tactical, with a storyline that will be deeper and broader.

We’re determined to keep the gritty, grim and satirical writing. We’re going to pitch those moral dilemmas at you. You’re going to be faced with the consequences of your actions.

We’re planning on an initial 6 months of pre-production. We’ll nail down every important element that you, our creative partners, want. Once we have all that figured out, we buckle down for 12 month development cycle. During that time, players can get a sneak peek on a private closed beta through Steam. In addition, we will be giving you constant updates and showing you our progress along the way.

To do this game right, we need to raise $1 million, but you'll notice our funding request is $900,000 and that is because Brian Fargo has offered to fund the last $100,000 if need be. That’s a lot of money needed, but not when compared with the budgets of most full scale RPGs made today. The original game sold over 100,000 copies—on the Apple ][ and Commodore 64 platforms back in the day. If everyone who played it then backs the project at the most basic level, the game is on.

But we’re looking ahead to what we can do if you all back this project in force. At $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. And after $1.5 million the sky is the limit.

Everyone on the team is incredibly excited about the possibilities this Kickstarter will unlock. Like you, we’ve long dreamed of being able to bring Wasteland back. If you share that dream, if you’ve always wanted to watch and influence the game design process from start to finish, this is your chance. If you’ve wanted to change the world and get the games you really deserve, then do it by funding this Kickstarter. The road to Wasteland 2 is there.

Join us on what’s going to be a wild ride.

***A big thank you to our (already) loyal forum users for their help in crafting the Kickstarter rewards. You guys rock!**

For our Russian fans...

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http://blog.fallout-archives.com/podderzhim-fargo-vmeste

nonthal · March 2012

I was a HUGE fan of the original...I really hope this becomes a reality!

Kyleran · March 2012

Originally posted by nonthal
I was a HUGE fan of the original...I really hope this becomes a reality!

Don't hope.... pledge!

I must say, some folks tossing around sums of 1000 bucks and more, true fans.

I might toss in 30 or so.

firefly2003 · March 2012

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by nonthal

I was a HUGE fan of the original...I really hope this becomes a reality!

Don't hope.... pledge!

I must say, some folks tossing around sums of 1000 bucks and more, true fans.

I might toss in 30 or so.

I tossed in 1k I like the rewards they are offering plus a NPC with my name on it sounds intriguing

These guys have a real passion to make this game by all means necessary I want to support developers like this if anyone has looked at their site check out that video

GTwander · March 2012

All for it, but in the real world - turn-based will no longer fly.

This is why FO3 did real well, and I can promise you that if it stuck true to it's original convention, it would be loved by old fans calling it "true to the original", with the millions if *now* gamers that were too young to even try it, and too spoiled by modern games to get it. Cult classic is the best it could have done, and is about where Wasteland 2 will be if they don't tweak things to meet the modern sensibilities.

It's like trying to pitch a JRPG to players that a) never played them back in the day, and b) find them boring as shit.

Though, I will state, personally, that I think following the original specs under a new skin would be great. I'm always for divergent gameplay, and this style doesn't come around long enough. There is a beef I still carry without Fallout, though, that never happened with FF:Tactics... being bored to high hell while waiting for a turn to pass. Don't know why, but FO1's turns were brutal to wait out, even on fastest speed. I liked FO Tactics, a lot, but it's biggest problem was the totally linear nature of the game. If they could take the active combat of FO:Tactics and keep the open nature of FO and Wasteland, then it could be something... but will still be compared to FO:Tactics, and that simple comparison used as an argument as to why the game is, or should be, a total flop.

I do worry, though, about what could happen after officially accepting funds from these people. It's a very interesting concept of gaining interest and revenue through this kind of method, I could see a lot of indie people doing something like this. It's much more suited to a process requiring far less funding... WL2 is going to cost millions, and these options are only going to get about 1/5th of the money needed to greenlight it - and it's all pledge money. Lots are going to back out... it's iffy.

Vryheid · March 2012

All indications are that it's not going to be real-time combat, and that's just the way the fans want it. Turn based combat isn't outdated, it just caters to a different breed of gamer. You know, the ones actually sponsoring the development.

also I donated to this, worthy cause IMO

firefly2003 · March 2012

Up to 327K in funds !!!!!!

firefly2003 · March 2012

Originally posted by Vryheid
All indications are that it's not going to be real-time combat, and that's just the way the fans want it. Turn based combat isn't outdated, it just caters to a different breed of gamer. You know, the ones actually sponsoring the development.

also I donated to this, worthy cause IMO

We just want a game developed by people who have a passion for gaming, and want to create their dream project and it will come true it seems, and also they get to keep their original vision for the game also instead of dumbing it down or changing it to a FPS....

firefly2003 · March 2012

6,643

Backers

$384,324

pledged of $900,000 goal

34

days to go

Back This Project $1 minimum pledge

Pledge $15 or more

3380 Backers

Digital Downloable copy of game DRM free for PC. This low price only available for those who helped fund. Also your party will start with a unique and quirky skill. (It won't affect game balance.)