InXile Entertainment - Fargo on Wasteland 2

Brian Fargo has made some comments to IGN about a theoretical crowd-funded Wasteland 2, saying the Kickstarter might "go live in the next month":

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." […]
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.

More information.

As hopeful as I would like to be about this, part of me asks, "So is this going to be just a parody of the original Wasteland, or is this going to be the pure action game that everybody knows was what the developers would have made back then if the technology had been better?"

As Hamlet would say: "TB or not TB that is the question."

Originally Posted by RampantCoyote
As hopeful as I would like to be about this, part of me asks, "So is this going to be just a parody of the original Wasteland, or is this going to be the pure action game that everybody knows was what the developers would have made back then if the technology had been better?"

Yeah, that quote really bothers me. When they first started discussing it, I thought Wasteland 2 would be a good idea, but now I've had time to think about I wonder. With all the time Fargo and crew has spent insulting old school RPGs, can they really still make one? I'll probably donate to the kickstarter anyway since I'm sucker, but I doubt if Nxile can repeat Doublefine's success.

I feel the same as you guys. I did not hear the magic words: turn based.

And as Rampant seems to be eluding to, as otherw noted in another thread, what they did to A Bard's Tale does not exactly inspire confidence. Normally, I would be much more excited, but this company willl habe to convince me much more than some no-name dev before I kick in money…..

But I bet I could be persuaded. Wasteland holds warmbplace in my heart.

Uh, didn't he do the "remake" of Bard's Tale?

That kinda sucked.

This is like hoping that Interplay would make a good Fallout game. You know before the last stuff that kinda ended that (thank god).

Wasteland is one of the first games that blew me away. I doubt this tool will do anything remotely good with it.

Top down is orthogonal not isometric…

Originally Posted by Majnun
Uh, didn't he do the "remake" of Bard's Tale?

That kinda sucked.

You do understand they were the devs, not the publishers? Thus they probably didnt have much to say about the direction of their recent titles..

"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."

So this probably means turn based too, which would be really nice imo.

Best part: "this process means we don't have to do it like the publisher wants."

Sounds really good.

A million dollars for Wasteland in this day and age sounds like a bit much. Are they thinking JA:BIA, Geneforge or actual Wasteland type graphics? 3D probably would be a bargain at a million. The latter might work on phones I suppose but I've hated playing every RPG I've tried on a my iPod Touch. Its just not a good platform for them in my opinion.

Originally Posted by figment
The latter might work on phones I suppose but I've hated playing every RPG I've tried on a my iPod Touch. Its just not a good platform for them in my opinion.

"but the iPad is something he'd consider."

I've played numerous RPG's on ipad and it works really well, looking forward to try Baldur's Gate on it using GemRB.

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.

Wow, wasn't expecting such negativity here, especially since Fargo explicitly states his intentions. For me this would be a Day One give-$10-to-Kickstarter-campaign.

Originally Posted by screeg
Wow, wasn't expecting such negativity here, especially since Fargo explicitly states his intentions. For me this would be a Day One give-$10-to-Kickstarter-campaign.

This.

I wouldn't be completely against giving him money for wasteland 2…. but I'd need to see some sort of design vision for it first. Fargo's been dropping the ball too often since his departure from Interplay.

Also, in regard to him and Fallout, wasn't Tim Cain the main driving force behind the game? Fargo gave Tim his blessing to go play off in a corner, but it's my understanding that that is as far as his influence went.

I'm not saying I won't give money. I will, however, need a clear commitment to certain design features, such as tactical TB combat with a party. I am not contributing money to fund yet one more RT RPG.

Originally Posted by Majnun
Uh, didn't he do the "remake" of Bard's Tale?

That kinda sucked.

This is like hoping that Interplay would make a good Fallout game. You know before the last stuff that kinda ended that (thank god).

Wasteland is one of the first games that blew me away. I doubt this tool will do anything remotely good with it.

this is my concern of a Wasteland 2 from him

The other problem is I hated Wasteland 1. So what if it was "out of the dungeon" - the quality IMO then and now is that it was worse than Questron - just another (bad) Ultima 3 clone.

I know Corwin will take issue with me on this…

Fargo is a professional. It seems unlikely he forgot to mention TB.

It rather sounds like RTwP to me.

Originally Posted by vurt
You do understand they were the devs, not the publishers? Thus they probably didnt have much to say about the direction of their recent titles..

"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."

So this probably means turn based too, which would be really nice imo.

Best part: "this process means we don't have to do it like the publisher wants."

Sounds really good.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Fargo is a professional. It seems unlikely he forgot to mention TB.

It's more likely he hasnt thought everything through yet, kind of obvious from the response.

I think he'd go for a game that the fans want, and most fans would probably want a TB game. It wouldnt make sense to make an action RPG or something and naively think all the old fans are going to support that idea. Same with Schafer, i doubt the game will be anything like Brutal Legends.

I think Fargo's main problem was he got stuck not knowing WTF to do next after technological advancements made it possible to do more than he'd done in the past. Same thing happened to a lot of those old time game programmers like Lord Bullshit and the Sirtech dudes. This is the game that could have shown the way forward:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentine…:_Future_Magic

But the game was under-appreciated at the time, and look what the guy who programmed it is doing now:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/kf6vom

Seems like all those young hotshot programmers with great ideas and a passion for their work burned out (like Fargo) or went corporate so they could make a living.

These days, of course, there's no such thing as a young hotshot programmer with a passion for what they're doing. And even if there was, nobody would hire them because such people insist on doing things their own way instead of happily following instructions from on high that come from burned out former programmers like Fargo or from people who have degrees in business.

There's only a limit to how long someone will stay inspired and focused on doing what they love, sooner or later they will want to make money instead. But it doesnt mean they'd never again would want to turn back to their original visions, if they've been given the opportunity.

Originally Posted by CraigCWB
These days, of course, there's no such thing as a young hotshot programmer with a passion for what they're doing.

I think there's a lot of talent in the indie scene currently. What about Notch (Minecraft), the 2 dudes that made Terraria, the couple that made Mount and Blade, and one of my current favorites which i had the opportunity to do some contract work for, Chris Hunt (creator of Kenshi).