Wasteland 3

The article describes the screenshots as "prototype images", and I'd say they're just artist's handpainted scenes. There's a phenomenal amount of detail and advanced lighting, and I highly doubt the game will look like that.

Drithius said:

It's not Kickstarter but it's the same effect. It's a shady business practice imo to not use funds from prior crowdfunded games for new titles.

Click to expand...

Well, they are using WL2 profits for WL3, just crowdfunding the remainder.

I'm more concerned about the fact that they have yet to release Torment and have thus far started two new projects concurrently with that. I supported Bard's Tale 4 of course, but I'm a bit wary about them going ahead with WL3 when they've yet to finish their second crowdfunded title, much less gotten to a significant part of development done on BT4.

This is the right moment for them to do it. They have been working on two games at the same time before. Development on Torment is winding down, while it goes through translation and finalization of the console version. BT4 is in development and several of the Torment team will probably be added to it, while WL3 goes into pre-production with a small team.

Actually, I think the BT4 team is down is Louisiana, while the Torment team is wherever they were before. I seem to recall getting a backer letter about them opening new offices.

I'm probably in at the lowest tier.
Actually, for all the whine by the MMO-nazis, the co-op angle is what is making me pledge. I could never get into WL2, but the idea of exploring the wasteland together with the missus (a la D:OS) is appealing.

Disclaimer: I dislike MMO's just as much as the next guy, but this does not sound like an MMO at all.

According to what I've heard, co-op will be different from D:OS. Every player gets his own party, so they don't have to be in the same place all the time. They can, if they want, of course. It's a persistent world. So if you want to keep playing after your co-op partner has quit, you have to live with whatever he/she has done.
I wonder if that means that you can answer both calls in co-op while singleplayers have to chose who they save, like in some missions in Wasteland 2?

Anyway, I've got a link to the upcoming campaign:
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/wasteland-3

And it just went live.
Went for the collectors edition. It contains a cloth map which is right what I want to have.
Also with early bird and "superbacker discount" the price is very reasonable imho.

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/wasteland-3#about

Good
Free copy of UnderRail or Stasis if you back $20+

Bad
Terrible, cringe inducing video

The video was just what I was expecting having seen the previous ones.
They managed to include all the essential videos and the production value wasnt that shabby.

They are already over halfway there. I think the way they kept updating Wasteland 2 and then came out with the deluxe edition really helped them for WL3.

Maybe I should invest? Wonder what kind of return I could get on a 20k investment?

I think they already had 1/3 or so when they went live. Fig works in a different way and I think they already had investors when they started.

I've seen plenty of anti-Fig comments on here, other forums, and the W2 / Torment KS updates, but very little in the way of specifics. I asked for some elaboration and all I've gathered so far is there seems to be a lot of hate for Tim Schafer. I'm assuming it's because he seems to have poorly managed money during the Broken Age KS (having to split it into two parts because he went way over budget). Not sure if there is anything more nefarious that I dont' know about. At any rate, if I'm understanding things correctly Fig does not even take a cut of the funds the way Kickstarter does and all the money raised for this goes directly to inXile so even if Tim shouldn't be trusted with your money, that's irrelevant because he won't be able to touch this money.

I saw a video expressing concerns that the investors can technically back out months after the campaign so the pledged money may not be the amount that they actually get. That's a more legitimate concern but considering inXile is also using funds from the sale of their other games it doesn't seem as big as an issue as long as they treat the Fig funds as mainly "extra" funds for polishing rather than relying on it to pay their key staff members.

I still haven't seen a really good explanation for the "I'd back this on Kickstarter but won't back Fig" argument. Is it just distrust because it's a new platform? Irrational hatred of Tim Schafer? Or some other legitimate problem with Fig I haven't heard about?

Edit: I also watched this video at someone's suggestion. If it's accurate then it sounds like investing on Fig is extremely risky (no surprises there really) but still I think the backing for reward tiers is not any more risky than backing a game on Kickstarter.