Wasteland 2 - Updates and Interviews

We knew we were taking a risk by asking for the most money anyone had ever asked for on Kickstarter, but we did it because every time we have interacted with the gaming community for the last decade they have asked about getting this sequel done. Even while we have been on press tours for other products, doing press interviews and presentations all over the planet, it always comes up. When are we getting Wasteland? Well, I finally have an answer for everyone. You all get a Wasteland Sequel in October of next year! Not only did we meet the highest funding goal ever on Kickstarter, we did it in 2 days! I know… we can’t believe it either. [...]
Right now we want to be clear on a few things people are asking about:

Through the support of our amazing fan community we will be localizing the game into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Polish. For anyone in those territories that want to help with this, please look for information on our Forums.

At the $1.5 Million level we will be adding a Linux version along with the Mac OS X version. We know that the Linux community is a very dedicated and internet-active group, so we hope their support will help us make that goal.

For those of you in Europe who want to support us but don't have a credit card, please check out our FAQ for some help.

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Tell us about the game. How true to the original do you plan to make it?

I want this game to be comfortable for either a Wasteland of Fallout 1/2 player to be able to step into like a comfortable pair of shoes. Obviously the graphics need to be updated, and it will have different combat systems, etc., but there is a tone, stats, and interface that come with the RPGs from that era. People are very clear about wanting that experience and none of this "re-imagining" business. The game will initially take place in the (American) southwest as you are controlling a band of desert rangers like in the first game. The game will have scope and scale like both Wasteland and Fallout; it will be open-world in the sense that we don't lead you around by the nose; it will have multiple approaches to most things to avoid the moralistic "right" solution; it will be skill-based; NPCs will join the group and not always behave like you want; and it will not require hand-eye coordination. Oh, and there will be tons of weapons so people can shoot their way through situations instead of charming anyone.

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GZ: So in the Kickstarter, you were saying you were planning for six months of pre-development and 12 months of development, how far along would you say the game is now?

Brian Fargo: We were working on a lot of the storyline, and the character development and individual plot scenes, but to that extent, that work's been done. There's still a tremendous amount of work that still needs to get done. It's funny because when you talk about the $1 million you've got one group of people saying 'Wow, how can you do it for so cheap?' but then others saying 'I know an indie that made a game for 30 grand, why does it cost so much?' For making a full scale RPG, it really isn't that much, you have to become super proficient. One of the things that saves us money is not doing cut-scenes. Those are incredibly expensive and time consuming and frankly, the hardcore crowd doesn't care that much about them, so that saves us a tremendous amount of time. Really it comes down to having a template for having the perfect map, and then we send that out to six or seven designer, and they will all jump on creating their areas and then we collate it, bring it together, and then we'll be feeding this stuff out to the beta testers throughout to make sure the sensibilities that we promised, were hitting all those right notes. I feel more confident in building this product than I have pretty much any other, because of the fact that the fans were involved in the beginning on the front end to test our sensibilities and clearly they like what they've been hearing, and then we're going to deliver it to them. It's like if we say, 'We're going to have gritty writing', it's one thing to say it, but then have fans look at it and say 'This is horrible writing!' that we'll then have to tweak, so th...More information.

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One of the things that saves us money is not doing cut-scenes. Those are incredibly expensive and time consuming and frankly, the hardcore crowd doesn't care that much about them, so that saves us a tremendous amount of time.

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redman5427 said:

Great quote! I can do without cut-scenes for sure.

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redman5427 said:

Great quote! I can do without cut-scenes for sure.

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vurt said:

'

I can do without voices too, but unfortunately i dont think many agrees with me there

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Asdraguuhl said:

Nevertheless, a few cutscenes at critical moments can certainly enhance the experience. In Fallout 2, the cutscene with the tanker leaving towards the Enclave was IMO a great and memorable moment. If they manage to raise fundings well above $1.5M, then I wouldn't mind seeing some well placed cutscenes, provided that they won't sacrifice the rest of course.



Doing VO for all the text is very expensive and probably not worth the large investment. Yet, for key NPCs, I would definitly want to see excellent VO. After all, Fallout wouldn't be the same without the talking heads.

And who can forget Tony Jay as the Lieutenant (Fallout) and The Transcendent One (PS:T) or Kreia (KOTOR2)?

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borcanu said:

not sure what they mean by no cutscenes, not even engine scripted ones? nothing?
thats bullshit. this is so wack that I can't even imagine it.
hope they actually do this, so I can learn something

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