Brian Fargo Explains Wasteland Kickstarter

[Andy Chalk]

Brian Fargo Explains Wasteland Kickstarter

Brian Fargo says he decided to use Kickstarter to fund a long-planned Wasteland sequel after major publishers rejected the idea as being unfeasible in the era of BioWare.

Brian Fargo's plan to Wasteland [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115883-Brian-Fargo-Kickstarting-a-New-Wasteland] sequel has been kicking around in Fargo's head for nearly two decades and this looks like his best chance to actually get it done.

Fargo had actually done preliminary work on a Wasteland sequel with Fallout lead artist Jason D. Anderson and Wasteland co-designer Mike Stackpole, but he couldn't drum up any interest in it. "Publishers just had no interest in a party based RPG and they felt like they would need to go up against the production costs of Bioware which are in the tens of millions of dollars," Fargo told No Mutants Allowed [http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=60856]. "It was frustrating for both of us as we had fans on one side pinging us constantly for a new Wasteland but we just had no way to finance it."

He acknowledged that making RPGs on a small budget is more difficult than other genres because of the need for a large amount of assets to support "cause-and-effect" gameplay, much of which won't even be seen on a single play-through. On the upside, the "base mechanics" of the original game are already there and the assets created for the rejected pitch won't go to waste either.

"Jason did a fantastic job on the design and story material so you can bet we fully plan on using it in this game. I'm fortunate to have had Jason spend close to a year on design materials," Fargo said. "We really had a great time envisioning what it could be and I'm excited that it might finally become a reality... but of course that is about to be up to the public's support."

The Wasteland 2 Kickstarter is expected to open to the public in March.


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[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I wonder if these guys are going to get the same response as Double Fine did with their Kickstarter?

I thought the amount that Double Fine was able to get was a flash in the pan, but I might be wrong after reading some of Tim Schaefer's comments about getting money for projects that he wants to do.

 

[Andy Chalk]

All the best to Tim Schafer, but this is where my money is going. I would punch a clutch of kittens for a proper Wasteland sequel.

 

[Therumancer]

I'll be keeping an eye on this, Wasteland is one of my favorite games of all time. I spent crazy amounts of time playing that on the C-64.

Now all we need is someone to do a sequel to Centurai Alliance, or do an updated port or sequel to Deathlord (bloody Apples, the only way you could play this is off an abandonware site using an emulator which is painful)... or perhaps most crazily, another "Escape From Hell" game which used the same engine as Wasteland.

Ah well, Wasteland is enough, I'll have to see if I can put a few bucks together for a donation. I'm on social security (brain damage) so even a few bucks takes some planning despite how it might seem at time sif you follow my gaming habit, but this is something I definatly hope to help fund.

 

[Therumancer]

It's always better to have the backing of the fans instead of some corporation playing the numbers.

The optimistic response and statement of intent I just wrote aside, this remains to be seen. I don't think we've yet seen a serious game developed through Kickstarter yet to see how it's going to play out.

Fanboys can be just as annoying as corperations, just in differant ways. Almost guaranteed that your going to see a lot of people screaming, demanding money back, and even development input due to financing these kinds of things. Especially as time goes on, and people wind up being disappointed with the results.

Not to mention people getting pissed if they do the kickstarter thing, and the money disappears without the game ever being finished or developed.

See, right now the potential for abuse exists. I want to trust a Tim Schaefer, or Brian "Mad Dog" Fargo... BUT at the same time someone could just use their name in the industry to collect a bunch of kickstart money, live off of it for a few years, and then when donations stop (or people catch on) claim they spent it all on development but couldn't finish, show some concept art or a hacked out script as "proof" they operated in good faith, and then move on. Fanboys can be easy to exploit in many cases, and your going to see paranoia over this at the very least.

Kickstarter is a neat idea, but it seems easy to abuse.

When I get a chance I actually do hope to toss Brian a couple of bucks and hope for cumulative donations to pour in, but I recognize a lot of risks here, and I'm not quite ready to say that fanboy funding is better than corperate funding, in the long run I expect it to be just another head of the same serpent with differant pros and cons, one of those cons almost inevitably being risks.

 

[RaNDM G]

[small]Yes[/small]... Yes!

WOOHOO!

 

[Andy Chalk]

NMA is a frothing cesspit, but they also take their shit seriously. As a "normal" gamer I dismiss pretty much everything that happens there out of hand, but as a long-time RPG fan I have to give the site and its community respect for standing by what it believes in.

 

[Meight08]

All the best to Tim Schafer, but this is where my money is going. I would punch a clutch of kittens for a proper Wasteland sequel.

Would you wring their necks for a good wasteland sequel?

 

[teh_Canape]

All the best to Tim Schafer, but this is where my money is going. I would punch a clutch of kittens for a proper Wasteland sequel.

say, what if the sequel turned out as the Syndicate "revival"?

Spoiler

or Ultima 9?

=P

 

[weirdee]

As he's described it in previous interviews, my interpretation of his intentions is he's making it a proper old school, top down perspective turn based strategy rpg with as much fanservice he can pack into a game made for the gaming elderly, so I'm not too worried about remake syndrome.

 

[Baresark]

I'm almost afraid that this will become too common since Double Fine did so ridiculously well. But, if a publisher won't publish a game people want, they can just lose out. That is unless we are talking about a Triple A budgeted title. I doubt anyone could pull that kind of funding. But it's fantastic for small developers and indie games. My friends and I are working on a game right now actually. We are just putting in lots of our free time and who knows if anything will come of it. But it's very exciting.

 

[Andy Chalk]

say, what if the sequel turned out as the Syndicate "revival"?

That'd be concerning except that Fargo has already categorically denied that will happen, most recently in the NMA interview. Check it!

"Clearly we need to focus on the PC based on the audience and kind of game that it is... Party and turn based combat is an absolute critical requirement for me."

And you could also look at it this way: Fargo wants to make a hardcore, old-school PC RPG. Publishers won't give him money for that. And rather than compromise his "vision," he's just continued to wait for an opportunity to do things the way he wants to do them. A gross oversimplification, but not inaccurate.

 

[Bostur]

Interesting interview.

I can imagine that it may be hard to avoid that a new Wasteland will clash with existing franchises. Back when Wasteland was made the post-apocalyptic setting had been used in a few movies, but was otherwise fertile, virgin soil. Now it feels like one in three games use the setting, so I see a risk that a new Wasteland can feel generic or copycatting existing franchises.

Focusing on the para-military ranger aspect could be an angle strong enough to give it a unique niche in terms of setting. And of course the original had plenty of gameplay mechanics that hasn't been used much since then.

It's definately a project worth watching for me, there is some potential but also some pitfalls.

 

[teh_Canape]

say, what if the sequel turned out as the Syndicate "revival"?

That'd be concerning except that Fargo has already categorically denied that will happen, most recently in the NMA interview. Check it!

"Clearly we need to focus on the PC based on the audience and kind of game that it is... Party and turn based combat is an absolute critical requirement for me."

And you could also look at it this way: Fargo wants to make a hardcore, old-school PC RPG. Publishers won't give him money for that. And rather than compromise his "vision," he's just continued to wait for an opportunity to do things the way he wants to do them. A gross oversimplification, but not inaccurate.

yeah, you do have a point there
I personally hope the gameplay to be more like Fallout rather than the original Wasteland
to me, it was incredibly confusing and clunky