Brian Fargo Kickstarting a New Wasteland

[Octorok]

Would love to see this become the norm rather than the exception. Not sure if that will ever happen. Regardless, between this, the freedom of digital distribution, and the ludicrous reputation they've earned themselves, publishers are losing ground.

Well, I'm not sure about that. A AAA game these days can easily cost upwards of a hundred million dollars, and that's a bloody big ask from a fanbase.

I would like to see this as a mainstream alternative business model, however, for games that developers and fans want, but wouldn't make enough of a profit to be funded by publishers.

It opens up virtually endless possibilities for new and old niches of games being brought forward, for content and support for older games, and for gamers at large to have some measure of control over our medium.

Oh, and my list of Reasons To Be Happy this year (Civ V expansion, a new X-COM strategy game, Wasteland 2, and a Double Fine point-and-click adventure)? I missed out Psychonauts 2.

So 2012 is even better than I thought it was.

 

[5t3v0]

I am curious as to why they haven't mentioned in this article that Fallout is actually Wastelands spiritual successor...

 

[Rabid Toilet]

hooray to a future of investing money into something we don't really know if its going to turn out to be good or bad?

Not at all. The reason people are so willing to give money to these projects is because we know they'll be good. People like Brian Fargo, Chris Avellone, and Tim Schafer have been making amazing games in these genres for a long time.

The possibility of these guys being able to make this type of game again is what inspires people to invest money in them.

 

[samsonguy920]

All Brian needs to do is include a port of the original. I don't care how archaic it is, I will enjoy it!
I will follow this with great interest.
Addendum:

I am curious as to why they haven't mentioned in this article that Fallout is actually Wastelands spiritual successor...

Need to work on your skimming skills, but here ya go. From the article:

Interplay didn't have the rights to Wasteland when it came time for another foray into the PA genre, so it created the legendary Fallout instead.

One thing I like about Wasteland over Fallout, is, if I remember right, Wasteland's nuclear apocalypse occurred in the 80's. Which I fit more comfortably in as opposed to everything having an air of the Dick Van Dyke Show.

 

[Deadyawn]

Having Ron Perlman do a Bastion type voiceover for everything in F1&2 except for the actual conversations would have been pretty fucking epic.

Mind=Blown
That would be the greatest thing EVER.

 

[Imbechile]

Brian-Fargo-Kickstarting-a-New-Wasteland

This could be interesting.
Although Fargo has some balls to ask people money afer that .... thing hunted the demon's forge.

This kickstarter could work in the future, but not it the Double Fine's "we will make awesome games" way.
Developers will need to publish the entire design document of their game before I'm willng to put money in it.

 

[Bostur]

I never played this game

but the cover art has to be the most epic beautiful image Ive ever seen...I dont know but I fucking LOVE the cover art

interesting...I wonder how similar it will be to fallout (I know fallout was its spiritual seaquel) is the universe of wasteland more "realisitic"?

It's a great cover. I probably spent hours looking at it while waiting for zones to load.

I imagine there can be a bit of overlap with FO1 and 2, it would be strange otherwise. But an isometric game with several characters could provide more tactical options. That was the one thing missing from the first FO games in my opinion.

Wasteland starts more realistic but gets plenty wacky later in the game. I think overall Wasteland was a bit darker than FO and with less humour. So a more serious setting. For a sequel I think they would have to very loosely interpret what was unique about the first one, and add a lot of new lore and angles. The plot and setting was pretty standard fare.

 

[surg3n]

Do people really want this?

Thing is, go back 20-odd years and peoples impressions about the game are different - in fact that's the case with all games, when you play them again, they tend to be a bit disappointing.

I say evolution, not devolution... why not re-invent the original game with multiplayer, a free rotating above view like Dungeon Hunter, multiplayer, but open world survival based. The original top down view was used because it's convenient to use a grid like that, still is - but with modern hardware a game like that could look incredible. Why restrict a games potential just to please people who are stuck in the dark ages. That 2D top down viewpoint is pretty good for retro games, there is no excuse for it in a modern game.

One thing that sticks in my craw, and I won't rant about it so much since my last Kickstarter-is-the-devil rant didn't do much apart from upset people... anyway...

Why in the blue hell should a remake of Wasteland cost $1,000,000 - top down graphics, already established gameplay - this is why big studios should leave kickstarter alone, it's not their money to waste, its ours. They take an oppurtunity for indi developers to survive when they might go under, might go hungry, might loose their homes - and expect us to hand over money for a game that they should just bloody make, just make the fucking game if you think it's worth $1,000,000 of our money. If it's worth that, then we'll buy it and it'll make that - stop fricken robbing us to fulfill your wet dream.
Boo bloody hoo your publisher won't go for it - take the hint, if you really want to make that game, go indi... you can't have it both ways.

What I still don't get with Kickstarter, is what happens when the game starts making a profit? - do the contributers get their money back?

I'm guessing no - and that's the worst thing, people are expected to fund a game, then that initial investment is somehow absorbed - what if they make $3,000,000 from that game - its a game that was funded by contributers, shouldn't contributer own part of it, not just a bloody copy of it.
Is this the main reason why kickstarter is more popular? - because it's like having a publisher pay you in advance, then once the game is made, they say just forget about that investment, buy yourselves something nice with the money, we're just happy we got to play a vidya game. Has there been a global retardation of the gaming community?

 

[Vault101]

I never played this game

but the cover art has to be the most epic beautiful image Ive ever seen...I dont know but I fucking LOVE the cover art

interesting...I wonder how similar it will be to fallout (I know fallout was its spiritual seaquel) is the universe of wasteland more "realisitic"?

It's a great cover. I probably spent hours looking at it while waiting for zones to load.

I imagine there can be a bit of overlap with FO1 and 2, it would be strange otherwise. But an isometric game with several characters could provide more tactical options. That was the one thing missing from the first FO games in my opinion.

Wasteland starts more realistic but gets plenty wacky later in the game. I think overall Wasteland was a bit darker than FO and with less humour. So a more serious setting. For a sequel I think they would have to very loosely interpret what was unique about the first one, and add a lot of new lore and angles. The plot and setting was pretty standard fare.

what about "odd" stuff like Gouls and Supermutants...did wasteland do anything like that? fallout sort of threw "realistic" (I dont like using that word) out the window with that

from my (extremly limited) knoweldge of the game arnt the main charachters like rangers or somthing? part of some wasteland law?

anyway the comparison to fallout will be there (I wonder how many people will cry "ripoff" hahaha) I guess it would be different enough, plus it might be the game that fallout "purists" would cream their pants over

 

[Thoric485]

Gabe Newell called this years ago. [http://kotaku.com/5318368/valve-let-fans-fund-games-development]

 

[Bostur]

what about "odd" stuff like Gouls and Supermutants...did wasteland do anything like that? fallout sort of threw "realistic" (I dont like using that word) out the window with that

from my (extremly limited) knoweldge of the game arnt the main charachters like rangers or somthing? part of some wasteland law?

anyway the comparison to fallout will be there (I wonder how many people will cry "ripoff" hahaha) I guess it would be different enough, plus it might be the game that fallout "purists" would cream their pants over

It's been more than 20 years since I did a full playthrough, so I don't remember it all in detail. It did have irradiated humans but I think FO invented the ghoul race. It did have odd stuff, big robots, secret cults, superhumans and even weirder encounters I wont mention due to the spoiler potential. ;-) Compared to Fallout, Wasteland doesn't have quite as much depth and fluff in its background. But for it's time it was a very deep and elaborate setting, certainly able to compete with the Ultima series or the Gold Box games.

It came with a journal book with text entries to be read during the game. Partly as a means of simple copy protection, but also to save room on the disk. The book was filled with red herrings, journal entries that wasn't used but was deliberately misleading to prevent people from reading ahead. One very elaborate chain of entries was about going to Mars, but that never happens in the game.

The player characters starts as rangers thats true, and I think the background story is one about rebuilding society. Player characters are quite well equipped in the beginning, with rifles, pistols and survival gear.

One thing in particular that made Wasteland special, was the system for making skill checks. The player could choose to initiate a skill check on any square, and this was often necessary for progression. Most commonly used for opening locked doors, the player would do a demolition check in front of the door and the game would roll for success. But there were many less obvious places to do skill checks, for example using the perception skill when something looked out of place could reveal a hidden cache. The game sometimes made subtle hints that some action might be viable in a certain position. With high enough level in the perception skill, the game would sometimes make a hidden roll on it's own so it was also used as a passive ability.
Skills could be leveled up each level, but could also be trained by using them. There is a particular sand dune in the game that was excellent for practicing acrobatics or climbing in a mostly harmless manner. Swimming pools made good practice for the swimming skill.

I'm sure if Wasteland 2 becomes reality some people will call it a ripoff, or complain that it's not Fallout canon. ;-)

Edit:
By the way someone just uploaded a new lets play of Wasteland with commentary. He made his own intro of the events that lead up to the game start. It seems quite good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvYcu5qaO-s

 

[michael87cn]

It doesn't take a million dollars to tap a couple of keys on a keyboard while you sip coffee a couple hundred days. At most, he would need maybe 100-200,000 to fund a small team of people for a year or so.

Don't ask for money until you have something to show off, imo.

And what if the game bombs? What a waste of money that would be. This isn't "the future" imo. It's gambling with your wallet. It's buying a game that isn't even made yet. Sounds foolish to me.

 

[michael87cn]

"Is this the main reason why kickstarter is more popular? - because it's like having a publisher pay you in advance, then once the game is made, they say just forget about that investment, buy yourselves something nice with the money, we're just happy we got to play a vidya game. Has there been a global retardation of the gaming community?"

It's more popular because if they disappoint the funding party (random anonymous people on the internet) by making a crap game, they don't owe anybody anything and aren't liable to actually produce a quality product.

When you put it like that, it almost sounds criminal. They're using their reputation to get 'free money'.

if I were to ask for 1 million to kickstart my dream home, with promises to open an orphanage... doubt it would happen. Now if I was famous? It's possible.

Still sounds dodgy to me. :|

 

[mattaui]

When I think Brian Fargo and remakes of beloved classics, I think of the 2004 abortion that was his remake of The Bard's Tale. Yes, I know that was published by Vivendi, but still.

Wasteland remains one of my favorite games of all time, but about the only thing Fallout lacked to make it like Wasteland was the addition of a party. Fallout Tactics was thus my favorite entry in the entire franchise, even if it's routinely the one that everyone brings up as the worst. It felt, by far, the most like Wasteland to me.

What I really, really want is a new Starflight. Someone get on that!