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Wasteland 2 Kickstarter project by inXile entertainment [Ended, $3 Million Funded]

Keio

For a Finer World
Theyve already got like $1500 towards their goal. Plus theyve corresponded with Brian Fargo and he said that he will accommodate a group investment.

This really would be great for GAF. Would be great to have a statue of the GAF logo somewhere in the game :)
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
This really would be great for GAF. Would be great to have a statue of the GAF logo somewhere in the game :)

That'd be in the territory of commercial advertising, basically, and I don't think that's the intention of the reward structures.
 

dude

dude
I don't know much abour inXile... But the Bard's Tale was on the better side of decen. I didn't play their versions of Line Rider, but I did like the original Flash game.

An I think a GAF statue could be a cool idea if it was tongue-in-cheek.
 

Odrion

Banned
Chris Avellone's Kickstarter project would require double the amount of money Wasteland requires. Especially if he wants to do something like a Planescape 2
And I assure you, it would be met.

$50 down. Is it wrong that I love Kickstart not just for the whole "yay making risky investments come true" but for the sweet exclusive swag you can get? I'm probably going to crack and make it a $100 donation for the old school collector's edition.
 

Zeliard

Member
Is there any danger that these kickstarter games might suffer from 'made by committee'? After all, they're funded solely by fans, and fans should be kept appeased as development progresses.

I don't think that'll be an issue. With Wasteland 2, Fargo seems to be taking influence in the form of people, for example, wanting less voice acting and cinematics if it means more dialogue and greater variety in choices, and things like that.

I think devs are likely to take these broad sorts of suggestions from fans in that form, but as far as the specifics of the gameplay mechanics and the progression through the game, it's almost certain to remain solely in the hands of the devs along with things like story and art.
 

dude

dude
I think it's also important to note that as long as there's someone competent calling the shots, how big the committee is irrelevant... The problem is when several people has that power.
 
Man Kickstarter started to bring some serious paradigm shift to gaming, this makes old school (read old fart) gamers like me so sooo happy. So Mr. Yukio Futasugi whaddaya think about Kickstarting a spiritual sequel to Panzer Dragoon Saga? I got a thousand dollars waiting to be PayPal'ed to you in an instant if you do.
 
This is an incredibly exciting time for gaming - if you'd told me that in 2012 I could contribute to both of these projects getting off the ground, I'd have called you a liar and probably shoved you...HARD.

Yeah, no kidding. Five or so years ago this would've been a worthless fan petition that garnished maybe a couple thousand names/ email addresses and then vanished off the planet never to be heard from again.

I can't believe this whole concept of begging for money from fans to get a project going is working, the whole idea would've sounded insanely stupid a year ago at this time. But here it is... and it is great. No more wrestling, begging, pleading and crying to publishers to convince them to get a project off the ground, developers do have an alternative now. Stuff like this and digital distribution really do make publishers obsolete.

I really hope that this and the Doublefine game turn out great. They really could be shining examples of how fan funded projects can work. There's really a lot more power in doing than just saying you want something.
 

Sentenza

Gold Member
Yeah, no kidding. Five or so years ago this would've been a worthless fan petition that garnished maybe a couple thousand names/ email addresses and then vanished off the planet never to be heard from again.

I can't believe this whole concept of begging for money from fans to get a project going is working, the whole idea would've sounded insanely stupid a year ago at this time. But here it is... and it is great. No more wrestling, begging, pleading and crying to publishers to convince them to get a project off the ground, developers do have an alternative now. Stuff like this and digital distribution really do make publishers obsolete.

I really hope that this and the Doublefine game turn out great. They really could be shining examples of how fan funded projects can work. There's really a lot more power in doing than just saying you want something.
Weeell, it must be pointed that Kickstarter, as the name itself suggests, is intended like a way to push an *initial* risky investment.
I don't think it can consolidate itself as a regular form of publishing.

The problem is: there is this "vicious circle" with typical publishers: you developer are forced to beg them for money, and IF they fund your project, then they take pretty much all the profits, so you are forced to beg for money even for the next production.

What I expect with Kickstarter isn't to back every future Double Fine game, for instance.
Instead, I'm expecting to see them successful enough to publish this classic adventure, gather all the profits, and then fund their eventual next adventure by themselves.

Same goes for Fargo. if Wasteland will be successful enough, they are going to enjoy profits directly. After that, I don't expect them to make another Kickstarter. I expect them to self-fund their next hardcore RPG.

Makes sense?
 
Yeah, no kidding. Five or so years ago this would've been a worthless fan petition that garnished maybe a couple thousand names/ email addresses and then vanished off the planet never to be heard from again.

I can't believe this whole concept of begging for money from fans to get a project going is working, the whole idea would've sounded insanely stupid a year ago at this time. But here it is... and it is great. No more wrestling, begging, pleading and crying to publishers to convince them to get a project off the ground, developers do have an alternative now. Stuff like this and digital distribution really do make publishers obsolete.

I really hope that this and the Doublefine game turn out great. They really could be shining examples of how fan funded projects can work. There's really a lot more power in doing than just saying you want something.

It's not begging for money.

As I see it it's a PRE-ODER 2.0. You are voting with your valet that you want this game in xx months.
 
Makes sense?

Yeah, I understand what you're saying. I should have made myself a little clearer in my original post. I never meant that all developers should abandon the "getting funding from a publisher route" and go for Kickstarter instead. I do understand that even the big name publishers like EA can only put so many projects on their plate at once, and they will always give credence to a current big name franchise like Dead Space over a revival of a forgotten game like Wastelands. I do understand that they have to give consideration into what projects they can fund. They cannot just give out money to every developer that wants to revive an old franchise. Kickstarter will never be a replacement for funding "triple AAA" projects.

But for a smaller developer who wants to revive a series or genre, or for a group that wants to seriously get into the game industry. Kickstarter seems to be a good way to go so far. I don't expect Doublefine or Fargo to use this service like a crutch for every game either. But I do think it is a good potential starting point for game devs. It does eliminate some need for smaller developers to rely on big name publishers.

It's not begging for money.

As I see it it's a PRE-ODER 2.0. You are voting with your valet that you want this game in xx months.

Well alright, call it whatever you want. Even if they are gauging weather or not this project is worth doing through fan funding, they still are asking for money. But if the end result ends up being good, I don't see any shame in it.
 

Corto

Member
Chris Avellone's Kickstarter project would require double the amount of money Wasteland requires. Especially if he wants to do something like a Planescape 2

I honestly think that an Avellone/Obsidian Kickstarter would do better than Double Fine's. Not significantly better, but better. This is mostly considering the amount I pledged to Double Fine Adventure game and the amount I'm expecting to pledge to Avellone/Obsidian. It's significantly higher. So much so, that I'm saving some small change every day or so to make it significantly higher than the 30$ I pledged to DF and I am a casual (sorry) fan of Avellone/Obsidian work. There are much more militant supporters that I am sure will make even higher pledges.
 

Sentenza

Gold Member
@MrCunningham:

Wait, wait... Don't get me wrong, i wasn't try to advocate for publishers. Quite the contrary, I'd like to see them gone someday.
What I was trying to say is that Kickstarter should be used to give developers a first chance to cut their dependence from publishers, but after that first push they are supposed to walk with their own legs.
 

RJT

Member
I honestly think that an Avellone/Obsidian Kickstarter would do better than Double Fine's. Not significantly better, but better. This is mostly considering the amount I pledged to Double Fine Adventure game and the amount I'm expecting to pledge to Avellone/Obsidian. It's significantly higher. So much so, that I'm saving some small change every day or so to make it significantly higher than the 30$ I pledged to DF and I am a casual (sorry) fan of Avellone/Obsidian work. There are much more militant supporters that I am sure will make even higher pledges.

I'm pretty sure Tim would've got 5 Million if that is what were going for, or even 10M to do something like Psychonauts 2 (with a 30$ preorder, which would be totally reasonable).
 
@MrCunningham:

What I was trying to say is that Kickstarter should be used to give developers a first chance to cut their dependence from publishers, but after that first push they are supposed to walk with their own legs.

Yes, I agree with that 100%.

Wait, wait... Don't get me wrong, i wasn't try to advocate for publishers. Quite the contrary, I'd like to see them gone someday.

Well OK... But me personally, I think there will always be room for traditional game publishers in the industry. But any service like this that can eliminate the need for smaller developers to rely on publishers is always welcome too.
 

fanboi

Banned
That'd be in the territory of commercial advertising, basically, and I don't think that's the intention of the reward structures.

I would say it isn't since moste people that dont know of GAF will not recognize it via an statue or like of the logo in the game.

If the statue had a sign saying "Please visit www.neogaf.com" well, then it would be a different matter :)
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
yep, it has slowed down. We'll see how the second day in US goes.

it will be funded I think but not as fast as I thought.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
I honestly think that an Avellone/Obsidian Kickstarter would do better than Double Fine's. Not significantly better, but better. This is mostly considering the amount I pledged to Double Fine Adventure game and the amount I'm expecting to pledge to Avellone/Obsidian. It's significantly higher. So much so, that I'm saving some small change every day or so to make it significantly higher than the 30$ I pledged to DF and I am a casual (sorry) fan of Avellone/Obsidian work. There are much more militant supporters that I am sure will make even higher pledges.
Never too late to become a full fledged fan :D

I don't know if they'll do better than Tim, though. Obsidian has plenty of followers and MCA has the charm to match Tim Schafer's, but Double Fine really nailed it. What's great is that Wasteland 2's setting a precedent by outright asking a lot of money and getting a very good response (300k is still ways to go, but it's likely they make get DF amounts of money). Maybe Obsidian could ask for 1.5m?

With all the Kickstarter bonanza, I'm really hoping the GSC sees this as a way to found STALKER 2. After that, I don't think I could ask for much more.
 

Wiktor

Member
Also, the return of Mech games: Mechwarrior Online, Tactics, Hawken, the Day1 mech game, etc.

Somebody wake me up.
Let's not forget about Paradox cooking up proper Syndicacte successor in form of Cartel. Yep, amazing times.

Yeah, one of the only genres that's still completely, entirely dead is the space sim genre.
THat's not entirely true. TO be more specific combat space sim genre is almost dead. The sandbox Elite-inspired games are doing pretty well, both in SP and MMO format.

With combat space sim we only got SOL: Exodus, which was pretty damn fun, but still nowhere near what it should have been.

Anyway, I've backed Wasteland 2 up. Shame the tactical shooter kickstarter looks like it's going to fail.
 

Sentenza

Gold Member
Let's not forget about Paradox cooking up proper Syndicacte successor in form of Cartel. Yep, amazing times.
I must admit I don't have exactly the strongest confidence in Paradox, when they explore genres different from hardcore strategy games.
But let's hope it turns out to be good.
 

dude

dude
I'm really on the fence about upping my pledge to the 50$ reward... But 65$ is very steep for me, as a poor student :(


I honestly think that an Avellone/Obsidian Kickstarter would do better than Double Fine's. Not significantly better, but better. This is mostly considering the amount I pledged to Double Fine Adventure game and the amount I'm expecting to pledge to Avellone/Obsidian. It's significantly higher. So much so, that I'm saving some small change every day or so to make it significantly higher than the 30$ I pledged to DF and I am a casual (sorry) fan of Avellone/Obsidian work. There are much more militant supporters that I am sure will make even higher pledges.
Yeah... I'm not that hardcore of an Obsidian fan, but I've got a pile of 100$ with Avellone's name on it. (Which is also why I'm a little worried upping my Wasteland 2 pledge.)
 

Fjordson

Member
I honestly think that an Avellone/Obsidian Kickstarter would do better than Double Fine's. Not significantly better, but better. This is mostly considering the amount I pledged to Double Fine Adventure game and the amount I'm expecting to pledge to Avellone/Obsidian. It's significantly higher. So much so, that I'm saving some small change every day or so to make it significantly higher than the 30$ I pledged to DF and I am a casual (sorry) fan of Avellone/Obsidian work. There are much more militant supporters that I am sure will make even higher pledges.
I can't even imagine my excitement if MCA and co. put up a Kickstarter.

Probably should set aside a chunk of my salary now in case there's a "Lunch with Chris Avellone and J.E. Sawyer" reward tier :lol
 

mclem

Member
yep, it has slowed down. We'll see how the second day in US goes.

it will be funded I think but not as fast as I thought.
I've suggested to the creators of @TimJustRaised that it might be interesting to start up a @BrianJustRaised. It's handy to see the hour-on-hour improvement.

Either way, it's definitely slowed down massively, but on the other hand, there's still 34 days to go!

If I remember DFA correctly, it made around $1M in the first 24 hours, around $1M in the final 24 hours, and the remaining 1.3M or so was just a steady dripfeed over thirtysomething days with spikes as new rewards were announced.

In short: I'm thinking 1.5M is going to happen with this one, now, provided they play it carefully and keep interest up periodically (that said, as I suggested earlier, the tiers do read a bit like they've *already* thrown everything they could into them so there's not all that much scope to upgrade)
 

Zeliard

Member
Remember that America is largely asleep. Should pick back up throughout the day. Plus there's still a huge amount of time left, and these things also seem to get a nice bump when they're about to end.
 

Wiktor

Member
I can't even imagine my excitement if MCA and co. put up a Kickstarter.

Probably should set aside a chunk of my salary now in case there's a "Lunch with Chris Avellone and J.E. Sawyer" reward tier :lol

Why are people forgetting there's Tim Cain on Obsidian now? :) As much as I like Sawyer, he's nowhere near as recognizable as Cain is.
 
Just get the guy to do an AMA on Reddit, a few interviews and it should fuel support throughout the month.

Yeah lets hope he does interviews & so on.

But maybe a week or two from now...so let the initial rush subside.

Then the interviews etc could perhaps add a new lease of life...a new bump.

Even though they want 900K I really hope they will get $1.5 Million.

@mclem

Yeah I hope the people do a "BrianJustRaised" too...it's always interesting to see how the intake is changing on an hour to hour basis.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
THat's not entirely true. TO be more specific combat space sim genre is almost dead. The sandbox Elite-inspired games are doing pretty well, both in SP and MMO format.

With combat space sim we only got SOL: Exodus, which was pretty damn fun, but still nowhere near what it should have been.

Generally speaking most of those games weren't combat space sims. They were at best terrestrial combat sims without a ground. Dogfighting makes no sense whatsoever in a micro-g environment. Basically all the fun things people want out of a game like that wouldn't exist if they tried to simulate how space combat would actually work. You even see the same problems with modern terrestrial combat technology. You don't dogfight, you make over-the-horizon kills on targets you never even see with the naked eye.

I know I'm being pedantic but it just irks me when somebody calls something a "sim" when it doesn't even attempt to accurately simulate what should be its core mechanics. :)
 

Varna

Member
Have they talked at all about how this game would actually be?

In my head I imagine Fallout 1/2 with a much better interface.
 

Fjordson

Member
Why are people forgetting there's Tim Cain on Obsidian now? :) As much as I like Sawyer, he's nowhere near as recognizable as Cain is.
Shit, I forgot about Cain. Throw him in there as well. Sawyer is my hero, though. He needs to be at this hypothetical lunch!

Have they talked at all about how this game would actually be?

In my head I imagine Fallout 1/2 with a much better interface.
Mostly a general overview so far. Top-down, turn-based RPG. You control a party, tactical combat, lots of moral dilemmas and choices for the player, etc.
 

Aaron

Member
I'm in for $50. I also bought Hunted: Demon's Forge at full price on release, so I feel I've already donated.
 
Backed it at the 15$ level, it is a great way for fans to get what they want. Might go up to 50$ tier just so we can hit 1.5 million
 

Munin

Member
Generally speaking most of those games weren't combat space sims. They were at best terrestrial combat sims without a ground. Dogfighting makes no sense whatsoever in a micro-g environment. Basically all the fun things people want out of a game like that wouldn't exist if they tried to simulate how space combat would actually work. You even see the same problems with modern terrestrial combat technology. You don't dogfight, you make over-the-horizon kills on targets you never even see with the naked eye.

I know I'm being pedantic but it just irks me when somebody calls something a "sim" when it doesn't even attempt to accurately simulate what should be its core mechanics. :)

Don't be pedantic then. Most people know they are not truly sims. But that's the name that stuck.

Besides some games had fairly complex Newtonian physics models.
 

Wiktor

Member
Generally speaking most of those games weren't combat space sims. They were at best terrestrial combat sims without a ground. Dogfighting makes no sense whatsoever in a micro-g environment. Basically all the fun things people want out of a game like that wouldn't exist if they tried to simulate how space combat would actually work. You even see the same problems with modern terrestrial combat technology. You don't dogfight, you make over-the-horizon kills on targets you never even see with the naked eye.

I know I'm being pedantic but it just irks me when somebody calls something a "sim" when it doesn't even attempt to accurately simulate what should be its core mechanics. :)

Meh, genre names never should be taken literally. Those games are called space sims because of they simulate the complexity of controls such space vehicle requires. No matter if the vehicle follows rules of physics.

So no, all of those games are space sims in videogame context :)

Altough there have been some games that actually do simulate space combat with newtonian physic, even if simplified.
 
Almost 600k. should get there in about 10 minutes.

Kickstarter just bumped this to be their PROJECT OF THE DAY. :)

I wish they'd do a t-shirt. I'd adjust my KS offer if they do a tier with a t-shirt. I was happy with the poster because the visual artist they picked seemed to be really talented but a t-shirt for W2 would be amazing.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Almost 600k. should get there in about 10 minutes.

Kickstarter just bumped this to be their PROJECT OF THE DAY. :)

I wish they'd do a t-shirt. I'd adjust my KS offer if they do a tier with a t-shirt. I was happy with the poster because the visual artist they picked seemed to be really talented but a t-shirt for W2 would be amazing.

They have plenty of time to adjust the rewards. If they do that half way through it gives a good bump to the number of backers and how much everyone backs.

I'm disappointed in Europe though, I was expecting a much larger bump overnight. Hardcore RPG's are their bread and butter.
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
They have plenty of time to adjust the rewards. If they do that half way through it gives a good bump to the number of backers and how much everyone backs.

I'm disappointed in Europe though, I was expecting a much larger bump overnight. Hardcore RPG's are their bread and butter.

Kickstarter is pretty unknown over here as of yet. Might change over time, but I've never read about it outside of GAF.
 

mclem

Member
first post....does NOT nail it in this case ^_^ already looks like this one's going well.
Depends what he means by 'very successful', really. It is nowhere near DFA, that statement's quite right - but my gut feeling is that it'll meet its highest funding goal, and I don't think you can really ask for much more than that.
 

mclem

Member
I wish they'd do a t-shirt. I'd adjust my KS offer if they do a tier with a t-shirt. I was happy with the poster because the visual artist they picked seemed to be really talented but a t-shirt for W2 would be amazing.

I've noticed that every project I've backed, I've gone for the t-shirt tier, if one exists. They're like magnets to me!

(Actually, I know what I'd like more: A polo shirt with a logo which implies you're an employee of some business entity in the game universe (pre-apocalypse, if necessary). I recall seeing some awesome Cyberdyne polo shirts in Universal Studios, and I always liked the concept)

I'm not overly familiar with Wasteland's universe, but a Fallout equivalent would be a Nuka-Cola or Vault-Tec polo.
 
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