• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

FnordChan

Member
I would have fully agreed with you until I played Bard's Tale

Hold on, let me put my fingers in my ears so I can't hear you. LALALALALALALA

Okay, okay, I admit that the whole thing could become some gigantic train wreck. On the other hand, to continue being optimistic, it looks like the 2004 Bard's Tale was intended to be a parody in the first place. WL2 is being touted as a sincere labor of love and a return to a classic style of CRPG. Since it's being sold as such and is being funded by an audience that is specifically looking for a game like Wasteland and/or the first two Fallout games, I think this has a much better shot of being true to the source material.

I like Mighty Hedgehog's Escape From NY/LA comparison and think that's probably about the level the final product will be at. On the other hand, this summer we're also getting Ridley Scott's Prometheus, so maybe it's a magical time for creators to revisit old stories and make awesome follow-ups. Fingers are crossed!

As for Wasteland being my fave game ever:

MightyHedgehog said:
Nice, WL1 is mine, too.

*high five* Awesome! We are brothers in a very distinguished society.

FnordChan
 

dude

dude
2004 Bard's Tale was a fun limtle game. Wasn't great or anything and it wasn't really an RPG, but I thought it was very cute.

I don't get the hate. But then again, I never played the original...
 

Zeliard

Member
This is doing incredibly well. Maybe Kickstarter pessimists will finally wake up and realize this is a very viable way to bypass publishers (to an extent, of course).
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Trying to back this and amazon is giving me trouble....

I have an amazon account, I try to login with it via kickstarter, it seems to, but then says I need to change my password cos it's too small (new amazon policy change I guess?). I do that as instructed, it doesn't actually work.

I go to amazon.com, try to login, it recognises the old small password only, and doesn't give me a warning or anything of it being too small. I go to my account settings to change it to something larger manually, it just returns this.
There was a problem with your request

Please choose a different password
So, wtf do I do?
 
Backed the game. I'm admitting though, that I've never played the original...but I feel its important that this trend continues. Awesome how fast this happened.
 

ArjanN

Member
Trying to back this and amazon is giving me trouble....

I have an amazon account, I try to login with it via kickstarter, it seems to, but then says I need to change my password cos it's too small (new amazon policy change I guess?). I do that as instructed, it doesn't actually work.

I go to amazon.com, try to login, it recognises the old small password only, and doesn't give me a warning or anything of it being too small. I go to my account settings to change it to something larger manually, it just returns this.
So, wtf do I do?

I think it also requires you to use some upper case letters/numbers. That might be it?
 

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
I think its great they hit there minimum goal in 48hrs..hopefully it will keep going for next 33 days and break the 4million mark.

I am curious how sustainable the numbers are going to be tho for future projects.

Of the $980,244 committed, $378,050 of those funds were from $150+ donations(approx if everyone just bid the minimum for that tier)

A lot of people are expressing a desire for many more Kickstarts of older genres and I love the sentiment ..but how many of those do we think can continue to have that high of a financial generosity associated with them?

It does feel much like a telethon where having those big 10k donations drives everyone on the fence to throw in their more modest support.

I'd be very interested to see the final breakdown after the 35 days for this and Double Fines. Regardless its a very exciting trend.
 

Zeliard

Member
This...is really happening isn't it?

Despite the puzzling hand-wringing from people concerned that it hadn't hit its target in less than a day, yep.

Not only is it already 20k from a million, but there are still 32 days left, and the whole "Kickstarter surge" that happens when these projects near the end seems to be a very real thing.

1.5 million seems a foregone conclusion at this point. 2 million is a very realistic mark.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
I think it also requires you to use some upper case letters/numbers. That might be it?
Thanks, that worked. You'd think they'd have told me...

Hoping the game turns out good, I'm mostly just paying now to get it cheap ($15) without waiting for sales :p
I think its great they hit there minimum goal in 48hrs..hopefully it will keep going for next 33 days and break the 4million mark.

I am curious how sustainable the numbers are going to be tho for future projects.

Of the $980,244 committed, $378,050 of those funds were from $150+ donations(approx if everyone just bid the minimum for that tier)

A lot of people are expressing a desire for many more Kickstarts of older genres and I love the sentiment ..but how many of those do we think can continue to have that high of a financial generosity associated with them?

It does feel much like a telethon where having those big 10k donations drives everyone on the fence to throw in their more modest support.

I'd be very interested to see the final breakdown after the 35 days for this and Double Fines. Regardless its a very exciting trend.
Well, bigger names and bigger promises can probably always attract people, and if something's not as big then they'll probably not have as high goals either so it should be doable if the game's interesting and it seems like they can achieve it.

I do however think that the people giving thousands should be receiving more, like company shares or whatever is applicable, then you'd probably have more than just the relatively rich people contributing that much, currently you have to be a super fan and not care about money all that much to give a more meaningful amount.
 

Acosta

Member
I guess it is one of those if he didn't name it "Bard's Tale" it might have been an ok title for me...

I can't argue with this, it wasn't Bard's Tale. It irks me when developers use old names to make something completely different, so I understand it.

But come on, give them a chance, this is the first time they have true freedom to do whatever they want without worrying about "making it for a new public". It could go wrong in many ways, but I believe they will stay close to the core of the original at least.
 

MoxManiac

Member
Despite the puzzling hand-wringing from people concerned that it hadn't hit its target in less than a day, yep.

Not only is it already 20k from a million, but there are still 32 days left, and the whole "Kickstarter surge" that happens when these projects near the end seems to be a very real thing.

1.5 million seems a foregone conclusion at this point. 2 million is a very realistic mark.

Should it be assumed the the more money invested, the bigger and better the game will be? They set a milestone for 1.5 mil but if it hits 2 mil, does that mean even more content and work into it?
 
Thanks, that worked. You'd think they'd have told me...

Hoping the game turns out good, I'm mostly just paying now to get it cheap ($15) without waiting for sales :p

I'm not mad at you, but it kind of irks me that people are focusing so much on the "prizes" and not on how much they want to see this game come to life. I donated based on my previous experience with games Brian Fargo was involved in. The extra prize stuff I couldn't care less about, I'm not a collector. Infact, I'm going to be giving some of it away in the "Free to a good home" thread.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
If it was bad for them on any level they wouldn't allow this. The prizes aren't forced on them. And then I wouldn't have donated and just gotten the game when it reached $15 on Steam or similar. Big deal. To them it probably is, as they need the money now for it, and regardless of the funding process they probably still hope to sell it to many more people than those who back it now. Also, I imagine Amazon's cut is less than Steam's or that of other publishers so that still works out to their benefit in every way.
 

dude

dude
Should it be assumed the the more money invested, the bigger and better the game will be? They set a milestone for 1.5 mil but if it hits 2 mil, does that mean even more content and work into it?

Yes. They said every penny they get goes towards making the game bigger and better. Brian has also said that they haves further plans for more milestones that he will detail soon.
 
All of the $1k pledges have been sold. The dream has died. I'll have to try to pull myself together while running into stuff at full speed in Trials HD.

Fnord Chan said:
*high five* Awesome! We are brothers in a very distinguished society.
Indeed, we are. *secret society fist bump*
 
If it was bad for them on any level they wouldn't allow this. The prizes aren't forced on them. And then I wouldn't have donated and just gotten the game when it reached $15 on Steam or similar. Big deal. To them it probably is, as they need the money now for it, and regardless of the funding process they probably still hope to sell it to many more people than those who back it now.

I know. It is just a moot point that I felt like typing out for some reason . :)
 

Zeliard

Member
Should it be assumed the the more money invested, the bigger and better the game will be? They set a milestone for 1.5 mil but if it hits 2 mil, does that mean even more content and work into it?

Yep, that's pretty much what they've said. 1.5 million was seen as a very ideal goal. With more than that, who knows? They could also do what Double Fine did and create other versions with the extra money, putting it on Linux and Mac. Dunno about iOS devices but that's also a potential possibility with this sort of game. I haven't played an isometric RPG (or something similar) on iPad but apparently they work well.
 
I think they will raise 1.8 - 2 million $ in the end.

That is my guess too. It will end somewhere in between 1.5 and 2 million. Pledges are slowing down, but there is still a steady stream of support. Quite surprising for a game that has never seen a sequel and has probably been out of print for over a decade. You can't even buy the first game anywhere digitally.

Mr. Brian Fargo should be proud with the support people have given him. This is a project he has been wanting to do for over 20 years now that kept getting shot down by publishers, and it is finally happening though fan donation. It's a real feat for sure.
 
I would have fully agreed with you until I played Bard's Tale

The Bard's Tale wasn't really Brian Fargo's game to begin with. It was all Michael Cranford.

I'm not sure why Fargo bothered with The Bard's Tale IP. It doesn't have much in common with the original games. He didn't have to pay anyone for it, so I guess he just wanted to preserve it.

Wasteland 2 on the other hand, I think, will be very much like the original. With the people from the original team being brought back, and Brian's enthusiasm, I think that this will be a good game.

Obviously it's going to be updated, and not nearly as archaic as the original. I'm guessing that it will be pretty close to a party-based Fallout, which is pretty much exactly what I would want. But, I'm sure that will offend some people. There will always be some who want an exact copy of the original, and that's never going to happen.
 

mclem

Member
I remember buying this for like €10 back in the day:
sam_0079xuq3.jpg

That's one of the anthologies I'm keeping an eye out for.
 

mclem

Member
Not only is it already 20k from a million, but there are still 32 days left, and the whole "Kickstarter surge" that happens when these projects near the end seems to be a very real thing.

Expect the sales to slow down a lot in the interim, though. DFA went through several weeks of very slow (but steady!) support, with well under $1k an hour being very commonplace - albeit with spikes whenever they did updates.

However, you're right about the spikes. The last two hours of DFA earned $50k each. The last full day was around 450k. Spikes are real!
 

duckroll

Member
“@BrianFargo: The statue is of a creature being blown apart... blood sausage style!”

In that case someone should tweet him that Avellone ruined it for him by actually having black blood sausages in Fallout NV Old World Blues as recovery items which randomly drop on dead enemies. LOL.
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
My one caveat is that it sure seems like not a lot of money for an RPG, how many artists and engineers and how little are they gonna get paid for a year and a half of work? Only one concept artist? If the team is small, considering all the content they're promising, I expect really heavy crunching and delays.

I hope that, at the least, they already have the engine and tools they need.
 

Zeliard

Member
“@BrianFargo: The statue is of a creature being blown apart... blood sausage style!”

Haha, yeah I think maybe they should reconfigure that one. If the difference between $1000 and $2500 is basically a figurine and some extra copies of the game, it isn't a surprise nobody is biting. On that sausage.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
That's one of the anthologies I'm keeping an eye out for.
There were a bunch of anthologies that Interplay put out in the late 90s.

The Ultimate RPG Archives, The Forgotten Realms Archives, The Ultimate Wizardry Archives, Ultimate Might and Magic Archives. i think each were $30 or less when they first hit shelves. All of them well worth the purchase.
 

Zeliard

Member
My one caveat is that it sure seems like not a lot of money for an RPG, how many artists and engineers and how little are they gonna get paid for a year and a half of work? Only one concept artist? If the team is small, considering all the content they're promising, I expect really heavy crunching and delays.

I hope that, at the least, they already have the engine and tools they need.

It's already been in pre-production for about a year or so, though they haven't released much concrete info yet. Hopefully they will fairly soon, especially since they've already hit their mark.

The thing about Kickstarter is these companies are still going to sell these games. Everyone who pledged at least $15 is getting the game as a part of it, but these games are still going to be sold. There aren't actually a huge amount of Kickstarter contributors - it's just that many contribute more than the $15 amount.

Wasteland 2 is also going to be sold at more than $15 when it hits digital distribution (dunno about retail).
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
It's already been in pre-production for about a year or so, though they haven't released much concrete info yet. Hopefully they will fairly soon, especially since they've already hit their mark.

The thing about Kickstarter is these companies are still going to sell these games. Everyone who pledged at least $15 is getting the game as a part of it, but these games are still going to be sold. There aren't actually a huge amount of Kickstarter contributors - it's just that many contribute more than the $15 amount.

Wasteland 2 is also going to be sold at more than $15 when it hits digital distribution (dunno about retail).

I dont doubt that they will greatly profit when the game releases, its just that in my experience RPG's take a considerable amount of time and money to produce, much more than 2 million ... and one like this? With the ability to make choices? That aloone makes for like, a bajillion bugs that need to be accounted for.

I know that the team is very experienced and knows what theyre doing, but even then this seems extremely ambitious for the means they have.
 
Top Bottom