Support NeoGAF

[zkylon]

I love their idea of letting the systems do their part of the storytelling. It's something that's incredibly underrated, but I feel like the stories I got from games like Mount & Blade are fantastic in a whole other level classic narrative can't quite reach. They're different beasts and I wouldn't call one over the other, so I like that they have both.

 

[bishoptl]

Yeah, hopefully. I just hope idiocy like "True (Insert Genre Here)" is not rampant usage within the industry.

Clearly you've never tap-danced for publisher funding

 

[Derrick01]

Yeah, hopefully. I just hope idiocy like "True (Insert Genre Here)" is not rampant usage within the industry. Pretentious bullshit. Just make a good fucking game.

It makes perfect sense here though. Instead of crap like Skyrim and Mass Effect he wants to make a real RPG again, with virtually no dumbing down or element stripping. It's a refreshing attitude and I wish this world was better so games that are like that are the ones that sell 5-10 million and not the previously mentioned games.

 

[MrCunningham]

Great! That's almost box art worthy.

They definitely have one talented concept artist working on this game. His style suits the game perfectly.

Also this is great from the design doc:

The Look of the World: Wasteland also draws strength through its visual style. We don’t want continual
stretches of barren, desolate, single-color landscapes – we want green, vibrant overgrowth crawling
across the terrain and over buildings and skyscrapers, colorful patchwork signs and facades dotting the
horizon, river-cut canyons, and other environmental lures intended to draw you forward.

And as you explore the world, you’ll see hints of what the world was like before as well. The world
before the cataclysm was a society of towering skyscrapers of steel, concrete and glass. Styled after
architecture of the 70's and 80's and 90's their striking geometric forms cut into the blue skies.

In parts of the world, the environment is shrouded in a Dust Bowl. Persistent dust storms roll across the
desolate wastes, blanketing the world with caustic dust. Unlike the society before, life in the wastes is
bleak and hard. In other parts of the wasteland, vegetation-covered cities and rusted hulks of cars,
robots, and discarded remnants of the years before create a dangerous landscape where mutants and
gangs lie in wait for easy prey.

Great that they plan on avoiding monotone colour schemes and give things a bit more variety.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Clearly you've never tap-danced for publisher funding

Oh, are you serious? This is a thing in the industry?

It makes perfect sense here though. Instead of crap like Skyrim and Mass Effect he wants to make a real RPG again, with virtually no dumbing down or element stripping.

Then he should focus on that, not on fostering an Us vs. Them attitude among his company and fans. Let his game speak for itself. It's up to the player to make up their mind over whether it is a good game or not. I see so many people in every industry just pandering and apologizing for things that are based on what things look like or what people think they should be. It bugs the shit out of me.

Just do what you want to do. It's not up to you to tell the audience what they should think about this or that. And if someone is ragging on you, just either shrug it off or try to turn that frown upside down.

I wish this world was better

... better?

People are going to play the games they want.

There's nothing right or wrong about how people want to spend their own money.

 

[Lime]

Oh, are you serious? This is a thing in the industry?

Have you read Casey Hudson's design doc for Mass Effect 1? Internally addressed to the decision-makers at Bioware? It basically reads like another PR-piece, filled with meaningless buzz words.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Have you read Casey Hudson's design doc for Mass Effect 1? Internally addressed to the decision-makers at Bioware? It basically reads like another PR-piece, filled with meaningless buzz words.

Well, now I both do and don't. It would be great research, but I also don't want to hurt my brain.

 

[Lime]

Well, now I both do and don't. It would be great research, but I also don't want to hurt my brain.

I'm bored so I found it anyway:

STYLISH ULTRA-REALISM

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Oh, I read that; I thought you meant the entire thing.

Yeah, it's extremely frustrating/disheartening that he wrote "an epic BioWare story". It's like the first draft of Spider-Man, where the writer puts a fucking smiley face emoticon after describing how cool Dr. Octopus walks.

 

[Trigger]

I wish the Vision Doc talked more about how they plan to accomplish their goals, but I imagine that those kind of concrete details will leak out later.

I'm bored so I found it anyway:

STYLISH ULTRA-REALISM

The pain the ending brought me was real.

 

[Beautifully Shaped Monsters]

The concept art reminds me of an old Valerian album cover:

Which bodes well, those were awesome comics.

 

[viewtifulsub]

The retake on the original Wasteland boxart made my incredibly moist. Amazing work.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Well, you can apparently get to the forum thread that links the vision doc without an account so I figure this is fair game:

Wasteland 2 vision doc: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxMevjNSr2EjbDBpZ2ZMdmNnc28/view?pli=1&sle=true#

Not a whole lot new, but WL2 being confirmed as a full-on continuation (and not reboot) of the first game's 80s/90s timeline and lore is nice. The updated intro paragraph with the meteorites and meteors is weird, but clearly relates to this new scenario just by its insertion into the otherwise unaltered, older text. Other than the fog of war and a greater emphasis on tactical maneuvers, like splitting the party out, it seems to be a slightly updated take on the micro-control from the first. Hope they've got some early looks at the screen layout and modern interface to hand out soon.

 

[Alexios]

I really hope the in game art does that concept art justice but I'm not sure if they can do that with such a modest budget in full 3D...

 

[MightyHedgehog]

I really hope the in game art does that concept art justice but I'm not sure if they can do that with such a modest budget in full 3D...

The control over the camera will be locked to a narrow view on the world, I'm sure. That will save them time with extra detail that's unnecessary to produce and place as well as allow them to abuse the old school matte painting-effect of unique background set-pieces to depict things in a way that wouldn't be feasible otherwise. As much as I enjoy the text descriptions of the otherwise abstract and simply-tiled world of the the first game, I do hope they're aiming for Wallin's art, too.

 

[Haunted]

Someone upload this in huge resolution please. Looks fantastic.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Someone upload this in huge resolution please. Looks fantastic.

Here:

They have all kinds of resolution on their press site (warning: Fargo has a particularly creepy smile in his photo there).

 

[Ledsen]

Any way to get that image without the logo? I have it as my desktop bg, but it would look much better without the text.

 

[Wiktor]

I just hope idiocy like "True (Insert Genre Here)" is not rampant usage within the industry.

It would propably be better to use term "pure RPG", but considering how common hybrids became I'm not surprised he wants to make it clear what game he's making.

 

[zkylon]

Just caught this in NMA:

We'll release a WIP screenshot next week for Wasteland 2! No particle & post processing effects but it will show progress.

Pretty cool that they have a prototype up and running already.

 

[Labadal]

Will be really interesting to see fan reactions.

 

[Zeliard]

 

[dude]

Look good to me!

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

I will admit, it looks better than I thought, considering WL1.

 

[Deleted member 102362]

Sexy pre-alpha goodness.

 

[BlueTsunami]

There's a nice rounded feel to the objects and environment. I just wonder if its gonna get hit by the 'gritty art' complaint.

 

[Zeliard]

Oh my, they've added Colin McComb to the team. So now they've got the two primary writers of Planescape: Torment doing work for them. That's a good place to be.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...nd-2-adds-another-planescape-vet/#more-119671

 

[Trigger]

Great news!

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Music from the L.A. area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX6MA7WF8YA

 

[The_Player]

Music from the L.A. area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX6MA7WF8YA

This is gorgeous! I knew their deal with Morgan will be repaid with interest.

 

[Fjordson]

I love it. Mark Morgan is the business man.

 

[Madrugador]

Just saw this on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/status/237962005342994432/photo/1

 

[Proxy]

From NMA :

Brian Fargo Unite 2012 Speech, Wasteland 2 Footage

Just the game footage.

 

[Zeliard]

Not quite Geneforge

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

From NMA :

Brian Fargo Unite 2012 Speech, Wasteland 2 Footage

Just the game footage.

That looks good, but would have liked to see it in motion.

 

[DTKT]

Looks good!

 

[AB12]

Looking good so far.

 

[Pachterballs]

been meaning to post but haven't gotten round to: saw BF's post to the video on FB and watched it. Looks great and I like how in the latest video, it look substantial less claymationy and much better look.

Really hyped for this. Still almost a year away.

 

[Power Glove]

Looks

 

[inm8num2]

Blog post by Brian Fargo

It has been some time since I have posted a blog here and I apologize for the delay. I need to do a better job of communicating my thoughts and ideas as that is a part of the process I know people are interested in. I have been very focused on getting the first pass at all the writing complete by October. The thing that is most critical in creating a deep and re-playable experience is for us to have plenty of iteration time on the game. There is simply no substitute for allowing plenty of time for us to play the game over and over thus allowing us to hone in on the things that people are going try in the world. A wonderfully written script is not valuable if it is delivered too far into the development process. This game is going to be much deeper than most people realize and I will go out on a limb to say it is nearly impossible for two people to have the same experience playing through the game as there are so many nuanced decisions. The caliber of writing is very impressive and for those who wanted an M rated experience… you will be more than satisfied. We don’t pull any punches on the subject matters of a dark post apocalyptic world. My attitude is that if you going into a genre that has expectations then GO THERE.. all the way. It is for the same reasons I tend to love all the great shows and writing that I find on Showtime and HBO and find myself turned off by the material on network television. I don’t like to see pandering to a mass audience for my TV shows and I certainly won’t allow this game to soften up a rough world.

In addition to the benefits of creating better cause and effect it is also key in helping us understand what the asset list we are going to need. The map designs tell us everything about props, backgrounds, sound effects etc. Of course we are making progress on many fronts and I am especially excited at the ideas we are toying with in presenting the world map. So we will be working on a Kickstarter update in the next week that hits a variety of subjects including a write up by our technical director for those who want to dive deeper into our production thoughts.

Thanks again for all your fantastic support!

Brian Fargo

 

[afternoon delight]

Blog post by Brian Fargo

Such a great mindset and mentality- it warms my heart to read such a thing. Gives me nothing but confidence in him and the team. Whether or not most writers want to write mature and complex stories, few have the opportunity and power to publish them.

I'd encourage everyone interested to leave feedback on the blog.

 

[Madrugador]

From Twitter:

 

[epmode]

Massive Wasteland 2 update: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/324612?ref=activity

Enemy portraits, music sample, other stuff!

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Massive Wasteland 2 update: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/324612?ref=activity

Enemy portraits, music sample, other stuff!

Love it. I still want to see a mockup of the interface and a sample of the combat log with some juicy examples of flavor text. The Wasteland Warrior redux is pretty neat, though I doubt they will bother to animate the portraits this time around.

 

[subversus]

this music is fantastic.....

 

[pa22word]

http://www.polygon.com/2012/10/25/3...-will-be-working-with-molecular-biologists-to

Wasteland 2 developer inXile is collaborating with Montreal-based science consultancy firm, Thwacke, to make it's sci-fi world more believable.

Thwacke specializes in merging the world of science with games, focusing on areas like evolutionary biology, nuclear physics and medicine. Its CEO is a molecular biologist and one of its co-founders is a neuroscientist. With their backgrounds in science, the consultants at Thwacke are working with inXile to blur the line between reality and fiction, which Thwacke CEO Sebastian Alvarado says will "ultimately [impact] gameplay and narrative."

Thwacke's services are being brought in to create realistic creatures that are a byproduct of their environment, biological and chemical warfare that makes sense, and the medical know-how that will allow the game's writers to create characters who can realistically survive with the "scariest of resources".

Brian Fargo, inXile's founder, said: "The more smart guys we have ... looking at the writing and design is always a good thing and in this case we have a group of very bright people checking our work."

Wasteland 2 is expected later this month on PC, Mac, and Linux.

Surprise WL2 for everyone this month!


In all seriousness, this sounds pretty interesting

 

[Lafiel]

That's one of my biggest complaints about certain sci-fic settings - eg they aren't really consistent with evolutionary biology, even though they try to have the illusion of being consistent with evolutionary principles.

Good to hear Wasteland 2 will have that kind of attention-to-detail. Getting even more hyped for it!

 

[Fjordson]

Massive Wasteland 2 update: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/324612?ref=activity

Enemy portraits, music sample, other stuff!

Sorry for the really late bump, but this is all really cool. Especially that music. Mark Morgan is the shit.

I'm not used to this Kickstarter thing :lol need to remember to keep tabs on these projects after the initial funding drive. Totally missed this big update until tonight.

 

[Madrugador]

New artwork from Twitter.

https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/status/263060776879783937/photo/1

 

[zkylon]

New artwork from Twitter.



https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/status/263060776879783937/photo/1

Man, that looks sick. This Andree Wallin guy is amazing.