McLean and McComb on writing for Wasteland 2
McLean and McComb on writing for Wasteland 2
Game News - posted by Zed on Thu 16 August 2012, 01:26:36
Tags: Colin McComb; Patrick McClean; Wasteland 2It seems the latest two additions to the Wasteland 2 team have written some stuff about working on the game. First off to join was novelist Colin McComb, and he writes:
A couple of days later, Patrick McClean joined. He also has stuff to say about joining the Wasteland 2 team, and here's a snippet:
Make sure to read the rest of what McClean has to say over at his blog thing.
I woke up to an email from Eurogamer’s Bertie Purchese on Sunday morning telling me that I’d made the headlines.
My first reaction was, of course, “Oh no, they found the bodies!”
My second (and probably more reasonable) reaction was to check Google for the headlines in question. Man, Bertie wasn’t kidding. It was a little scary to see myself mentioned so prominently in hundreds of articles, many of which were written by legitimate people and not content farmers.
To keep my ego from swelling too much, I quickly scanned a couple of comments sections and managed to remind myself that not everyone shares an optimistic view of my talents. I find that this keeps me from being too overconfident, and likewise keeps me from taking myself too seriously. I should mention that of the positive comments, my favorite was the one that said the Wasteland 2 team is like the Avengers of RPG design; I call dibs on Nick Fury, because he and I have the same hairstyle.
Obviously, we need to keep the hype in check. There’s no point in jacking up expectations to the point where it’s impossible to meet them. So let’s get this put out front and center: This is a game. Granted, it’s a game written by a lot of people with a long history in the industry, and that means we have definite ideas about should go into games. The flip side of this is that we have definite ideas about what should go into games, and those ideas might not always accord with expectations other people have. You might like what we’re going to do. You might hate it. But remember: it’s just a game. We’re going to work very hard on it, and you might find it really fun. You might not. *I* think it’ll be great.
My first reaction was, of course, “Oh no, they found the bodies!”
My second (and probably more reasonable) reaction was to check Google for the headlines in question. Man, Bertie wasn’t kidding. It was a little scary to see myself mentioned so prominently in hundreds of articles, many of which were written by legitimate people and not content farmers.
To keep my ego from swelling too much, I quickly scanned a couple of comments sections and managed to remind myself that not everyone shares an optimistic view of my talents. I find that this keeps me from being too overconfident, and likewise keeps me from taking myself too seriously. I should mention that of the positive comments, my favorite was the one that said the Wasteland 2 team is like the Avengers of RPG design; I call dibs on Nick Fury, because he and I have the same hairstyle.
Obviously, we need to keep the hype in check. There’s no point in jacking up expectations to the point where it’s impossible to meet them. So let’s get this put out front and center: This is a game. Granted, it’s a game written by a lot of people with a long history in the industry, and that means we have definite ideas about should go into games. The flip side of this is that we have definite ideas about what should go into games, and those ideas might not always accord with expectations other people have. You might like what we’re going to do. You might hate it. But remember: it’s just a game. We’re going to work very hard on it, and you might find it really fun. You might not. *I* think it’ll be great.
A couple of days later, Patrick McClean joined. He also has stuff to say about joining the Wasteland 2 team, and here's a snippet:
I’ll be posting more about this game, this process, what I know and am learning about game design, but to wrap it all up – there are two reasons why this game is very, very, very likely[1] to be mind-blowingly amazing.
1) It’s kickstarted.
Which means that Brian has a chance to make a very unique game. The gaming industry is, well, an Industry. So it’s hard to make things with flair, passion and craft. Watch the video on the kickstarter site and you see what I mean.
2) Everybody involved is serious about taking the curse off.
Games, especially RPG’s, feel stalled. Worse, some genres seem to be moving backwards. You can argue that there is less role-playing in RPG’s now. They may look better, but the core mechanic and the core beats of the story haven’t evolved. (Seriously, you another resource-gathering quest?)
1) It’s kickstarted.
Which means that Brian has a chance to make a very unique game. The gaming industry is, well, an Industry. So it’s hard to make things with flair, passion and craft. Watch the video on the kickstarter site and you see what I mean.
2) Everybody involved is serious about taking the curse off.
Games, especially RPG’s, feel stalled. Worse, some genres seem to be moving backwards. You can argue that there is less role-playing in RPG’s now. They may look better, but the core mechanic and the core beats of the story haven’t evolved. (Seriously, you another resource-gathering quest?)
Make sure to read the rest of what McClean has to say over at his blog thing.
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