Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #49: The End is in Sight - Final Early Access Update and Release Date
Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #49: The End is in Sight - Final Early Access Update and Release Date
Game News - posted by Infinitron on Tue 20 May 2014, 22:17:58
Tags: Brian Fargo; inXile Entertainment; Michael A. Stackpole; Nathan Long; Wasteland 2There was a flurry of updates on the official Wasteland 2 Tumblr over the past few days, and today, a Kickstarter update has been released to sum them all up, with one additional piece of information - a release date!
We are very happy to announce the ship date for Wasteland 2: the game will be coming to you at the end of August of this year!
Before saying anything else, I want to first and foremost again thank you, our backers. Without you I'd never be where I am today, just a few months removed from finally releasing the game I've been wanting to make for 25 years. It's exciting to be in this home stretch, and all your support and feedback throughout the process has made the game much better than it would have been otherwise. What we're releasing is a game of much greater scope than we ever dreamed of when starting our Kickstarter. More features, more areas, more reactivity, more words, all thanks to you for funding our game and for giving us the time needed to finish it. My goal has been to over deliver on your expectations for Wasteland 2.
We also just released another big update to the Wasteland 2 beta (full notes on our tumblr). This update adds the final major area of Arizona, meaning the Wasteland 2 beta now includes all Arizona maps, which is approximately half the entire game!
At this stage we're internally feature complete, but not feature locked. What that means is that every feature is in our dev builds but we're still testing functionality, gameplay balance impact and even quality. If a feature is not good enough, we'll cut it, but if fan feedback and internal review indicates it's vital, we'll double down on it. But the main focus for the new few months lies with balancing, optimizing and of course mercilessly hunting down bugs.
But we are not yet in full lock-down, it is important for us to stay flexible for iterations as we keep learning from the backer beta. For instance, we'll be tweaking the skill usage density and variety our game levels, and adding some smaller lines and skill-paths. Combat balance is something else we'll be spending a lot of time on in the next months, as it still needs much fine-tuning. Localization is another major step and we can do with more help on that, see more below. In other words, these next few months won't be idle months!
Character Creation Screens
One of the changes going into this beta build are the new character creation screens, crafted with the help of feedback from the community.
MCM London
I'll be at the MCM London Comic Con, taking the main stage on 3PM UTC/8AM PST on Saturday May 24th. I'll be talking about the game but also premiering the game's opening cinematic. We knew we shouldn't spend too much cash, so I got a little creative and took my camera to the Wasteland Weekend. Using that footage, stock footage and some new footage shot with actors, we got an effective opening for less than $30K. The opening cinematic explains the history of the setting and the Rangers before setting up the start of our game.
You'll be able to join us via live stream at this URL on Saturday.
The update also announces the imminent publication of Nathan Long and Michael Stackpole's novella, entitled The Earth Transformed, which I suspect involves mutants. Additionally, those of you who have considered becoming involved with Wasteland 2's localization crowdsourcing project may be interested to know that inXile are now giving out out free Early Access-enabled copies of the game to anybody who translates 250 strings or more. If you're already a backer, you get an extra.Before saying anything else, I want to first and foremost again thank you, our backers. Without you I'd never be where I am today, just a few months removed from finally releasing the game I've been wanting to make for 25 years. It's exciting to be in this home stretch, and all your support and feedback throughout the process has made the game much better than it would have been otherwise. What we're releasing is a game of much greater scope than we ever dreamed of when starting our Kickstarter. More features, more areas, more reactivity, more words, all thanks to you for funding our game and for giving us the time needed to finish it. My goal has been to over deliver on your expectations for Wasteland 2.
We also just released another big update to the Wasteland 2 beta (full notes on our tumblr). This update adds the final major area of Arizona, meaning the Wasteland 2 beta now includes all Arizona maps, which is approximately half the entire game!
At this stage we're internally feature complete, but not feature locked. What that means is that every feature is in our dev builds but we're still testing functionality, gameplay balance impact and even quality. If a feature is not good enough, we'll cut it, but if fan feedback and internal review indicates it's vital, we'll double down on it. But the main focus for the new few months lies with balancing, optimizing and of course mercilessly hunting down bugs.
But we are not yet in full lock-down, it is important for us to stay flexible for iterations as we keep learning from the backer beta. For instance, we'll be tweaking the skill usage density and variety our game levels, and adding some smaller lines and skill-paths. Combat balance is something else we'll be spending a lot of time on in the next months, as it still needs much fine-tuning. Localization is another major step and we can do with more help on that, see more below. In other words, these next few months won't be idle months!
Character Creation Screens
One of the changes going into this beta build are the new character creation screens, crafted with the help of feedback from the community.
MCM London
I'll be at the MCM London Comic Con, taking the main stage on 3PM UTC/8AM PST on Saturday May 24th. I'll be talking about the game but also premiering the game's opening cinematic. We knew we shouldn't spend too much cash, so I got a little creative and took my camera to the Wasteland Weekend. Using that footage, stock footage and some new footage shot with actors, we got an effective opening for less than $30K. The opening cinematic explains the history of the setting and the Rangers before setting up the start of our game.
You'll be able to join us via live stream at this URL on Saturday.
