Game News First work in progress screenshot of Wasteland 2 revealed

[MisterStone]

After looking at those Stasis screenshots, I'm thinking: they've got 3 million dollars ffs, couldn't they just hire that dude to do their maps for them? Oh hwait, Unity...

 

[bonescraper]

First, style isn't about content, therefore lack of certain content does not prevent stylistic comparision. Second, your question was clearly more general.

So you actually expected to see a pixel to pixel, 3D recreation of that concept art? You're insane. Maybe my question seemed more general to you, but my expectations are "a bit" more realistic, so i didn't think you expected Crysis 2 level of detail.

Here's a protip. Some or even most of the detail will be lost in translation to 3D graphics. Because of the engine's limitations, budget constrains, tight schedule and the fact that's it's a top down isometric game anyway.

You used phrase "anyway" twice there

A typo. Big fucking deal. You wrote comparision. Lolz.

taking it out of context yourself and then not putting it back by mentioning cover art. Now I know what you meant, but still - learn English, dude.

I was talking about the cover art all the time. Because, in all honesty, i wouldn't expect anyone to think that the whole game will be as detailed as those two pieces of concept art. For fuck's sake, that would require years of development, a bigger team and an eight digit budget.

Tell me then - why so many indie games are pixel-art? Because it can look good while being cheap. Same with cartoonish 3D - less detailed environment, less detailed textures, wacky animation doesn't need motion capture, etc. and it still looks like a coherent art style.

You don't like the art style. Yeah, i got that. So what else are you trying to prove here?

 

[tindrli]

dont like it at all.. well.. the angle seems right but everything else sux.. shit.. i hope they start all over again

 

[Ion Prothon II]

If you dismiss any connection between budget and art, you should have stated it back then. Now you just seem to look for any argument to counter with, as your position isn't consistent.

No, i shouldn't, since i think it's fucking obvious. Lower budget = less polys per model, less detail, crappy textures, less animations, no fancy-shmancy effects etc. Art style has nothing to do with money.

Tell me then - why so many indie games are pixel-art? Because it can look good while being cheap. Same with cartoonish 3D - less detailed environment, less detailed textures, wacky animation doesn't need motion capture, etc. and it still looks like a coherent art style.

Funny thing with low polygon models in this case.
Lowpoly models are pretty accurate for an isometric game like this. After all, Inxile planned fixed camera with insignificant zoom. They *don't* need the level of detail and polygon count as it was in eg. NWN2, where after switching to TPP, the game looked almost like Doom3.
And it's fucking possible to create decent lowpoly models without unleashing the cartoon nightmare of Team Fortress.

I leave here a screenshot from Shadow Company (1999). I hope it will give you guys some contrast to those all disturbing things we see nowadays, full of shameless bloom, aggresive antyaliasing and bad color balance.

 

[Surf Solar]

What a cool "oldschool" game this is, fuck yeah Wasteland 2!

It looks boring but that was to be expected. I am just glad I didn't get to pledge for the game, even though I initially wanted to do it. Not saying anything about it being bad, just not my cup of tea, this is.

Lol at people saying graphics like in Stasis etc. need a much bigger investment of time and money. Have you actually tried that out for yourself or are you just talking out of your ass?


"how am I supposed to see my character in a fixed camera perspective behind a building??????"

wat

 

[Infinitron]

A new power is rising on the Codex - the 2D Scoia'tael. Fighting ruthlessly for the memory of their lost dominion over gaming.

 

[Dantus12]

The thing is that I don't think that anybody argues technical graphics.

A game like this one doesn't need 16xAA to achieve something , the problem is that this shot is showing a large shift from the concept.
Mostly concept art is meaningless unless being a basic guideline , however their comments where that the game will depict rich vegetation made possible by the awe inspiring Unity, for example, and I don't want to see how blood sausage explosions look on this .

Nearly everyone got a new torn for dropping any critique on the engine choice , and now there's something that depicts Van Buren as advanced.
It isn't even about that, but the deadline for me personally implies EA problems, I don't believe Fargo's cooperation speech , how EA is nice , maybe with a price, if it bombs it bombed, if not EA publishes console.

The never ending hunt for IP's even among the former old school members now strangely reminded me on EA's comment that they will revive old school stuff despite bombing with Syndicate, and suddenly Wasteland 2 is in the making .

This shouldn't be some kind of mindless bashing but generally this looks like console versions will be made a few months after , and no it wasn't them but EA or another company marketing comment thrown our ways .

Right now they need to learn their dependence on the positive mouth propaganda , after so many fails Obsidian could use it to, and stop posting stuff like this . In Exile is a fully staffed studio, what are they doing, ah yes next gen is on the way.

Generally a TB game doesn't need shiny graphics , but this is 2012 , and if this is a RPG than the player will need some kind of world interaction , personally I like it , but there is 0 reason why a game that is good shouldn't sell- Yes Captain Obvious.

And it will get better , but they shouldn't shrug off people that dislike the general direction , because currently it is very uninviting for a close interaction, to explain- opening a chest on this type of ground -just no, but again like the slightly cartoonish colorful vibe, but it needs more tech, better mapping and a slightly higher poly count.
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[TwinkieGorilla]

Goddammit this place is fucking annoying. I hate ALL of your opinions, good and bad. Fuck all y'all.

 

[Infinitron]

The thing is that I don't think that anybody argues technical graphics.

A game like this one doesn't need 16xAA to achieve something , the problem is that this shot is showing a large shift from the concept.
Mostly concept art is meaningless unless being a basic guideline , however their comments where that the game will depict rich vegetation made possible by the awe inspiring Unity, for example, and I don't want to see how blood sausage explosions look on this .

Nearly everyone got a new torn for dropping any critique on the engine choice , and now there's something that depicts Van Buren as advanced.
It isn't even about that, but the deadline for me personally implies EA problems, I don't believe Fargo's cooperation speech , how EA is nice , maybe with a price, if it bombs it bombed, if not EA publishes console.

The never ending hunt for IP's even among the former old school members now strangely reminded me on EA's comment that they will revive old school stuff despite bombing with Syndicate, and suddenly Wasteland 2 is in the making .

This shouldn't be some kind of mindless bashing but generally this looks like console versions will be made a few months after , and no it wasn't them but EA or another company marketing comment thrown our ways .

Right now they need to learn their dependence on the positive mouth propaganda , after so many fails Obsidian could use it to, and stop posting stuff like this . In Exile is a fully staffed studio, what are they doing, ah yes next gen is on the way.

Generally a TB game doesn't need shiny graphics , but this is 2012 , and if this is a RPG than the player will need some kind of world interaction , personally I like it , but there is 0 reason why a game that is good shouldn't sell- Yes Captain Obvious.

And it will get better , but they shouldn't shrug off people that dislike the general direction , because currently it is very uninviting for a close interaction, to explain- opening a chest on this type of ground -just no, but again like the slightly cartoonish colorful vibe, but it needs more tech, better mapping and a slightly higher poly count.
----------------------

 

[epikitscheesy]

Holy mother of god, how come this looks so fugly now ? I be poppin moles

@topic I tried to disregard the wip status of this screen and judge it on its own merits (against better judgement) and now that I think of it, I really am terribly, terribly disappointed. Still, however stylized they may be, all the assets look quite organic and deliberate to me. Suppose we had a fully animated fully working toy story rpg in this environment - it might well feel very lively and plausible as in consistent with the internal logic of the game.

 

[Outlander]

Suppose we had a fully animated fully working toy story rpg in this environment - it might well feel very lively and plausible as in consistent with the internal logic of the game.

You nailed it.

 

[xilo3z]

As Mr. Infinitron said this is pre-pre-pre-alpha... Or whatever. I'm not that crazy over the shot, but come on. Don't throw in the towel for the good fight just yet!

For example this is what Braid (yes artfag, etc.) looked like during prototyping and alpha stages - http://pics.fort90.com/journal/prebraid.jpg

Now a lot can change between today and the release date. Because of that, now is the time to voice up and where the direction should go.

 

[Outlander]

Nobody's throwing the towel, some people simply just don't like the art approach in that screenshot.

The real problem here seem to be some individuals getting their panties in a twist because apparently nobody is allowed to dislike it.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Not a fan of the look. It's not the color palette that bothers me, but the lack of any real visual flair. This doesn't scream Wasteland to me at all; in fact it looks like any of the slew of post-apocalyptic indies that were streaming out of Eastern Europe a few years back. No style whatsoever. Sure, it's a little too early to pass judgment, but if this is in any way indicative of the stylistic angle inXile wants to take...I'll be disappointed, but not surprised that they aren't going with a late 80's/early 90's retro-future aesthetic. Fargo wants to win big on this one, be the first to successfully go big with Kickstarter, and he's not going to forsake ambition to satisfy a bunch of us CRPG bros.

Also I recall the Scorpitron looking more like a tank and less like an actual scorpion, but I'm an alcoholic experienced drinker with a fuzzy memory so what do I know.

I asked the same question, but HUD-stuff isn't finalized yet. Obviously. There will be visual indications of the amount of distance you're covering/shooting over, but a visual grid might not be the method they choose.

Will movement be grid-based? That I don't know.

Wait...this releases in Q4 2013 or Q1 2014 and they haven't nailed this down? Isn't this type of stuff that's typically covered in the design documents written up pre-production? Pretty glad I didn't donate at this point.

 

[Aeschylus]

It looks better than I expected a couple months into development, but not as good as I'd hoped in my wild imaginings. I sort of agree with the above that it is not hugely distinct, but I can see the possibility for improvement in a more interesting environment.

 

[Davaris]

Not a fan of the look. It's not the color palette that bothers me, but the lack of any real visual flair. This doesn't scream Wasteland to me at all; in fact it looks like any of the slew of post-apocalyptic indies that were streaming out of Eastern Europe a few years back. No style whatsoever. Sure, it's a little too early to pass judgment, but if this is in any way indicative of the stylistic angle inXile wants to take...I'll be disappointed, but not surprised that they aren't going with a late 80's/early 90's retro-future aesthetic. Fargo wants to win big on this one, be the first to successfully go big with Kickstarter, and he's not going to forsake ambition to satisfy a bunch of us CRPG bros.

I assume much of what we seeing in the test level, are assets taken from the Unity portal. You can't buy distinctive style from artists that are working independently of each other, the best you could do is blandness. If they want the game to sell well, they are going to need a lead artist that is original/brilliant, to take charge of the project for the duration. I haven't heard of any such people being hired as yet. Perhaps we will hear about this artist soon? I hope so.

 

[nihil]

Fallouts (1,2) look better, so does Fallout Tactics. Can someone say something positive about the screenshot? What exactly looks good there?

As for me, I had an initial positive reaction simply because it doesn't look amateurish and internally inconsistent (like 99% of fan games). I agree the art style isn't the best, and obviously Fallout 1 looks better, but at least it looks like they're aiming for a realistic style with the models, instead of the over-the-top, caricature shit of games like Borderlands and Diablo 3 that makes it impossible to be sucked into the game. Of course, the writing is what will really matter here.

In short, given the budget, it looks pretty damn cool in times when characters otherwise look like this.

 

[Stelcio]

First, style isn't about content, therefore lack of certain content does not prevent stylistic comparision. Second, your question was clearly more general.

So you actually expected to see a pixel to pixel, 3D recreation of that concept art? You're insane. Maybe my question seemed more general to you, but my expectations are "a bit" more realistic, so i didn't think you expected Crysis 2 level of detail.

Here's a protip. Some or even most of the detail will be lost in translation to 3D graphics. Because of the engine's limitations, budget constrains, tight schedule and the fact that's it's a top down isometric game anyway.

Stylistic coherence doesn't mean a pixel to pixel recreation. If you can't grasp it, there's no point in further discussion.

You used phrase "anyway" twice there

A typo. Big fucking deal. You wrote comparision. Lolz.

I made a typo. You used a word with a wrong meaning, proving you don't know it's actual meaning - "anyway" then (twice!) and "typo" now.

I was talking about the cover art all the time. Because, in all honesty, i wouldn't expect anyone to think that the whole game will be as detailed as those two pieces of concept art. For fuck's sake, that would require years of development, a bigger team and an eight digit budget.

No one thinks like that. It's just you dichotomising.

If you dismiss any connection between budget and art, you should have stated it back then. Now you just seem to look for any argument to counter with, as your position isn't consistent.

No, i shouldn't, since i think it's fucking obvious. Lower budget = less polys per model, less detail, crappy textures, less animations, no fancy-shmancy effects etc. Art style has nothing to do with money.

Tell me then - why so many indie games are pixel-art? Because it can look good while being cheap. Same with cartoonish 3D - less detailed environment, less detailed textures, wacky animation doesn't need motion capture, etc. and it still looks like a coherent art style.

You don't like the art style. Yeah, i got that. So what else are you trying to prove here?

You should've quoted me like this, so it's clear (especially for you...) what we are actually talking about. Because you didn't, you replied like a fucking idiot.

 

[ghostdog]

Fallout 1 had a budget of 3 million, as Fargo said, and that included a lot of audio, a lot of cinematics and some publisher overhead. Considering the fact that today's free tools and knowledge can make things go a lot easier and faster than it could in 1996 and that publisher, marketing and PR costs go out of the window with kickstarter, I'm guessing that roughly evens it up with current dollar devaluation. So, yeah, I think you could make a game with the amount of content wasteland had, looking graphically like fallout 1, with a 3 million budget.

 

[Semper]

besides the color palette and the oversaturation, which can be adjusted later with a simple color correction in post processing, i like what i see. the ladder is out of scale and the water shader is horrible but they still do their job - i've seen worse in triple a productions. all in all the screen seems a bit too cluttered. hopefully this debris can be used tactically (cover, laying traps, salvaging, etc.)

dunno where all this hate comes from. the rangers look like humans and the scorpitron is an almost 1:1 copy from the artwork. i would not criticize the textures because those are mostly placeholders to quickly get the meshes ingame for testing purposes. that's the whole point of an alpha - to test the look and feel of all the gameplay features.

 

[nihil]

In short, given the budget, it looks pretty damn cool in times when characters otherwise look like this.

Oh no something is not exactly like something in reality. Aspie Conformity Crew, assemble!

It's not about realism, it's about credibility. Or maybe not even that, but whether it's ridiculous or not.

 

[bonescraper]

Stylistic coherence doesn't mean a pixel to pixel recreation. If you can't grasp it, there's no point in further discussion.

They don't have to be coherent with those 2 pieces of art. Why? Because it's not actual concept art.

That's concept art. What Andrée Wallin did is more of a promotional art done for their Kickstarter page. Do some research. Still, they took some of his ideas (Scorpitron is now a robot, not a tank), but they're not bound by them. And especially not by his art style. He doesn't even work with the devs closely, so his impact on the game is minimal.

You used a word with a wrong meaning, proving you don't know it's actual meaning - "anyway" then (twice!) and "typo" now.

Oh, i'm sorry. I don't know how you classify unintentional word repetition. An error is an error. It's all the same where i come from. Do you feel better now?

You should've quoted me like this, so it's clear (especially for you...) what we are actually talking about. Because you didn't, you replied like a fucking idiot.

Yeah, yeah. All you're trying to say is how you're disappointed by the discrepancy of the art style presented by their artist and their dev team. But i don't remember anyone saying the game is going to retain the exact same look or feel of those painted pictures. Yet you feel cheated somehow. Well, deal with it. It's not my problem.

 

[Infinitron]

You keep quoting yourself instead of the person you're replying to.

 

[bonescraper]

Shit, you're right

 

[Roguey]

Wait...this releases in Q4 2013 or Q1 2014 and they haven't nailed this down? Isn't this type of stuff that's typically covered in the design documents written up pre-production? Pretty glad I didn't donate at this point.

They're in pre-production now until October. The plan is to be in production for 12 months. Fargo was always transparent about this.