Game News Obsidian to co-develop Wasteland 2 if Kickstarter reaches $2.1mil

[Johannes]

To be fair, neither does Obsidian, but I have a feeling that saying "Obsidian" is PR-speak for "Chris Avellone and maybe a few others" and not literally handing it off to Obsidian.

Obsidian’s Chief Creative Officer Chris Avellone will be working directly with the design team at inXile to help bring the world of Wasteland together

Yeah, it's not like they could or should take too much more staff onboard just because they make another 0,5m dollars. In the end it's probably a really good move, since the increased funding from this hype will probably pay for Avellone and a few others well enough.

But since he was the only one name-dropped, I'm sceptical if other big-name developers will be coming aboard or if they're tied to other projects.

 

[taxalot]

So this means Bethesda will have its hands free for developping Fallout 4. Awesome news !

 

[Semper]

But they also make buggy games, and since there's no particular reason why they should be involved, I think they should just stay out of this one.

besides the fact that the publisher is responsible for shipped bugs obsidian mainly worked with licensed third party engines under tight schedules. worst was beth's gamebryo mess where new vegas suffered from exactly the same bugs f3 did... ds3 was driven by their onyx engine and guess what? yeah, there were like Z E R O bugs. and why the hate for onyx? it's a nice looking 3d isometric world streaming engine which can be easily adapted to turn based combat rules. dunno what brian's up his sleeve but i doubt it will be a crpg engine ready for wasteland.

 

[grotsnik]

They're basically neighbours, Obsidian seems to be in need of a helping hand, and Brian's probably betting the MCA fanbase, including all those who were creaming themselves over the promise of seeing an old-school Kickstarter project from him, will cause a donation surge. It...seems pretty sensible. It'd be great to see more opportunities for interesting people to collaborate on smaller, non-blockbuster projects in the future, too.

Fuck everything, I'm rather excited about this.

 

[Crooked Bee]

An important clarification from Brian Fargo via email:

Also important to note that their contribution is purely in design. We are doing all the code here.

No Obsidian bugs for you.

 

[Johannes]

MCA has confirmed on twitter that he's still thinking about his own kickstarter project and working on W2 wouldn't affect that - he says he just really wants to work on W2 too...

But he kinda can't work on 2 projects at the same time, so another Kickstarter by him will have to wait for a good while - not necessarily as long it takes for WL2 to ship, but almost. Though it might make sense to wait until WL2 is done anyway, so they can ride WL2's success for a bigger-money Kickstarter. Unless the game is shit.



And yeah, substituting InXile guys with Obsidian people for coding/art would be a dick move toward the InXile staff, unless they'd want a ridiculously big group (compared to budget) working on it.
Though they'll use some of Obsidians tools, apparently.

 

[circ]

But they also make buggy games, and since there's no particular reason why they should be involved, I think they should just stay out of this one.

besides the fact that the publisher is responsible for shipped bugs obsidian mainly worked with licensed third party engines under tight schedules. worst was beth's gamebryo mess where new vegas suffered from exactly the same bugs f3 did... ds3 was driven by their onyx engine and guess what? yeah, there were like Z E R O bugs. and why the hate for onyx? it's a nice looking 3d isometric world streaming engine which can be easily adapted to turn based combat rules. dunno what brian's up his sleeve but i doubt it will be a crpg engine ready for wasteland.

So Bethesda, being responsible for publishing their own games, are not responsible for the bugs? What?
I would argue that DS3 itself is one big fucking bug.

 

[Fluffer]

Aaaaaaah. This warms my fucking heart. Almost too good to be true.

 

[skuphundaku]

upgraded to $265

By the way, it's not just MCA - they mentioned bringing in some dev tools from Obsidian too. I wonder if using Onyx is on the table?

I think that this upgraded Onyx from one of the better alternatives to, most likely, the chosen engine for WL2.

 

[curry]

Also important to note that their contribution is purely in design. We are doing all the code here.

Whew.

 

[Sitra Achara]

An important clarification from Brian Fargo via email:

Also important to note that their contribution is purely in design. We are doing all the code here.

[trading][streetwise] ...assuming you give us an extra $1M.

 

[Brother None]

For those complaining about Obsidian being involved due to being "bugsidian", lemme clarify something a bit here: Obsidian will not do any programming. InXile is doing all the programming for this title. InXile is getting them in for design work and licensing tools.

 

[Semper]

So Bethesda, being responsible for publishing their own games, are not responsible for the bugs? What?

it's the other way around. beth is both the developer and publisher and therefore directly responsible for shipped bugs. they've got their qa inhouse and have full control over the given budget. in fact they should be able to sell their games without bugs... now look how bug ridden all their games are.

I would argue that DS3 itself is one big fucking bug.

and i would argue that your argument is one big fuckin' clusterfuck lacking substance.

 

[curry]

For those complaining about Obsidian being involved due to being "bugsidian", lemme clarify something a bit here: Obsidian will not do any programming. InXile is doing all the programming for this title. InXile is getting them in for design work and licensing tools.

So they're going to use Onyx?

 

[Charles-cgr]

For those complaining about Obsidian being involved due to being "bugsidian", lemme clarify something a bit here: Obsidian will not do any programming. InXile is doing all the programming for this title. InXile is getting them in for design work and licensing tools.

Ah the licensing tools part does make this look like a bit more than a PR stunt. Just design, as in hey I got a few ideas you can use, would hardly have justified calling for an extra 1/2 mil...

I was having mixed feelings about this, now I like it better.

 

[Brother None]

So they're going to use Onyx?

Don't know. But possibly? I'm poking to find out, but no news to offer.

 

[skuphundaku]

For those complaining about Obsidian being involved due to being "bugsidian", lemme clarify something a bit here: Obsidian will not do any programming. InXile is doing all the programming for this title. InXile is getting them in for design work and licensing tools.

So they're going to use Onyx?

I could bet on that being the case.

 

[Azalin]

Real bros stick together.

The only bad side to this is that now I will have to sell my left kidney to get more monies

 

[LeStryfe79]

Fuck yes! Please!!! Codex needs another fundraiser. I'lll kick down doors and find another $200, and I'll get friends and they will do the same. It's the end of decline. Time to shut the fuck up and Ramen our way to higher times. Fuck yeah!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Stabwound]

I'm not so sure Onyx will be in the picture, because they've already obligated themselves to making Mac and Linux ports. Now, maybe Onyx is portable to OSX and Linux, but DS3 was only Windows and consoles.

 

[skuphundaku]

So they're going to use Onyx?

Don't know. But possibly? I'm poking to find out, but no news to offer.

BN, remember the discussion we were having in the first 8 or 9 or so pages of the Engines thread, on the WL2 forum, before some dumbasses who couldn't be bothered to read the thread from the start came in and started rehashing all the stupid ideas? The tentative consensus was that the most likely alternatives would be Onyx, Unigine and id Tech 4 (each of them with their strengths and weaknesses). I think that this news puts Onyx squarely in the front of the pack.

 

[Azalin]

Fuck yes! Please!!! Codex needs another fundraiser. I'lll kick down doors and find another $200, and I'll get friends and they will do the same. It's the end of decline. Time to shut the fuck up and Ramen our way to higher times. Fuck yeah!!!!!!!!!!

Fuck yeah,DU should start a second one now,let's bring some more

 

[latexmonkeys]

Incredible!! Codex news, you've chased away my blues!!!
Wow, I wasn't expecting this. It's a strangely optimistic feeling getting so much lately.

 

[circ]

So Bethesda, being responsible for publishing their own games, are not responsible for the bugs? What?

it's the other way around. beth is both the developer and publisher and therefore directly responsible for shipped bugs. they've got their qa inhouse and have full control over the given budget. in fact they should be able to sell their games without bugs... now look how bug ridden all their games are.

I would argue that DS3 itself is one big fucking bug.

and i would argue that your argument is one big fuckin' clusterfuck lacking substance.

Feel free to dig up any of the DS3 threads for insight.

 

[skuphundaku]

I'm not so sure Onyx will be in the picture, because they've already obligated themselves to making Mac and Linux ports. Now, maybe Onyx is portable to OSX and Linux, but DS3 was only Windows and consoles.

That really depends on the engine's architecture and whether of not it already supports OpenGL (i.e. doesn't work with DirectX exclusively). If it does support OpenGL, the porting to Linux and MacOS may be relatively straight forward. That may be the case anyway because DS3 has a PS3 port, so even though it uses DirectX for PC and Xbox 360, it would need OpenGL for PS3, so I think the OpenGL support is already there.