Codex Interview Wasteland 2 RPG Codex Interview with Brian Fargo - Part 1

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

What an embarrassment it must be if he fails to raise enough money to make the game, though. And those who donated will be seriously butthurt.

That's the point of kickstarter though, if a project doesn't raise enough money then none of the pledgers are charged, an effective anti-butthurt feature. You can of course intentionally set the goal at less money than than you realstically think you actually need, but that's borderline if not outright fraud.

Running out of money before the project is finished due to overrunning the budget is of course a real risk in any software project, but that can happen even if they raise 10X as much money as the goal. Probably even more likely, since getting lots of money will of course make them want to make a more ambitious game, and thus more likely to fail.

If they are smart, they should try to set a realistic goal (like a million) to help funding the game, enjoy any (eventual) extra income above that sum, and then count on their own budget.

After all, the point of Kickstarter isn't to get rich before the actual work is made or to cover any possible expense. It's to have some extra money and to be sure that there is *at least* a bare minimum of interest for the project.
You can never tell how these things go. They can even barely reach their goal, make the game, and yet then suddently make millions on Steam if the result is good enough.

Their problem now it's to gain visibility on the press when they are launching the Kickstarter campaign. That's exactly what they lack most compared to Tim Schafer: visibility (and a past of absolute excellence, but let's not go into this ground now...).

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Once he does his video pitch I'm sure he will have a lot more visibility, it'll be posted at every game site under the sun.

 

[shihonage]

I think RPGWatch should just accept Codex's superiority and assimilate. I don't even get why that website exists, it has no purpose and no quality.

I see most forums outside of Codex/NMA as a means of containment.

 

[Lyric Suite]

charisma... Jack Black...

lol le what?

 

[J_C]

If you thinks chafer is a bigger name you are tripping balls. I remember thinking WHO THE HECK IS TIM SCHAFER? Then looking it up and going, oh the grim fandango guy. Oh, and people remember day of the tentacle still? That was pretty good, too. Hmm, looks like 20 years of complete shit since then. I'll come out right now and say the game double fine makes is gonna suck, just like everything since grim fandango has sucked. And yeah I tried psychonauts, that was amusing for 5 minutes.

You are embarrassing yourself. You build your argument on the fact that you didn't know who Schafer is, and you don't like his recent (quite good) games. I respect Fargo and his past, but anything Tim has done in the last couple of years is far better than anything Fargo did in the last few years. And that's including the console games Double Fine did.

 

[Infinitron]

The guy's not making another monkey island game but some console point and click adventure aimed at tiny kids.

What the fuck are you talking about

The new game won't be released on consoles. Schafer has explicitly said he doesn't want to fuck around with console licenses anymore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Fine_Adventure

Platform(s) Android, Linux, iOS, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows​

​

As for the game being "aimed at tiny kids", I'd be surprised, considering the people who donated money are definitely not kids​

 

[J_C]

Fargo is more famous than Schafer, another fact.

Maybe it is a fact for you, but I doubt that it is a fact for most people. For the older gamers, I say they are equally famous. For the younger ones Fargo is probably not known at all, opposite to Schafer. The reason for this is that Fargo hasn't produced anything which was well received in the last few years. Schafer did. It doesn't matter if you like his console games or not, his name holds a higher value. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Fargo's project will fail, I'm arguing about which one of the 2 guys are more famous and well known today.

The guy's not making another monkey island game but some console point and click adventure aimed at tiny kids.

Please at least check Scafer's project, that way you will know something about it and you can avoid talking stupid things like this.

 

[Infinitron]

At this point, I suspect possible troll.

 

[Brother None]

Once he does his video pitch I'm sure he will have a lot more visibility, it'll be posted at every game site under the sun.

He's got good contacts so a lot of bigger sites will have it up quickly and expansively. From that point onwards, it's a matter of momentum. Which is why people diving on it in day one is pretty important.

Until Fargo starts the project, we can only estimate how much he will need, and how much he will actually get.

He needs one million, as I've mentioned several times, it's what he told VB and told me as well, and that's probably what he'll put up as the Kickstarter minimum.

 

[felipepepe]

He needs one million, as I've mentioned several times, it's what he told VB and told me as well, and that's probably what he'll put up as the Kickstarter minimum.

Sorry, must have missed that several times or tought it was just a especulation. That makes me even more confident in the project, it's a very sensible and reacheable target. I'm betting on 1 million on the first week and around 1,400,000 by the end.

And where is the second part of the interview? Are you guys schedulling it so we get part 2 this saturday and the kickstarter goes up on the next friday/saturday?

 

[Brother None]

The Kickstarter page should be up before next Friday/Saturday. I wouldn't be shocked if it goes up this weekend, though I expect it to go up sometime soon after the weekend. I didn't get any firm date.

So yeah, staffies, hurry up!

 

[DwarvenFood]

Wow it's moving fast, good news!

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

<--- Not worried. It'll get funded. Btw, has Skyway found a way to whine about this yet?

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

 

[Phelot]

I somehow missed this interview. Nice stuff, Codex! And I can't believe he's straight out saying top down, party based, turn based RPG. His interview with Matt Chat made me think he was purely focused on what sells these days, that and iphone games. Also, Bard's Tale... but this sounds really cool.



EDIT: Also:

A good example of this was when we were making the first Fallout and Steve Jackson objected HEAVILY to the opening scene of the guy being shot in the back of the head with the soft music playing.

I have a few GURPS books... I haven't read them in awhile, but I was always puzzled by this incident with Fallout. I recall a lot of the GURPS dealing with some fairly heavy stuff, no?

I'd still love a GURPS cRPG since I think it'd be pretty darn good.

 

[Phelot]

Not to keep picking, but I do have to wonder what guarantees this Fan Funding gives? What I mean is, it seems like a company would have to lock in whatever style of game their making in order to get someone to want to pay money to support it. That is, Fargo is stating that this is going to be a top down, turn based game. OK, so what guarantee is there that I don't dish out some money and then later on they change direction and say it's gonna be a Bioware mess?

Mind you, I'm not arguing that it's "not fair" but saying that I'd personally be wary of supporting something unless I was absolutely certain it was going to remain what was originally hyped.

 

[J_C]

Not to keep picking, but I do have to wonder what guarantees this Fan Funding gives? What I mean is, it seems like a company would have to lock in whatever style of game their making in order to get someone to want to pay money to support it. That is, Fargo is stating that this is going to be a top down, turn based game. OK, so what guarantee is there that I don't dish out some money and then later on they change direction and say it's gonna be a Bioware mess?

Mind you, I'm not arguing that it's "not fair" but saying that I'd personally be wary of supporting something unless I was absolutely certain it was going to remain what was originally hyped.

Everybody is asking this about the Kickstarter projects. Of course there are no guarantees, but think with their heads. They would took a huge blow to their creditability which a developer cannot afford.

 

[Shannow]

PR can fix only so much bad press. And in this case bad press is bad press. That's certainly no guarantee. But I'm pretty sure they're aware that they'd hurt themselves very much if they do not deliver on promises.

 

[Brother None]

Aside from the bad press, well, if Fargo would've wanted to do a BioWare game, he could have gotten a publisher in for that, get a 15 million dollar+ budget to make a non-party based, OTS/FP action-RPG. The easiest answer to "why won't he turn it into BioWare mess" is "because he's not stupid", he won't have the budget to compete with BioWare, and he knows selling to that crowd on this budget is useless.

 

[Kraszu]

Aside from the bad press, well, if Fargo would've wanted to do a BioWare game, he could have gotten a publisher in for that, get a 15 million dollar+ budget to make a non-party based, OTS/FP action-RPG. The easiest answer to "why won't he turn it into BioWare mess" is "because he's not stupid", he won't have the budget to compete with BioWare, and he knows selling to that crowd on this budget is useless.

He could do a dear wasteland on 1mln$ budget. A walk in wasteland world with a touching beautiful poem.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Use the ToEE engine!! *drool*

 

[Vault Dweller]

Aside from the bad press, well, if Fargo would've wanted to do a BioWare game, he could have gotten a publisher in for that, get a 15 million dollar+ budget to make a non-party based, OTS/FP action-RPG.

He could have?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InXile_Entertainment#Games_by_InXile_Entertainment
^ not the most impressive list

Compare to Obsidian:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian_Entertainment#Games_developed

InXile was founded in 2002, Obsidian in 2003. It certainly doesn't look like he's swimming in opportunities.

 

[Kraszu]

Aside from the bad press, well, if Fargo would've wanted to do a BioWare game, he could have gotten a publisher in for that, get a 15 million dollar+ budget to make a non-party based, OTS/FP action-RPG.

He could have?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InXile_Entertainment#Games_by_InXile_Entertainment
^ not the most impressive list

Compare to Obsidian:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian_Entertainment#Games_developed

InXile was founded in 2002, Obsidian in 2003. It certainly doesn't look like he's swimming in opportunities.

But the point that he couldn't do such a game for a 1mln$ stands, also lack of options for him might actually be good as he has little choice then carter to the hardcore gamers.

Also there is a law viability if you will say on kickstarter that the game will be TB, top down with a party but end being an action game, no? Those things are pretty precise, if anything if he would want to scam people of they money then he would do a TB, top down crpg but of such low quality, and little content that it would took him week to do, and he would take the 1mln$ for that.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I don't doubt that he'll stick with what he will promise on Kickstarter. My post was in reply to BN who said that Fargo could have gotten a publisher for a Bio-like game if he wanted to.

 

[Oesophagus]

I don't want to sound crazy here, but what if Fargo actually has some integrity and wants to make an old-school rpg?