Interview Wasteland Kickstarter Project Interview with Brian Fargo

[Saxon1974]

Hot dam, sounds too good to be true. If this idea works and a few decent mid level companies start making real RPG's again I will cream myself every day.

Question; what happens to donated money if they never actually release a product?

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Question; what happens to donated money if they never actually release a product?

 

[Country_Gravy]

Hot dam, sounds too good to be true. If this idea works and a few decent mid level companies start making real RPG's again I will cream myself every day.

Question; what happens to donated money if they never actually release a product?

All or nothing funding. On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

 

[Spectacle]

OK, I'm sitting here with credit card in hand. Where is the kickstarter link?

 

[Jasede]

They said somewhere it'll be two weeks or less. They were working on a video and Kickstarter website.

 

[Saxon1974]

Hot dam, sounds too good to be true. If this idea works and a few decent mid level companies start making real RPG's again I will cream myself every day.

Question; what happens to donated money if they never actually release a product?

All or nothing funding. On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

Interesting, well at least that is better than nothing at all. Still, they could get to their funding goal and then never deliver anything and run with the money. That being said at least Inxile and Brian has some kind of reputation they wouldn't want to ruin so less likey to take the money and run.

I still see LOTS of potential for scams, but hopefully this turns into something good.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Seems a bit better, and yeah, Fargo and cia have a reputation and such, so we know its just bunch of shady guys we never heard before.

OK, I'm sitting here with credit card in hand. Where is the kickstarter link?

Heeh, Credit Card, Is that what they call it today?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Well, both make the ladies very, very happy, so the nickname makes sense.

 

[Brother None]

They keep talking about this Wasteland 2 project as if it was real, but when will the actuall kickstarter fundraising begin?

They do need some time to put together a good team/proposal to put out there, and determine what a realistic goal to aim for is. I dunno about you guys but I'll be hella nervous come fundraising time. It'll be pretty embarrassing for the entire hardcore contingent if it turns out we really aren't big enough or too many of us do indeed pirate, so that the publishers were right and we really aren't a niche worth targeting.

I hope he realizes that the Psychonauts 2 thing was a fluke.

The what thing?

 

[felipepepe]

They keep talking about this Wasteland 2 project as if it was real, but when will the actuall kickstarter fundraising begin?

They do need some time to put together a good team/proposal to put out there, and determine what a realistic goal to aim for is. I dunno about you guys but I'll be hella nervous come fundraising time. It'll be pretty embarrassing for the entire hardcore contingent if it turns out we really aren't big enough or too many of us do indeed pirate, so that the publishers were right and we really aren't a niche worth targeting.

True, they have to set up smartly. Double Fine already has 2 million, but I think it's safe to say that Tim's reputation and recent works are way above Fargo's appeal today. Besides, Wasteland 2 is more ambicious, and will definetly cost more than Tim's initial 400,000. If they fuck the pre-production and cost estimation and go over budget, either they will release an unfinished product or start to put personal money/ask for more...and if they ask too much, they may never reach it.

Either can't happen, they are the second company trying to prove that "dead genres" still have fans, and they are representing the RPG fans. If they fail on this one, every other RPG developer waiting to try kickstarter projects, incluiding MCA, will step back or give up, and all hope will be lost. It's a hell of a responsability.

 

[Infinitron]

They keep talking about this Wasteland 2 project as if it was real, but when will the actuall kickstarter fundraising begin?

They do need some time to put together a good team/proposal to put out there, and determine what a realistic goal to aim for is. I dunno about you guys but I'll be hella nervous come fundraising time. It'll be pretty embarrassing for the entire hardcore contingent if it turns out we really aren't big enough or too many of us do indeed pirate, so that the publishers were right and we really aren't a niche worth targeting.

True, they have to set up smartly. Double Fine already has 2 million, but I think it's safe to say that Tim's reputation and recent works are way above Fargo's appeal today. Besides, Wasteland 2 is more ambicious, and will definetly cost more than Tim's initial 400,000. If they fuck the pre-production and cost estimation and go over budget, either they will release an unfinished product or start to put personal money/ask for more...and if they ask too much, they may never reach it.

Either can't happen, they are the second company trying to prove that "dead genres" still have fans, and they are representing the RPG fans. If they fail on this one, every other RPG developer waiting to try kickstarter projects, incluiding MCA, will step back or give up, and all hope will be lost. It's a hell of a responsability.

This. If I were Fargo, I would try to get "RPG celebrities" like MCA to at least vouch for my project (appear in the promo video, etc), even if they aren't actually involved in its development. Anything to help give the project more recognition, so it doesn't tank and ruin things for everybody else.

 

[Dexter]

They keep talking about this Wasteland 2 project as if it was real, but when will the actuall kickstarter fundraising begin? Would be pretty embarrassing if after all this talk it turned out that they can't even reach half of their pledging goal or something like that.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them of course, prolly donate some small amount myself.

According to his Twatter in about ~2-3 weeks: http://twitter.com/#!/BrianFargo/status/171014114087415808

 

[Roguey]

It'll be pretty embarrassing for the entire hardcore contingent if it turns out we really aren't big enough or too many of us do indeed pirate, so that the publishers were right and we really aren't a niche worth targeting.

I'm not contributing because I think Fargo is a phoney and I'm totally okay with the idea of cutting off the nose to spite the face.

 

[ghostdog]

The problem is that the impression Fargo has given me is more of a company manager than a game designer. I don't think I trust inXile enough to fund them, even if they say they're willing to make a turn based, party based sequel to wasteland. On the other hand, tim cain, mca, boyarsky, JD anderson, warren spector, Mitsoda... yes, I would blindly throw my moneyz at them. I would also put Garriott in that place but he strikes me like a man that would never do a kickstarter project.

 

[Infinitron]

The problem is that the impression Fargo has given me is more of a company manager than a game designer. I don't think I trust inXile enough to fund them, even if they say they're willing to make a turn based, party based sequel to wasteland. On the other hand, tim cain, mca, boyarsky, JD anderson, warren spector, Mitsoda... yes, I would blindly throw my moneyz at them. I would also put Garriott in that place but he strikes me like a man that would never do a kickstarter project.

Hah, Garriott has enough $$$ to kickstart his own project easily. He's not interested in revisiting oldies. Some people just don't experience nostalgia.

 

[Brother None]

Garriott was pretty flat broke after going into space.

Also, I find it interesting how much this whole Kickstarter thing seems to be a "name" industry for people, while the videogame industry in general is not. It matters to me whether or not the studio has the experience to properly budget and produce a title, which InXile does, and it matters to me what their design principles are. It's obvious they're going into this with a different mindset than they did the Bard's Tale. So. Cool.

Would it be nice if Fargo pulls more experienced names out of his hat than himself, Pavlish, Stackpole and Jason Anderson? Well sure. I don't really see it as a requirement, though. I'm not, after all, giving my money to Fargo to do with as he will, I'm giving my money to his company for him to gather the staff to execute the vision of an old-school, turn-based, party-based RPG. That's a pretty big difference. I think?

 

[LeStryfe79]

$500

 

[Icewater]

I hope he realizes that the Psychonauts 2 thing was a fluke.

The what thing?

I meant the recent Double Fine kickstarter thing. Part of the reason it was so successful is because it went viral, and had news articles written about it across numerous websites. I doubt that Fargo's kickstarter project will manage to repeat this, so I just hope he's being realistic about how successful this is likely to be.

 

[almondblight]

Never let your guard down, lest you be buggered by fate unawares.

True, which is part of the reason I mostly ignore non-indie stuff until it's out these days. It's much easier to get a straight answer from indie folks, and figuring out what makes them tick. If the publisher model is the problem, we should be supporting the people that do it on their own, for the love of it.

I still maintain that one million would be better spent giving 100k to ITS, Double Bear, KotC guy, Eschalon people, Michael McCarthy's Dropship, etc. I imagine 100k would be enough to get Cyclopean or Scars of war back on track.

 

[Shannow]

They keep talking about this Wasteland 2 project as if it was real, but when will the actuall kickstarter fundraising begin?

They do need some time to put together a good team/proposal to put out there, and determine what a realistic goal to aim for is. I dunno about you guys but I'll be hella nervous come fundraising time. It'll be pretty embarrassing for the entire hardcore contingent if it turns out we really aren't big enough or too many of us do indeed pirate, so that the publishers were right and we really aren't a niche worth targeting.

Huh? Depends on what "niche" you mean and who you mean with "us". There are enough other reasons than piracy or "us" being a too small "niche".
I never played Wasteland. I prefere fantasy settings. "Party" and "TB" by themselves don't catch me (Frayed Knights had both, but a ToEE gameplay-wise it was not). Neither Fargo nor InExile pull any weight with me.
So while I'm certainly in the (Iso), Party, TB-niche, that doesn't automatically mean I'm prepared to fund/buy just anything that might fit the niche.
"Hardcore" RPG nerds are a pretty diverse crowd and good RPGs are (probably) more complicated to make than adventure games. DoubleFine had those problems much less.
Just because Wasteland 2 doesn't make it (if it doesn't make it) that does not mean that "we" aren't numerous enough or that too many of "us" pirated or that the publisher were right. It simply means that the Wasteland 2 as made/proposed by Fargo et al was not successful.

 

[Brother None]

"Hardcore" RPG nerds are a pretty diverse crowd and good RPGs are (probably) more complicated to make than adventure games. DoubleFine had those problems much less.

For sure. It's an easier genre to jump into. Smaller budget, clearer defined, he's got a much more well-defined rep there. This is much harder.

Just because Wasteland 2 doesn't make it (if it doesn't make it) that does not mean that "we" aren't numerous enough or that too many of "us" pirated or that the publisher were right.

No, that's pretty much exactly what it'll mean. Not because that's a factual representation of this TB RPG market, but because this is as well-positioned a test-case as you can theoretically manage, and if it fails, then don't ever expect publishers to look back. If you don't care, fine, but let's not be naive about how it will be interpreted by publishers and the media at large.

Nor are they wrong. All you're saying is that the reason our niche is uninteresting is because it's so divided. That's not a counter-argument, it's just a reason why.

 

[Ermm]

Wasn't Wasteland 2 already in development? There were some strong rumors a few years back.

 

[Country_Gravy]

Wasn't Wasteland 2 already in development? There were some strong rumors a few years back.

In the interview he talks about how someone worked on design for about a year

 

[Ermm]

Yeah, but back in 2009/2010, there were already rumors for Wasteland 2. I don't remember what exactly.

 

[Brother None]

Jason D Anderson joined InXile in March 2009 (he left Interplay). Everyone assumed he was working on Wasteland 2. Turns out we were right, as the interview indicates, but no publisher was interested. He left in January 2011 for Turtle Rock, but they're still going to use the work done then.