Back in 1988, Brian Fargo designed a post-apocalyptic game called Wasteland which would eventually fall deep into the shadow of its spiritual successor, Fallout. It seems that Fargo never quite let go of the game and eventually reacquired the rights from the title's original publisher, Electronic Arts. Now, in the face of Double Fine's staggering Kickstarter success and pressure from fans, Fargo has made the decision to have his development studio, inXile Entertainment, pursue a direct sequel to Wasteland.
In a conversation with IGN, Fargo has stated that the game would be developed as close to the roots of the original as possible, likely a top-down, party and skill-based RPG. PC development would be the top priority, but Fargo hasn't ruled out the possibility of releasing the game for iPad as well. Current estimates for the cost of the project are at least a million dollars with a Kickstarter drive planned to begin next month if the team decides to move forward.
I'm glad to see that there's been so much excitement surrounding the Double Fine Kickstarter and that it has people talking about alternative means of funding games. I don't know that I'm personally all that interested in playing the game Fargo describes, but that's the beauty of it in a way. Crowdfunding such as this allows us as consumers to have two types of investment, financial and emotional, intersect in a new and interesting fashion. All it takes is to get the message out to enough people who share your passion and suddenly projects many would think impossible have a real shot.
Wasteland Reboot in the Works [IGN]
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
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Contest:
8:00 AM on 02.16.2012 | 
but seriously fear effect inferno fucking WHERE
Either he hasnt find the right publisher, his ideas are so bland or he hasnt even tried.
Lol - That's the reason I assumed Double Fine decided to kickstart their project.
How many of those are traditional, top-down RPGs? Oh, none of them? Thanks for trying.
Besides, other stereotypical settings are even more done-to-death than post-apocalypse. Medieval? WW2? Nowadays, "modern warfare"? Beaten straight into the ground.
"This isn't going to work. $1,000,000 is a lot more than $400,000, especially since inXile has nowhere near the status of Double Fine."
Well, yeah. 1 million is certainly more than the 400,000 Double Fine -asked for-. However, they've raised more than the initial 400k asking investment.... In fact, they've raised 1.87 MILLION so far, and there are still 26 days to go.
However, there are two things that I'm worried about with this project: 1. I don't get the sense that inXile is really a solid developer, even with Fargo. 2. I think everyone really wants an updated Fallout games, but he clearly wants to make an updated Wasteland. These are not strictly the same thing. Fallout is a spiritual successor to Wasteland, but a lot of mechanics operate quite differently.
Wasteland, for example, has a battle system essentially taken from Bard's Tale. It is very party focused, and the battle system is more menu-based. Also, based on what he is saying, Wasteland 2 would be based more on this than Fallout: "[We] would be focusing on top-down, probably isometric, party based, skill based -- where if you'd just finished playing Wasteland and moved onto this you'd feel comfortable."
That said, I'd probably throw in some change for this. There's always a chance it could work out well.
Yeah, that's the biggest downside to this. Let's look at some classic inXile games: 1. The Bard's Tale (2004 game) - ?????, MC of 70
2. Line Rider (Flash/iPhone) - ?????
3. HEI$T - cancelled
4. Fantastic Contraption (Flash/iPhone) - ?????
5. Super Stacker, Super Stacker 2, Super Stacker Party (iPhone/PSN) - ?????
6. Hunted the Demon's Forge - I heard of this one!!! Specifically, I heard it wasn't very good. MC of 61.
7. Choplifter HD, which just came out. I don't really know much about this.
So, yeah. I'm not entirely sold this is going to be Fallout 2.5 or True 3 or something.
Someone does something different in a charitable or somewhat humble-sense...everyone follows suit as the gimmick becomes something BIGGER than what it was when it first started and it becomes a phenomenon.
Then, due to its popularity, someone else tries to replicate the exact method to gauge the same response in the hope of gaining the same benefits....
INSTANT FUCKING UN-ADULTERATED HAAAAAAATE!!!!
In other words, probably won't work for all the above mentioned latter-commented apathy.
There is some skepticism, sure, but that's not really what you're implying at all.
"In other words, probably won't work for all the above mentioned latter-commented apathy."
Wait, is it due to hate, or due to apathy? I'm so confused.
I say we re-imagine Wasteland as a game about 21st-century warfare. If you think about it, we make "wastelands" of the countries we fight in. Also, as a great disembodied narrative voice once said, "War.. war never changes."
Also, let's drop the RPG elements. Those don't sell these days. That's like -so- old school. Let's also focus on the multiplayer aspects over singleplayer. Nobody plays SP these days. I think we can keep a few of the ol' RPG elements as multiplayer elements, but only to keep their MP addiction raging.
NO, let's keep the RPG elements, and let's focus on the single player. Want to play with others? Go outside and play a damn sport. People like you are killing this hobby. The kind of idiots who prefer to read tweets from their other idiot friends rather than a good novel.
SPOILERS: He's being sarcastic.
Sounds like a cool idea, no way are they getting a milli though
What is this I don't even
For one thing there's the advantage of Shafer's reputation as the Terry Gilliam of game developers and how that made gamers want to to directly support him given the chance; Fargo hasn't got that. For another the DF kickstarter had a bandwagon effect: as it rapidly closed on 400k and then on $1m, people added more money to try and put the project over the top. If the Wasteland kickstarter doesn't rocket close to its goal very quickly, interest in the kickstarter - which in DF's case is arguably more significant than interest in the actual game - could rapidly peter out.
I would love to see all the awesome old games get direct sequels instead of another modern generation title that there are already 20 different versions of it in other games. Seeing GOG games get actual sequels along the lines of the old games just makes me happy.
Exactly. This article should have a link to a definition of the term "trial balloon"