What an incredible week this has been. The outpouring of support and faith is nothing like I have ever had before (except maybe from my Mom), and for the first time in years it feels good to be in the games business. I have always loved both making and playing games, but the business side of it has been painful at times. In fact, there were a couple times the frustration with publishers was so high I considered stopping. It just seemed like the era of purity was over. Even when Interplay was a large company there was such a positive vibe with everyone pulling in the same direction with a real passion for their job. I frequently run into the folks I worked with in those days, and this same memory of those times remains with them.
One friend of mine who worked with me there said recently he felt that in the beginning of the industry all the nerds were in charge, but then as the industry grew it changed, and now the guys that picked on the nerds got back on top. I think there was some great truth to that. We all hope this movement is bigger than just Tim Schafer or Brian Fargo as we want to get power back into the developers hands again. And the unbelievable Indie scene shows that there is momentum in that direction. The development community continues to pull itself together to ensure their success. They share tools, they share statistics, they share ideas, and the biggest donators in Kickstarter are always developers. All of this reminds me of the freshness the industry had in the late 80′s through mid 90′s in which creativity was being directed only by the gamers. The gamers will always rule at the end of the day.
You will probably hear me thanking you all a hundred more times, but again, thanks for giving us this opportunity to do what we do best. Make games!
-Brian Fargo
Knowing of any remember to share. Regards!
A couple of minutes of my own time acquiring hired.
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Amazing!
My favourite game of all time comes back to life!
I once swapped an expensive high-tech Amiga for a C64 just to be able to play this game. Will continue supporting you from my blog.
The kickstarter project is exaclty what’s needed to function as the defibrillator to get the heart – as opposed to big business – back pumping in the gaming world.
Very well done – and the very best of luck to you all
Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a really well written article. I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of What an incredible week this has been | The Wasteland Chronicles . Thanks for the post. I’ll definitely comeback.
This is fantastic news and probably the best thing to come out of Kickstarter so far. I have been an avid fan of Wasteland and its children for years and just learned of the exciting news a few days ago… Was coming on to check the progress and throw my money into the pot only to find that (surprise!) everything was raised for the minimum!
I hope you can make millions so that we can really see the depth of work a small group of independent ass-kickers such as the team that has been brought together can do on an epic part of so many gamer’s childhood/adolescence.
Slainte,
-Loonook.
Hello Mr. Fargo,
i’m sure the way you follow for the moment will sound in the following years, in the past you (“Interplay”) made the most impressive game titles i’ve ever played and in the future you will do the same because you are the most talented video game designer of this century.
BG, Fallout 1 & 2 and so more titles are now in the pantheon of video games. They can not be “cloned”; they are unique. And you are also a living legend.
When i started my studies in programming it was because i read this little sentence in the Fallout intro, unhappily i have not provided my help to a professionnal video game project (and forced to turn my dreams to “serious” boring dev work)… but YOU can change the way the video game art becomes.
I would like to thank you & i wish you (and your team) the best. And be sure your fans really appreciate the way you take and the respect you provide to our huge gaming community.
Kind regards & thanks for all of these hours i played with your excellent games,
Philippe S.
PS: And please accept my apologies for my bad english
Brian, does the $2,500 reward still include the Wasteland Survival Kit? I want one so bad.
What i read from Mr. Fargos tweets was that the 2500$ slot was completely indepentent and does not contain all items or perks of the previous slots.
Thank you so much for doing this. BTW, if you’re looking for ideas you should check this game out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperados:_Wanted_Dead_or_Alive
When it comes to tactical combat it’s a perfect game. I’ve written more about it here: http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5889#p5889
Congrats Brian and everyone! I played Wasteland on the C64 as a kid, and it was the first game that I lusted after, the first game I obsessed about until I beat it, and is still one of my fondest memories of gaming… glad I had the opportunity to say thank you and help resurrect the dream of Wasteland 2 in the process!
… it lasts a big responsibility on your and tim´s shoulders. if you guys fail with this, i think it would be a big back step for game-crowd funding. let´s hope the best and your game will not see “romantic vampires” or “birds as weapons”…
I disagree with the idea that a failure on Tim or Brian’s part would be a step down for other Kickstarter projects – It’s going to be another 18 months at least before we see the results (maybe a bit earlier for those with Beta access) as that’s the development time for the game.
By that time these two known developer Kickstarter projects will hopefully have just become one of many on the go, especially if other devs keep up the rate of one new major project seeking funding each month.
In all honestly the two games are already a success without a single line of code being written which is quite mind blowing really.
Ultimately in the highly unlikely event that fan’s were dissapointed in Wasteland 2 when it ships that would only effect Brian and InXile’s chances of gaining funds for any other future projects they might consider – it would not effect anybody else.
That just isn’t going to happen though – I think the money that has been pledged so far says it all (currently @ $1,257,671- YAY!). We have every confidence in Brian and his team – this game will be utterly awesome.
I’m totally agree.
I am so happy for you Brian & inXile. This is great news not just for this game coming out but for gamers too. It is nice to see people still want good old classic RPGs. The world needs more of those.
So often you see games come out that say they are an RPG game but then you play them & they aren’t like what you wanted. They are just a watered down game. I my self so hope after this comes out in the future game publishers will try to bring out more risky games. I also think it would be neat to see in the future Wasteland 2 on the PS3 & Xbox 360. Because the world needs to see awesome RPG games on those systems too.
I am not sure if possible & even if it would work with this kind of RPG. But I think it would be interesting to see some kind of tactical cover system. I think it could be cool to see how you & your party members could use cover to take out the bad guys in the game. Plus some thing like destruction to the environment could also add some challenge to the game.
I am not even sure if they would work well with the game or not. For one because it might take away some of the old charm & adding extra stuff might cost to much too.
That being said it has been amazing seeing gamers voting with their wallet on this game & Double fine’s game too. I hope to see many more developers in the future use KickStarter to be able to keep their IP & as a way to bring out exciting games that publishers pass up on.
Best of luck & I can’t wait to finally be able to play Wasteland 2 soon.
… better than for ps3 or xbox would be wasteland 2 for internet tablets (no, not just the ipad. also android tablets).
imagine sitting relaxed on your couch and playing WL2. put your tablet beside, think (perhaps like a chess game) about your (turnbased) combat moves, take the tablet and go on with it. nice.
“I think it could be cool to see how you & your party members could use cover to take out the bad guys in the game.”
I totally disagree with this statement. Part of the fun in Wasteland is BEING the bad guys.
Mr. Fargo, you’re doing it again. Thank you.
Any hope of rescuing more Interplay IPs from that zombie company?
While at it, buy the Interplay brand too. A nostalgic brand like that shouldn’t be worn by the shambling abomination the company is these days.
Wasteland was one of the first RPGs on a computer that I ever played. The quality of writing, moral choices, and characters is still one of the best around. It even made me want to be a writer too… well, Wasteland and Hitchhikers Guide did together.
Cannot wait for the new Wasteland.
Having played the hell out of Wasteland for the C64, Dragon Wars for the Amiga and Fallout 1 and 2 for the PC, [All of which I actually bought brand new!] I think you guys are saying all the right things with this campaign. I just hope we don’t get screwed in the end**.
I should be home from this latest deployment before the Kickstarter ends and should be able to throw in $150 or so. I really hope you guys can bring love back to game design!
**I’m slightly concerned with just HOW good you guys are making it sound and all the cross platform talk that will surely take resources away from the main effort. Say it ain’t so.
It ain’t so.
Unfortunately I missed the original Wasteland when it came out (I was only 4 when it was released), but I am a huge fan of Fallout and Fallout 2, I must have finished Fallout 2 at least a dozen times and every play through was different; I still go back and play it sometimes (and I’ve bought it at least three times, once when it came out, second in a collection with the original Fallout/Tactics and once on GoG). When I head about the Wasteland 2 kickstarter project I didn’t even need to think about it and pledged for the collectors edition straight away. I thought I’d stopped caring about games but now I realise I’m just sick of the mindless drivel being pumped out by the big studios, I hope that Wasteland 2 is successful enough that can inspire a change in the industry so we can get more games that challenge more than our reflexes.
The wait until October 2013 will be maddening (but I’d probably fail my Masters if it came out this October).
So do I put my can of coins to hold down the escape key until the game is out? ;D
This game actually got me into computers and technology so thank you Brian and team!
So many years ago, and still many fond memories.
Salute.
What an amazing confluence between new technologies (Social Media, Crowdfunding, and Digital Distribution as Brian Fargo rightly stated), the dormant but intense passion of fans, and the globalization and integration of nerds.
Consider, myself a nerd-ish gamer of the generation born in the 80s playing the fallout series, combined with those born in the 70s who played games such as Wasteland, globalize that with today’s interconnecting technologies and that begins to look like a sizable and overlooked market those business idiots did not see or predict. Though I do wonder, with the cat out of the bag, how they will try to capture some/all of it…
Just read that Atari, Wizards of the Coast, en Overhaul Games are releasing an enhanced version of Baldur’s Gate I and II, basically improving the graphics and leaving the gameplay as it is. Yes, it looks like the smart business move to make, cashing in if this hype turns into a big hype or even a revolution in the games industry. It won’t really reflect the creative design philosophy by gamers for gamers that Brian Fargo talked about. I can’t help but feel that such business savy practices will somewhat defeat the progress and passion that these two kickstarter projects have unleashed. Maybe a new generation of kids will be interested in isometric turn-based games, or will they simply stick with angry birds… missile command is still cooler than those stupid birds
Anyway thank god for kickstarter (and Amazon Payments I must add), go nerds (with money)!
It shows how much of a gap there is between what exec’s/the industry wants and what the fans want…
RPG niche? hell to the no… wastelands 2 funding has shown the nerds have the coin and thus the power
It’s exciting to see the enthusiasm not only from Brian & the inXile team, but the massive response from the fanbase as well, reaching the funding target within 48 hours is huge, and Im sure a great many people as well as myself are amping for this project and October 2013 cant come soon enough!
Keep up the great work inXile, you have our support!
It’s projects like this that really give me hope for PC gaming.
Now, if some of the original Volition guys can do this same thing and make Freespace 3…
I’ve been a gamer since the glorious, scratch that, ancient days of Atari 2600 and Trash-80′s. From the time of parser based txt game to vector graphics, to sprites, and beyond.
The game that had the most impact on my life was Wasteland when I was 15 year old kid. The story, the mechanics, the events, the results of your actions, the problem solving and analytical skills. All impacted me greatly. Even though I would chuckle a bit when doing a ‘bad’ thing just to see what happened, the morals of it stuck with me…firing the howitzer and blowing up the fast food stand is a good example.
My career has benefited from this. The technology I use today was not available when I went to University. I am able to more easily assimilate the new tech because of the skills that games like Wasteland fostered and got me to develop in a game environment…not school.
I’m excited to be one of the backers for Wasteland 2. It’s payback time.
I was a senior in high school when Wasteland came out, and I was immediately addicted to the game when I first stuck it in my C-64′s drive. To this day, one of the funniest lines in any game still haunts my memories. (I had to look up the exact wording, because time is heartless):
You hear in the distance, “Nuke ‘em till they glow, and shoot ‘em in the dark.”
That one line had me laughing for a week, and my friends and family didn’t understand a whit!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing me a second chance at such laughter with a return to the world that could cause this reaction in a geeky kid! I really appreciate your dedication to this project, and while it may have been a stab-in-the-dark for you, I think there are a lot of similar stories of the original Wasteland here for you. And a lot of love for the game.
Your words are a mirrored reflection of how we all feel, Brian Fargo. That’s why we’re here, that’s why we support you and what you’re doing. That powerful magic that was the 80′s-90′s gamer ethic has waned and lost it’s path, and we’ve all been feeling the same void in our hearts. So many of us feel lost, looking for leaders in the industry that can take us back to how things used to be…Or, even better, finally bring some real advancement to the industry. Thing’s have been stagnant for far too long, and I’m sure we’ve all felt the same doubt you have…I know I have. Some of those old CRPG’s taught me a lifetime of lessons, and it pains me to think that recent generations might not get to experience such things from modern gaming.
If there’s anyone in the world that can make things right again in the gaming world, it’s you guys. You guys who poured your hearts out through digital bloops and paragraph manuals. We have confidence in all of you.
This is the only game I’m genuinely looking forward to in the future. I heard you guys have people from Troika that worked on VTM:B as well, hope they were writers and not bug testers.
Thanks and my small pledge just don’t seem enough to express how I feel about the return of this type of game made by some of the few people in the games industry that I trust to do it right.
I’m sure there will be some bad moments, some blood, sweat, tears and frustration to come (aren’t there always?) But I hope everybody at InXile has a blast as well, and I’ll see you on the forums.
Aside from a few indie projects, this is the first game announcement I’ve really cared about since Troika disbanded. I’m desperately hoping that this leads to a rejuvenation of the classic TB tactical genre. Even if it doesn’t, it’s refreshing to feel a little bit of rekindled hope again.
I would personally happy if this was just a minor success. Enough revenue to keep developing these niche games. Keep a small team and a small company, and build the games you want on the smaller budgets.
I am, personally, looking forward to more than any game I had picked up in a long long time.
Or, to put it more succinctly, game publishers need to “ignore the blonde”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CemLiSI5ox8
Brian,
I was a little sceptical at first, but then I saw that kickstarter video and realized you really are One of Us. By gamers, for gamers, the rest can go fuck themselves! Woohoo!
What’s really interesting about this is that it doesn’t really upset the idea that a game has to be commercially minded in order to exist; Names like Tim Schafer and Brian Fargo carry a lot of weight, and these projects rest on the merits of past successes.
What it DOES show is that there is money to be made in niche markets. And we all know there is money to be lost in big markets. It’s becoming increasingly clear that so many companies are bumping their heads together chasing after the same consumer, that they’ve neglected some pretty sizable markets that could be serviced inexpensively to real returns.
I’m glad DFA wasn’t an isolated incident, but I know it’s only a lucky few who can pull off multi-million dollar Kickstarters. But my hope is that these projects will force publishers to think about who they’re neglecting and not just who they can steal away from their competitors.
I actual worked at Interplay as a QA temp in early 1997…some positives…but one negative was a significant number of poor titles being worked on.
Still, used that experience to get into the industry.
Congratulations, Brian!
Well said. Maybe now once again the people who can actually do stuff will be running the show. I think it’s a problem in all of society, not just games, but with games it’s ten times more crushing because creativity is involved and it’s also very time consuming so you can’t really have just one guy make things happen.
Well done Fargo.
I know this will do better than Double-Fine as the game is much more appealing too.
Interplay’s internal vibe really shined through in the games. With the aid of this recent paradigm shift, you’ll hopefully be able to recreate the magic of those days. There really are no words to express how glad we are to have you back doing what we have been missing all these years. I had thought the fanboy in me died with Interplay, but now at 30 I realize it was just waiting for this to happen. I haven’t felt this particular brand giddiness since my teens. Pull this off and you will have a fan base more dedicated and passionate than lesser companies could ever handle.
These kinds of comments just want me to work harder and more passionate than ever.
Awesome work Brian.
The next thing we fans need to do is get EA to release Wasteland 1, they’ve already released stuff on Gog, so they don’t have an excuse. We should start bombarding their twitter until they give in.
Please work extra hard on Wasteland 2 so people will continue supporting indie projects. Thank you!
Congratulations!
You have our faith, and we’ve got your back. Make us a great game!
Brian, just as you were getting frustrated with the big publishers, I think gamers are facing growing awareness and disgust with how games have been going.
I expect wasteland 2 to be a huge and tremendous success.
mr. faran brygo – you cannot imagine the impact that wasteland has had on my life since i was in 7th grade (i graduated from college 12 years ago)…..you cannot imagine my excitement for this project and i can only hope one day you stumble into my neighboorhood so i can show you a proper VIP treatment and try to repay some of the amazing things you have indirectly done for me over the years. thank you so much.
I think the best part about this is that we fans, who have been so deeply entrenched in the games that the wasteland 2 crew has made for literally decades now have a method to thank you. Of course we get to feed our addiction in the process.
Really though, you created this success with your past work. You guys have earned every penny by producing some of the best electronic role playing games that have ever existed. I think I can speak for all the backers by saying that we are more than excited about supporting this venture.
It is an amazing time indeed. Very happy to be one of the many backers on your project. I believe you have a unique opportunity here to potentially shake up the increasingly commoditized, homogenous industry most of the gaming industry has morphed into (with the exception of some indie efforts, of course.) Thank you so much for your tenacity and spirit. You’ve earned the goodwill of countless thousands who’s young memories were shaped, in part, through your magnificent games. This is clearly evidenced by the success of the Kickstarter funding. As one of those many who stayed up late on his C-64, wondering what’s around the next corner of the catacombs, a heartfelt thank you and godspeed on this and all your future projects.
Congrats Brian on the funding (I’m a backer). Hope this funding model gets yalls creative juices flowing. I loved playing the original back in the day on my C64.
It doesn’t matter if this game isn’t great (though I’m sure it will be) – the real purpose of this movement is that people like yourself are able to create the games that you want to.
Viva la ‘digital’ revolution! This could be the beginning of a completely new gaming era!