[Joseph Merrick]

fuck yes

[Emitan]

This is going to be like the Dot Com Fall of the late 90s. Everyone is going to do it, and then realize it is not sustainable.

Well duh it doesn't work for everyone. Industry celebrities who's style of game is missing? Sure. Big developers or unproven indies? No way.

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Well duh it doesn't work for everyone. Industry celebrities who's style of game is missing? Sure. Big developers or unproven indies? No way.

That's not what I was saying. I'm saying that soon the novelty of this idea will wear off, people will stop donating once everyone starts doing it.

And unproven indies get funded all the time, some for $20k.

[Tobor]

This is going to be like the Dot Com Fall of the late 90s. Everyone is going to do it, and then realize it is not sustainable.

That makes no sense. It will succeed as long as you're making a game people want.

It's only unsustainable if all of us decide we don't want games anymore.

[Orayn]

That's not what I was saying. I'm saying that soon the novelty of this idea will wear off, people will stop donating once everyone starts doing it. And unproven indies get funded all the time, some for $20k.

Why would they stop just because others are trying? The very idea behind Kickstarter funding a project is that the exchange between the developers and the fans who want the game is very personal, and the number of groups Kickstarting wouldn't affect that.

[HP_Wuvcraft]

I'm not saying this is not an awesome idea.

And they'd just stop because "oh look, another campaign. But I just donated to Avellone's!".

[Tobor]

I can't buy another game, sorry. I just bought one last week.

I get what you're saying, but given the scope of the projects we're seeing, I'm not sure there's a downside.

[Emitan]

I guess that would make sense if everyone does it at once.

As long as all these famous guys spread out a little I don't really see the harm.

And it's not like it's the group of people all giving money to everyone.

[Tobor]

It's always the publishers responsibility to handle the timing of the project. In this case the developers are self publishing, so they'll need to manage that just like EA or Activision does.

[Technosteve]

iPad 3 support please

[Prime crotch]

I seriously hope this Kickstarter stuff becomes a real thing and not a quick fad. Anything to punt lame ass publishers to the curb and get some real god damn games made.

We'll see what happens when fans start getting input and whose worse about demands.

[ZombieSupaStar]

We'll see what happens when fans start getting input and whose worse about demands.

I can only imagine a nma-like committee, they probably wouldn't be able to agree on where to get the coffee from.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Great news if this gets advertised correctly and the fans pour in with their pre-order funding. Don't get the comments here about the Kickstarter-publishing movement being nothing more than a bubble or a fad—this is the best chance for fans of long-neglected genres, developers, and games to make dreams come true, without any publisher intervention and compromise. Notch already pioneered this model to an extent, but Kickstarter has made it clean, accessible, attractive, and viable for both the consumer and the producer. For once, we could finally see some real competition between publisher's interests and what developers want to get done in the industry. Ultimately, I see this as the best possible route for creating more options to get games funded and published by the developers themselves, which will be a remarkable advantage.

[ArjanN]

I've never played Wasteland, but I'm familiar with it because it has the greatest box art of all time. -Amazing wasteland cover- Talk about oozing atmosphere.

They used to be pretty good at game covers:

[DCharlie]

please please give me :O

Another Holy Grail game potentially coming? Praise gaming Satan!

You know, ever since the fake GBA remake posts, i wonder if a similarly super old school style game with a vast explorable environment withouth having super duper 3d graphics on a handheld would be the way to go.

I mean - you give me that Wasteland game play of old and an -absolutely stupid- sized map for me to wander through whilst on the go and i'm done needing any more handheld games for the next 5 years.

Man, exploding like a blood sausage here.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Old Interplay covers are the best. Wasteland is a treasure in itself, but The Bard's Tale and Neuromancer both have amazing cover art.

[Brazil]

I'll kick the shit out of this with my money.

[POWERSPHERE]

I'll kick the shit out of this with my money.

Just imagine the meetings the big guys are having with all this blood in the water

[MomoPufflet]

How long before companies like EA start exploiting crowd source funding? Like, "we'll make this ME3 expansion if you give a measly 50 cents! It won't happen otherwise!" And then people do it? Not necessarily through kickstarter, but some other means?

Not saying there aren't worthy kickstarters, including the one in this thread, but I already foresee this going south when bigger companies realize this model could be another way to give consumers the dick. Project 50 cent?

[NIN90]

Kickstarter is the best gaming trend of this decade. Seriously.

[Felix Lighter]

The bigger developers doing this should coordinate the timing of these so they don't step on each others toes. There is probably a lot of overlap in their potential backers and you don't want to tap them out.

[Traced-Velocity]

Between this news and Avellone expressing interest in doing a similar thing, I'm super excited for what's to come, assuming both are successful in getting sufficient funding.

[Dueck]

This is the first thing I would donate to.

[Technosteve]

i think these developers are able to do this because their fan base are probably in there late 30's and have disposable incomes for things that they grew up with.

So a kick starter for a proper Jagged Alliance remake =D

[Jharp]

He doesn't know if it'd be straight up called Wasteland 2, but he repeatedly emphasized that, despite having thought about it for only 48 hours, it wouldn't be a crazy genre change up. Wasteland, whatever its called, will be "100% faithful to its roots." This means a Wasteland game that "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."

I'm imagining Dragon Age: Origins but with a post-apocalyptic art style, and mutants in place of dragons and guns in place of magic.

[Emitan]

He doesn't know if it'd be straight up called Wasteland 2, but he repeatedly emphasized that, despite having thought about it for only 48 hours, it wouldn't be a crazy genre change up. Wasteland, whatever its called, will be "100% faithful to its roots." This means a Wasteland game that "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." I'm imagining Dragon Age: Origins but with a post-apocalyptic art style, and mutants in place of dragons and guns in place of magic.

Why would it be like DA:O? If anything it would feel like Fallout.

[Wallach]

Now this I would fund out of my pocket. Let's fuckin' go.

[More Fun To Compute]

I can only imagine a nma-like committee, they probably wouldn't be able to agree on where to get the coffee from.

I wonder if Age of Decadence will be released before Dudebro 2.

[Emitan]

I wonder if Age of Decadence will be released before Dudebro 2.

Oh god I remember hearing about AoD back in high school. When is it coming out?!

[Bomber Bob]

Take my money

[More Fun To Compute]

Oh god I remember hearing about AoD back in high school. When is it coming out?!

I think they are planning to time it with the general collapse of western civilisation for marketing reasons.

[Tomasooie]

InXile made that nasty Choplifter remake that just came out.

I don't think I'd trust them with my money, Fargo or not.

[Alphahawk]

Here's what gets me upset about this: " I'm not the most well versed in Wasteland gossip, but before this I have heard nothing about a Wasteland game being hard to fund. Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas came out relatively recently and they were big hits. More than likely publishers would back this idea, however since Kickstarter is the hot issue of the moment Fargo just decided to go that route. You can say all you want about Fallout 3 being in first person and blah blah, but maybe that's because it's a model that players actually want to play.

I feel like crowdsourcing can be a good model, but it's a finite one. Sooner or later people are going to tire of financially backing there favorite games. Someday it's going to become old hat. This is especially true if this is used recklessly by developers who are playing fast and lose with this model. I just feel there are more important games to be crowdfunded before it's used as a backdoor for developers who don't want to shop their games around.

[ArjanN]

Here's what gets me upset about this: " I'm not the most well versed in Wasteland gossip, but before this I have heard nothing about a Wasteland game being hard to fund. Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas came out relatively recently and they were big hits. More than likely publishers would back this idea, however since Kickstarter is the hot issue of the moment Fargo just decided to go that route. You can say all you want about Fallout 3 being in first person and blah blah, but maybe that's because it's a model that players actually want to play.

I'm sorry, but no. Fallout 3 and New Vegas were nothing like Fallout 1 and 2 and Wasteland. They weren't even the same genre really.

A topdown/isometric squad-based old-school Wasteland (likely turn-based) would be hard to fund. Just like an old-school point and click adventure game.

Yes, there's plenty of people that want another FPS game, but they can just buy one of the 800 that come out every year, those don't need funding from fans.

[womp]

Back when EA could do no wrong...Brian Fargo was but one of the many masterminds at this once great company. EA considered their developers 'rock stars' and as such, the games were boxed to resemble record album sleeves at the time, and oh my was it awesome.

They fed my C64 so many good times and gave me my favorite RPG of all time...



Thank you Trip Hawkins.

[shagg_187]

Surprised EA won't do it. They can capitalize on Fallout-predecessor claims.

[Tamanon]

Man, Wasteland was so fun too, I enjoyed it more than the Bard's Tales. Dragon Wars was pretty great too.

[beelzebozo]

i hope double fine's adventure with kickstarting is a massive public success, and helps support the idea that your investment in funding a project is generally speaking a sound investment. right now, it does seem like it could go either way--maybe it leads to a very solid and pleasing game, or maybe it's a somewhat flaccid bird flipped to the large publishing industry that doesn't make a real honest to god great game.

but a big success story for the model would do a lot to making it a more frequent occurrence, and an easier investment for people on the fence.

[Emitan]

Here's what gets me upset about this: " I'm not the most well versed in Wasteland gossip, but before this I have heard nothing about a Wasteland game being hard to fund. Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas came out relatively recently and they were big hits. More than likely publishers would back this idea, however since Kickstarter is the hot issue of the moment Fargo just decided to go that route. You can say all you want about Fallout 3 being in first person and blah blah, but maybe that's because it's a model that players actually want to play.

So a game like Wasteland would be easy to fund... if it wasn't like Wasteland? Okay...

I feel like crowdsourcing can be a good model, but it's a finite one. Sooner or later people are going to tire of financially backing there favorite games. Someday it's going to become old hat. This is especially true if this is used recklessly by developers who are playing fast and lose with this model. I just feel there are more important games to be crowdfunded before it's used as a backdoor for developers who don't want to shop their games around.

Yeah because I'm just drowning in Wasteland and Fallout 1+2 inspired games right now...

[KorrZ]

Do enough people actually still care about Wasteland in a world where Fallout is a thing?

[Ultimadrago]

Umm, does not knowing what this is make me young and foolish?

[golem]

Will Faran Brygo make a cameo?

Glad to hear they got the rights back. I would be in for a Kickstart if it is indeed a turn based RPG

[Munin]

How long before companies like EA start exploiting crowd source funding? Like, "we'll make this ME3 expansion if you give a measly 50 cents! It won't happen otherwise!" And then people do it? Not necessarily through kickstarter, but some other means? Not saying there aren't worthy kickstarters, including the one in this thread, but I already foresee this going south when bigger companies realize this model could be another way to give consumers the dick. Project 50 cent?

Not this drivel again

[EviLore]

Zombie linked me to this Matt Chat video interview series with Brian Fargo some months back, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apg08u6n2YM et al, and I got the impression that the modern state of the video game industry had ruined him, that he had given up on the sort of experiences that he was known for creating back in the day and decided to corporate drone from here on out. But maybe the prospect of a Wasteland kickstarter has ignited something there. Sure hope so.

[subversus]

why do you say that?

1)because everybody remembers Fallout and not Wasteland.
2)He doesn't have as much nerd cred as Schaffer or Avellone. If Avellone would start it I wouldn't have any doubts. But Fargo? My guess: he will raise 200 000-300 000 tops. I'll be glad to be proven wrong.

[Emitan]

Wasteland is older than I am and I've heard of it

[subversus]

Wasteland is older than I am and I've heard of it

have you played it?

[KorrZ]

1)because everybody remembers Fallout and not Wasteland. 2)He doesn't have as much nerd cred as Schaffer or Avellone. If Avellone would start it I wouldn't have any doubts. But Fargo? My guess: he will raise 200 000-300 000 tops. I'll be glad to be proven wrong.

That actually brings up sort of an interesting question. What happens if they do only raise 200-300k and not enough to actually fund the project. Does everyone just get their money back? Do they try to make it anyways on the cheap?

[jett]

That actually brings up sort of an interesting question. What happens if they do only raise 200-300k and not enough to actually fund the project. Does everyone just get their money back? Do they try to make it anyways on the cheap?

it's already been answered in this thread.

[Emitan]

have you played it?

For a few minutes and I couldn't figure anything out so I played Fallout instead. Didn't have a manual :(