So onyx engine isnt being used.
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$2.1 million and up = Obsidian and Chris Avellone on Wasteland 2 dev team
- Thread starter duckroll
- Start date
So onyx engine isnt being used.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
That was a fun read.
Good work getting an interview with MCA, even if his answers were a little vague.
The two big highlights for me:
- No one from Obsidian will be working on Wasteland 2 but MCA, but this seems yet to be fully decided.
- No Onyx engine, apparently. They're licensing editors and whatnot.
And aside from Wasteland 2, he seems to be less catastrophic than I would've imagined. Maybe Obs isn't so doomed after all? Or maybe I'm reading too much into his words...
You are reading too much into his words. He isnt gonna come out and say "God we are sooo fucked right now."
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
It would be fantastic if Kickstarter ended up saving the Obsidian crew.
Well excuse me if I wish to read too much into that last answer he gave.
Why would Avellone go alone seeking work, on a kickstarter project of all places, if Obsidian are desperate? And I do think they're desperate.
The Emperor
Member
Thanks!! I'm gonna be addicted to that
And Fargo is a friend. It perfectly reasonable to help out a friend in need so its not like that disproves anything about anything.
Ignis Fatuus
Banned
Because it's an easy way to net half a million dollars for your company in licensing fees while having fun.
Because it makes them money with minimal resources, and he adores Wasteland? I'm not sure how that says anything. And he didn't go seeking it; that's the point. The interview notes that Fargo is the one who approached him about it, and Avellone agreed.
Regardless, we probably won't know what state Obsidian is truly in till a few months from now. It's all just conjecture for now.
My point was, I don't think there would've been enough monetary incentive for Avellone to actively seek out Fargo. Why is it assumed that Obsidian will be getting half a million? Because of when the announcement was made? I'd hesitate to assume that all the money beyond $1.6m would be going to Obsidian.
Stop making sense.
Avellone is an Obsidian executive; you think him working for a year or so will come cheap? People make a lot of money in the game development business - more than I think a lot of people realize. When you combine that with Obsidian licensing its tools and assets, it isn't particularly hard to imagine much of that money going to Obsidian, yeah.
Gotta love HK-47's naive notion that the man would be willing to work for a minimum because he's a "friend." It's still a business and time is money. Any time Avellone spends on WL2 is time he isn't spending on core Obsidian projects. Feargus wouldn't have given it the okay unless Obsidian was getting quite a bit of money in return.
Pachterballs
Banned
yes and no. avellon said in response to an OBSIDIAN KS; that he wants to work on WL2. sometimes; somethings can be a labour of love. I think WL2 is going to be just that. And it with any luck; will turn out amazing
OccamsBlender
Member
This better be seriously awesome. Kick arse staff, a good pot of money and most importantly, no publisher bullshit to get in their way.
Oh I think its naive to assume Obsidian is getting half a million bucks from this or that this has any real bearing or say on Obsidian's future in the not dying department. Sounds like wishful thinking with nothing backing it.
Oh dear.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
... pretty much, yeah. It's not anyone else's fault for misinterpreting but your own.
Mario Party with a level up system.
So Obsidian getting paid decently for this is unrealistic, but it is realistic to assume that Obsidian is taking this project out of desperation. Even though they'd be giving up one of their top designers and wouldn't be getting much in return.
Maybe you should get your arguments straight.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Wasteland Party!
I'm just wondering what it means it terms of NPCs to recruit.Do you start with your whole team or recruit people further down the line?
Did I say something weird?I never heard the term before.
Why would Avellone think to make an amount of money, which might be considered decent by a studio of Obsidian's size, out of someone else's kickstarter project?
Because he doesn't work for free?
DiscoJer
Member
Instead of controlling one guy, you control several characters, plus there can be NPCs in your er, party.
In the original, you could split them up, have them on different parts of the map. Sometimes you had to, to solve puzzles.
Teams are called parties.
Maybe you shouldnt assume things. Show me where they are getting the .5 million. Its fucking annoying and reeks of wishful thinking. I'm not saying they arent. You are they one saying they are. I'm not saying they arent getting something though. You can assume that, since you like doing it.
Wait. You really think Avellone will work exclusivelly on WL2 full time for a year and Brian will "waste" 25% on one guy?
I say waste because without newest announcement WL2 would reach $2.1M easily. I don't think Fargo expectects Avellone's involvement will get him additional 500k of funding.
It isn't just Avellone. They are licensing some of Obsidian's tools, which also costs money.
And no, I don't think he will work "full-time" for a year, but as I said, whatever time he does spend on WL2 is time he isn't spending on Obsidian's projects. That comes with a price.
I posted earlier on when Avellone's involvement was announced that they probably picked $2.1 million as a point they figured they could get to with Avellone on board, and that not necessarily all of it would go to Obsidian. But I do think a good chunk of that is going to Obsidian, yeah. They didn't arbitrarily pick that number out of thin air. It's both a realistic target and one that would allow them to pay what it is they need to pay Obsidian.
But Obsidian isn't a charity, and in the end, it's still a business. They make money from contract work, and this is ultimately just another contract.
We have no information about how much Obsidian is being paid for Avellone's participation or the development tools. We only have the correlation between what their kickstarter funding level was when they made the announcement, and the goal amount for the Obsidian participation to actually happen, which is just a correlation. They're setting desirable goals in order to drive funding, keep this in mind.
Avellone from the interview that was just posted sounds like he's going to help out in some capacity but that he will by no means be working full-time on it for a year or anything of the sort. He oversees all the Obsidian projects creatively, so that ain't happening.
Avellone from the interview that was just posted sounds like he's going to help out in some capacity but that he will by no means be working full-time on it for a year or anything of the sort. He oversees all the Obsidian projects creatively, so that ain't happening.
StoppedInTracks
Member
I really hope they reach that $2.1 mil goal cause right know it slowed down to a crawl.
That's not what I was getting at. I ask again, why would Avellone look to someone else's kickstarter project that was barely making $2m to earn anything substantial to keep a mid-sized studio afloat? You're assuming that Obsidian would be getting a lion's share beyond $1.6m. Even if they did, it's unlikely it'd do anything meaningful to their future.
Yeah I think we need to keep in mind that Chris Avellone is co-owner of Obsidian as well as Chief Creative Officer. There is no scenario where Avellone is going to basically disappear from Obsidian and go work exclusively at inXile for a year. That's not happening. In fact, right now Avellone is also helping with South Park which has yet to wrap up. He'll continue being involved with anything that Obsidian needs creatively first and foremost.
What we are hoping for in boosting the budget to 2.1 million and beyond is that Avellone will get to contribute substantially to creating a major play area in Wasteland 2. This would be similar to seeing him contribute a major DLC pack to New Vegas (those work, if you haven't played them yet... *hint*). There are already more than enough people involved with Wasteland 2 to actually complete the game, but it's always good to see MCA get another shot at playing with a post-apocalyptic sandbox. The bonus is also that this game will probably not need to conform to any ESRB standards, which could be reaaaaaaally interesting.
What we are hoping for in boosting the budget to 2.1 million and beyond is that Avellone will get to contribute substantially to creating a major play area in Wasteland 2. This would be similar to seeing him contribute a major DLC pack to New Vegas (those work, if you haven't played them yet... *hint*). There are already more than enough people involved with Wasteland 2 to actually complete the game, but it's always good to see MCA get another shot at playing with a post-apocalyptic sandbox. The bonus is also that this game will probably not need to conform to any ESRB standards, which could be reaaaaaaally interesting.
I posted this earlier, in response to duckroll:
I'm well-aware that they picked a target they'd like to hit, and of course it's total conjecture as I already said, but I do think Obsidian's involvement comes at a fairly decent price. Fargo and company ultimately feel it's worth it, regardless.
Remember that their original goal was only $1 million. Anything past that is gravy.
They aren't involving the whole company in it. It'd be a solid deal from their point of view because they would be getting a decent amount of money for relatively little investment, and as a co-developer, it's possible they've negotiated terms of profit as well. None of the profit generated after the fact ultimately has to go to any publisher.
And you should look over your argument again. If "it's unlikely it'd do anything meaningful to their future," then why on earth would it be an act of desperation for them to join Fargo's Kickstarter? You're the one who called them desperate, after all.
duckroll said:
I'm well-aware that they picked a target they'd like to hit, and of course it's total conjecture as I already said, but I do think Obsidian's involvement comes at a fairly decent price. Fargo and company ultimately feel it's worth it, regardless.
Remember that their original goal was only $1 million. Anything past that is gravy.
They aren't involving the whole company in it. It'd be a solid deal from their point of view because they would be getting a decent amount of money for relatively little investment, and as a co-developer, it's possible they've negotiated terms of profit as well. None of the profit generated after the fact ultimately has to go to any publisher.
And you should look over your argument again. If "it's unlikely it'd do anything meaningful to their future," then why on earth would it be an act of desperation for them to join Fargo's Kickstarter? You're the one who called them desperate, after all.
You said this:
You said maybe Avellone wasn't desperate, and implied that if he was he might have approaced Fargo, because, as per your other posts, there's good money to be made. And I've been saying that if Obsidian were desperate, Avellone wouldn't look to Fargo to help Obsidian along because there wouldn't be enough money to earn to make a difference.
Obsidian is an independent company that looks for contract work, and they generally take what they can get because they have to take jobs at a steady clip to remain afloat. They're always looking for work, and they are also currently looking into their own Kickstarter projects.
Kickstarter works with much smaller budgets than your typical publisher-financed game, and is likely to always bring in less money, but for independent companies like Double Fine and Obsidian, it helps to keep them working and free from publisher harassment. They have to take a pay cut to make it work, but they keep the profits and can generate a lot of goodwill from consumers, which will only help them with bigger games.
It means you should kick back in front of the computer with a six-pack and some nachos and PAR-TAY.
...I'd actually quite like to play that.
Though we don't have Fargo clearly saying what Avellone and Obsidian tools will cost, like Shafer did with the documentary for the DF adventure game, the fact that the Kickstarter for Wasteland 2 was in a stall and that Fargo pointed to a very clear 2.1 million goal to reach makes me believe that amount is what they have in mind for payment of Obsidian/Avellone involvement. It's just an intuition, and no one knows for certain, and the post-release revenue for sales of this game it's not even in equation as also no one knows if that was even part of the deal (I wouldn't think so).
Avellone said in the interview that the logistics aren't fully worked out yet - that they aren't even sure who from Obsidian is working on it yet outside of him (and JE Sawyer has also said he doesn't know if he's involved at this point).
I imagine the reason for that is they're waiting to see just how much money they get. There may be potential for more Obsidian involvement if the project goes decently past $2.1 million.
I imagine the reason for that is they're waiting to see just how much money they get. There may be potential for more Obsidian involvement if the project goes decently past $2.1 million.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
That's great.
What i want from Wasteland 2?
Game-play and fun wise if it´s anything close to Fallout New Vegas, i will play it... a lot.
Concerning the setting, i would prefer it to be more akin to "The Road" than to "Fallout" with less pop culture references and way more bleakness and depressing shit happening. I want to feel like civilization is gone for good and there is no hope left in the world.
Game-play and fun wise if it´s anything close to Fallout New Vegas, i will play it... a lot.
Concerning the setting, i would prefer it to be more akin to "The Road" than to "Fallout" with less pop culture references and way more bleakness and depressing shit happening. I want to feel like civilization is gone for good and there is no hope left in the world.