[Kickstarter and Wasteland 2 Thoughts.]

I have serious doubts about this venture.

 

Double Fine's success is due to the fact that there haven't been many adventure games since the 90s and the people behind it (Tim and Ron) were responsible for the best adventure games out there. They are respected and admired by the adventure games community.

 

As for Wasteland, I believe the target audience is quite smaller.

Furthermore, I don't exactly see Fargo as having a fanbase/community or having an history of having designed good games, apart from Wasteland.

I'll be surprised if he gets 50K$.

I guess it will depend a lot on what he can commit that he'll do. Even better, if he can show already some work done.

But maybe I'm wrong on this. We'll see.

 

As for Obsidian, having the people behind FO 1 & 2, ID, PS:T, having developed KotoR II and New Vegas, and also having a community... it's a whole different story.

I'm confident Obsidian would raise 1 M$ at minimum.

And this raises the question: when will Obsidian start their kickstarter project?

[Initial Kickstarter Responses]

IMO it would also be a good idea to set funding levels goals when starting the project. It would give a reason for supporters to know what to push for.

For example:

- 300K: gets 20h of game done, IE engine is used, Interplay art assets are reused (license), no voice acting

- 400K: polish, gets partial voice acting, 35h of game

- 500K: more game, better game, more polish, additional ways to solve things, more non-linearity, more characters, more endings, more replayability, etc

- 1.5M: ToEE alike engine/art, all of the above

- 2.5M: you win the internets

 

This is just an example and doesn't really express my views since I really have no idea on what can be done with which budget.

 

Maybe someone that knows what their talking about can give us some numbers?

 

And can Obsidian really re-use previous art/music from previous projects, or would everything have to be done from scratch?

[Initial Kickstarter Responses]

Magnificent Chris Avellone,

thank you for taking the initiative to study the kickstarter possibility. We all hope that the skill check is successful.

 

I routinely check Twitter (@ChrisAvellone), Facebook, my inbox, and a number of gaming sites with similar questions (Penny Arcade, Rock/Paper/Shotgun, NMA, RPGCodex, GameBanshee, RPG Watch, Giant Bomb) in addition to this blog

Makes me wonder how you get the time to have the real work done

Because of that I'll try to be succinct. The type of game we want to see is:

- the type of game that gets co-...moneyblocked by publishers, aka Isometric Turn-Based cRPG (sic)

And that is basically my only requirements

 

If Obsidian goes forth with kickstarting their project, it's guaranteed that I'll support it as long as the above is true. Because with you as Chief in Command of Good Things to Come we know that good writing, great story, interesting characters, choices and consequents, non-linear, multiple solutions, multiple endings will be present in the game. And those are the type of things that RPG dreams are made of.

It would be great if Master Tim Cain and Sawyer could contribute to this project as well.

 

As for the game setting, ranked by preference:

1) cyberpunk (Blade Runner, Neuromancer, Bloodnet, Gattaca). The world needs it! There isn't really any good cRPG in a cyberpunk setting. None! (ok Deus Ex, but it's an FPS/RPG) This is also the opportunity for a new IP.

2) steampunk (Arcanum alike) with some Cthulhu twists in it

2) Planescape, however given the license issue I guess this is a no no. The best bet would be a spiritual successor, but that isn't really a setting, more like a gameplay aspect.

3) hard sci-fi space opera. The problem would be it would require many work hours in game to write the lore.

3) retro-futuristic alien infiltration/invasion during the cold war with a B movie artistic vibe to it

 

 

 

Some gameplay aspects that would make me very happy (obviously that these need to adapted depending on the setting and balanced to avoid repetitiveness):

- dystopian world (Brave New World, 1984)

- mature and politically incorrect. Including themes such as: dangerous political games, global conspiracies, religious brainwashing, racism, drugs, misogyny, slavery, sexual discrimination, taboo subjects (even if only present as a comic factor), and yes tasteful rape as well. It would be up for the player to... well... deal with it

[If Obsidian + Kickstarter = ?]

...