Wasteland 2 Interview

inXile’s Brian Fargo continues to make the rounds discussing the $1,000,000 (and growing!) that he’s raised for Wasteland 2 on Kickstarter, with the latest Q&A about the endeavor showing up over at Massively. Remember when people used to discuss upcoming video games this candidly, and actually value community input?

Tell us about the game. How true to the original do you plan to make it?

I want this game to be comfortable for either a Wasteland of Fallout 1/2 player to be able to step into like a comfortable pair of shoes. Obviously the graphics need to be updated and will have different combat systems etc. but there is a tone, stats, and interface that comes with the RPGs from that era. People are very clear about wanting THAT experience and none of this “re-imagining” business. The game will initially take place in the (American) southwest with you controlling a band of desert rangers like the first game. The game will have scope and scale like both Wasteland and Fallout; it will be open-world in the sense that we don’t lead you around by the nose; it will have multiple approaches to most things to avoid the moralistic “right” solution; it will be skill based; NPCs will join the group and not always behave like you want, and it will not require hand-eye coordination. Oh, and tons of weapons so people can shoot their way through situations instead of charming anyone.

Will there be a way for fans to submit ideas on what they’d like to see in the game, or is the foundation already established?

We already have the forums up and will be using them primarily for the broad strokes, but if we see some clever specific ideas we will integrate them. Nothing is in stone yet and the fan input is key. Some people have raised concern that it will be a free-for-all, but my job is to act as the editor and help to harness the ideas and serve up the appropriate decisions. I have the writers and designers scoping out the locales and dialogue, but we will greatly rely on input for interface, combat system depth, and graphical tone. But once things are agreed we stay consistent with the consensus of direction. It is no different than when I used to make my producers create vision documents at Interplay, only this time the fans will sign off on the vision. On top of this we will open up gameplay for feedback to make sure we are hitting the right notes.