Wasteland 2 Post-funding Update #33: Original Wasteland to Get Separate Re-Release and More

The folks at inXile have just sent out the latest post-funding update for Wasteland 2, which includes the news that the original Wasteland is going to be released seperately on GOG and Steam, that the Prison (the original Ranger base) will be the area shown off at Gamescom and in a video for backers, and a few more things. Here’s an excerpt:

Wasteland 1 getting a separate release!

As you may know, we had a deal in place with EA to give all our Wasteland 2 backers (including late backers) a copy of Wasteland 1, which was to be integrated and launched from the game’s menu like the original Bard’s Tale trilogy into the new Bard’s Tale. We very happy about that, as we’ve always wanted to enable people to get back to the original, and it serves as a good refresher for the sequel.

We recently went to talk with EA to try and get it out in a different, separate format, and they accommodated our idea. We’ve now inked a new deal where we’ll be able to release Wasteland 1 separately. After getting the game in our hands and ensuring it runs on modern machines, we plan to distribute it FOR FREE to all our backers before Wasteland 2’s release, as well as sell it on GOG.com and Steam for anyone else interested in trying out this classic RPG.

The Level-Off

We’ve been asked to show the game off to a plethora of press in Cologne, Germany later this month. Brian, Matt, Thomas and myself will fly out there and demo one area of the game for around 150 members of the press in 3 days. That may sound like a lot in a short period of time, but don’t worry.German beer will keep us going.

Once we learned the show date, we figured we’d get a little friendly competition going. 2 levels were chosen to have a level-off. The teams would work for 2 weeks straight, making it as great as possible during that time. We’d then select the level that showed the best and spend the next few weeks polishing it up. The level-off winners would then not only get to see their handy work in many (hopefully great) previews of the game, but also be featured here. Our winners were Joby Bednar (level designer) and Gavin Glenn-McDowell (environment artist). To get it ready, they both worked more hours than should be humanly possible and showed a passion that is only getting stronger as we start to see all of our hard work coming together. Of course, they were supported by many other great people on the team as well.

The winning level is.The Prison. In the original Wasteland, the prison was home to the Desert Rangers and was called Ranger Center. When the Rangers conquered the citadel, they moved in. The prison was now open, which allowed the Red Scorpion Militia a chance to call it home. The RSM are not too fond of the Rangers, for reasons that you’ll learn in a few months time.

We’ll showcase this area not just to the press, but we will also create a video based on the area to showcase to our backers.