Brian Fargo had given up. Heād spent the better part of the past decade pitching a game idea to publishers, only to be met by indifference and rejection. While he pitched and tried to sell his game, business executives would stare at their phones, texting. Barely paying attention. It was infuriating.
The idea was for a successor to Wasteland, the 1988 post-apocalyptic roleplaying game that went on to inspire the popular Fallout series. Fargo had notebooks full of design concepts and mechanics for the game, which he says would be an āold school, classic roleplaying experience.ā But he couldnāt get it off the ground without finances, and investors just didnāt think it would work.
Even after the success of Bethesdaās post-apocalyptic Fallout 3 in 2008, Fargo couldnāt convince publishers to roll the dice on his Wasteland sequel. So two years ago, he gave up. It was time to move on.
āPublishers looked at me like I was a dinosaur,ā Fargo said.
Then Tim Schafer came along. When the Psychonauts creator launched his Kickstarter for a point-and-click adventure game last month, he showed the world that fans were interested in financially supporting the ideas and creators they love. Schafer was able to bypass traditional publishers, who would likely look at him like a dinosaur too.
āFans started emailing and talking to me on Twitter,ā Fargo said. āSaying, āNow you can finally do Wasteland 2.ā It was really the fans who started the whole thing.ā
He didnāt have to mull it over for very long. After a few quick phone calls to some of his old partnersāguys like Fallout co-creator Jason Anderson, Wasteland designers Alan Pavlish and Mike Stackpole; Fallout composer Mark Morgan, and designer Ken St. Andreāheād wrangled up the Wasteland core design team. Then, on Tuesday, he launched a Kickstarter project for Wasteland 2
Wasteland 2 raised almost $600,000 in 24 hours. It has 33 days to hit $900,000, a goal that seems well within reach. Developers like Schafer, Minecraft creator Markus āNotchā Persson, and Fallout 2 designer Chris Avellone have all publicly supported the project, posting about it on their Twitter feeds and asking fans to help donate. Fargo says heās absolutely thrilled with the reception.
Now he just has to worry about making something awesome. Fargo says Wasteland 2 will be a top-down, āparty-centricā roleplaying game in a sandbox post-apocalyptic world, just like its 24-year-old predecessor. It will be developed āfirst and foremostā for PC and released on the Steam digital distribution platform.
In order to appeal to everybody, striking a careful balance between old-school nostalgic appeal and modern mechanical sensibility, Fargo says heās looking to the Wasteland forums for ideas and inspirations. He says fan input will be pivotal to the gameās success.
āIf fans are out there acting really negatively towards something, weāre gonna change it,ā Fargo said, noting that while they āwonāt be writing the dialogue,ā theyāll have a very large say in every aspect of the gameās development.
āWeāre gonna have fans involved completely.ā
Yesterday, Fargo tweeted a hypothetical question. After his projectās success, it might be on quite a few minds today
āI wonder what the publishers who rejected a Wasteland 2 are thinking right now?ā
Wasteland 2 [Kickstarter]
