Wasteland 2 launches Kickstarter funding

24 years after Wasteland's release, some of the gang behind the classic post-apocalyptic RPG and the series it inspired, Fallout, have reunited at inXile Entertainment to make a sequel. They're hoping to fund Wasteland 2 through Kickstarter, seeking $900,

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Update: 1:28 p.m. with Fargo comment.

Kickstarter may be bringing giving a jolt of life to another classic PC genre ignored by modern publishers, the turn-based tactical RPG. 24 years after Wasteland's release, some of the gang behind the classic post-apocalyptic RPG and the series it inspired, Fallout, have reunited at inXile Entertainment to make a sequel. To fund Wasteland 2 for PC, they're turning to the fans, launching a crowd-funding campaign seeking $900,000.

"This is probably the last chance for a Wasteland sequel," inXile explains on its Kickstarter page. "We have tried to pitch this game multiple times to game publishers, but they've balked. They don't think there's any interest in a solid, old school type of game. This is our shot at proving them wrong. And more importantly this could help bring back an entire genre of RPGs."

Double Fine had similar hopes for its own hugely successful Kickstarter campaign for a new adventure game, which has scored over $3,000,000 in pledges--ten times the amount it'd sought.

"We're going back to the original and building from there" for Wasteland 2, inXile says. Expect top-down, turn-based tactical combat, "gritty, grim and satirical writing," moral dilemmas, and all that jazz. Check Shacknews sibling-sister MobyGames for more on the original Wasteland.

Brian Fargo, inXile's founder and executive producer on Wasteland and Fallout, is heading the team, which includes Wasteland's primary designers Alan Pavlish and Mike Stackpole, Fallout co-creator Jason Anderson to pen the story, and Fallout 1 & 2 composer Mike Morgan providing music.

Pledging $15 to the Kickstarter will get you a DRM-free download of the game once it's done, while for $50 you can have a boxed copy complete with a cloth map and "old school" manual. The perks escalate as you pay more, all the way up to being an NPC yourself, having an in-game shrine devoted to you, or a special party with the inXile gang.

inXile is budgeting for $1 million, but is only after $900k on Kickstarter as Fargo himself will chip in an extra $100k if it doesn't quite reach that. It estimates six months of pre-production then 12 months of development, so if all goes well, we could be playing Wasteland 2 in late 2013.

As of noon PST, and with 34 days left to go, the Kickstarter has already raised more than $220,000. Should it pass $1 million, the scope of the game will be expanded, with more areas, characters, release platforms, and the like.

About an hour later, Fargo posted this update on the page:

"WOW!!! You guys are amazing! The fans are really stepping up here with donations and spreading the word. I haven't been more excited to make a game in over a decade. It is a dream to focus all my attention on making a wonderful experience without distraction from outside forces. We will not let you down!"

From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 13, 2012 12:00 PM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Wasteland 2 launches Kickstarter funding.

    24 years after Wasteland's release, some of the gang behind the classic post-apocalyptic RPG and the series it inspired, Fallout, have reunited at inXile Entertainment to make a sequel. They're hoping to fund Wasteland 2 through Kickstarter, seeking $900,

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      March 13, 2012 12:11 PM

      $900! what a bargain. the worlds best flash based rpg

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        March 13, 2012 12:24 PM

        Err... $900 might get you a nice Flash banner ad set for an RPG.

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          March 13, 2012 12:47 PM

          maybe they should set their bar a bit higher then. =-D

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      March 13, 2012 12:23 PM

      Bringing AND giving!

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      March 13, 2012 12:45 PM

      I'm funding every kickstarter that is remaking old games.

      period. On principle.

      I'll cum rainbows if I see dungeon keeper 3, or magic carpet 3, theme hospital 2, .... hmm those are bullfrog games. So any bullfrog games. Rainbows.

      I'll cum skittles(also considered the rainbow) if I see baulders gate games, syndicate(a good remake..), Terra nova (looking glass games in general...).
      Then you'll get the chance to taste this rainbow..

      I'm sure there are more that would be awesome to see...

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      March 13, 2012 12:49 PM

      I guess I don't understand Kickstarter. Is there no risk of losing money? Is it not a traditional investment?

      I guess I thought it would be more like stock: you invest $15 or 0.00001% of the total budget and if successful, you will get that percentage of the profits.

      The way it is setup now you are giving them money to make a product that they will profit from. What if 'Wasteland 2' is a huge success bringing in millions of dollars? That is pure profit for the company since they minimized they start-up costs and loans. Yet you, who risked the money, get nothing for the investment other than the game.

      Am I getting this wrong? It just seems like this could be a dangerous trend as it is only good for developers and bad for consumers.

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        March 13, 2012 12:54 PM

        kickstarter is not an investment, it's venture capital that they don't actually get unless they meet their budget requirements. i'm pretty sure if they run out of time without enough funding it all gets refunded but i could be wrong.

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          March 13, 2012 12:57 PM

          If they run out of time without enough funding then no one who pledged gets charged. If they meet the funding requirement then they get the money, minus whatever percentage kickstarter takes.

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            March 13, 2012 1:17 PM

            Kickstarter's cut is 5% I believe.

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          March 13, 2012 12:58 PM

          What if they reach their goal in the right amount of time, but never deliver a product? Or deliver a product that was less than advertised?

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        March 13, 2012 1:02 PM

        It's purely a donation system and you get no protection if they take the money and run or if they squander it on parties or whatever.

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        March 13, 2012 1:02 PM

        Really it's an answer to the chicken-and-egg issue.

        There may be some game you really want to play, but the publishers or developers don't know if there's enough of you (i.e., people who would pay for the game) for it to be even financially possible, much less profitable.

        So if there's enough people who would pay for the game to be made to put their money where their mouth is, perhaps to the point of some who are willing to pay more than their fair share, then the game happens.

        I mean yeah I see some landmines in the way (can't exactly cancel the game now, or can they?) but overall I see this as a positive trend, or at least a positive idea.

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        March 13, 2012 1:22 PM

        Think of it as a patronage system, like in the olden days of yore where Shakespeares and Michaelangelos roamed the lands.
        You pay the developers money, they give you a product. Since it's digital they are free to copy that product and sell to others (or do whatever they want with it really). If they don't give you a product, or the product is defective, then people will simply lose trust in the person/group and never offer patronage to him again.
        Voilá.

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        March 13, 2012 1:39 PM

        It's purely based on, "I'm a fanboy. Take my goddamn money and make this." It's good to promote what you like. It has nothing in common with investing though.

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          March 13, 2012 2:12 PM

          I remember back in the PC Accelerator days, right when the magazine announced it was being canceled, they got tons of mail and email and messages pleading for them to not shut it down. They would do anything, pay any price, to see PC Accelerator stick around in any form.

          A few months after they stopped publishing the magazine, the website PCXL.com (which had housed the official PC Accelerator site) started advertising that PC Accelerator was coming back in the form of a paid access website. Sort of like if IGN had a paywall. The site boasted all the stuff that it would have, and you could sign up for access now and get a discounted rate. They had a "Free Tour" like porn sites do and everything (appropriate, seeing as how PC Accelerator was famous for having tits on every cover).

          I didn't explicitly keep up with the reaction to it but what I had seen was pretty negative. It was seen in the same light as if Hotmail were to suddenly start charging money (as in, everyone just thought websites should be free). I just sort of shrugged at the maneuver since I was never a big fan of PC Accelerator.

          After a couple of weeks they replaced the front page of the site with a terse message. Something to the effect of "When we announced we were closing down PC Accelerator, many of you begged and pleaded us to keep making it, saying you'd pay any price to have it in any format. We knew that this wouldn't really happen, so we decided to prove it. We announced we were bringing back PC Accelerator as a paid website. No one signed up. So stuff it."

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        March 14, 2012 8:47 AM

        Your looking for something that I've only seen from http://www.wmdportal.com/

        Project Cars is awesome BTW and everyone should jump on board.

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      March 13, 2012 3:31 PM

      I threw $30 in the hat. Let the awesomeness begin.

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      March 13, 2012 4:12 PM

      $50 for a large box, actual cloth map, and instruction BOOK (they specifically do not say manual in the description, hopefully means they're differentiating from the stapled leaflet crap) is a no-brainer.

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      March 14, 2012 6:16 AM

      Amagad this is awesome, I never played wasteland (for shame!), but I've spent lifetimes in Fallout 1 & 2. (3 can go f itself)

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