You know something you never hear about? A game that's been delayed because the devs have too much money and the extra time to make the game bigger, better and more feature-rich then they intended. You never hear about it... until today. Wasteland 2 is over-funded and will be delayed so the developers can fill out the game to fit the budget you provided them with.
Blues spotted the updated on the official Wasteland 2 Kickstarter update page, where inXile Entertainment's head-honcho Brian Fargo talked up budgetary discipline and timely releases, noting...
Thanks to this new crowd sourced model of game production we have the luxury of working on a game that won’t be rushed out the door. Under the old process we would often have either retail or a publisher pressuring us to ship a game before we were happy with it. Or the more draconian measure of being sued or having the game handed to another developer to finish, (yes those clauses are fairly common) if we wanted to spend more time polishing our little gem… fortunately we have NONE of this.Once the beta testing begins in October and once we have enough feedback from testing, we can evaluate where we’re at and set a new release date. By that stage, over ten thousand of our backers will have gotten to play the game with us. In the end, quality comes before everything and fortunately the backers have been in line with us to make sure we get it right.
Good grief I love this guy. This is how you approach a game that you want to sell and a game that you want to go down in history for its quality and aim to fulfill that creative vision, without breaking the bank.
Speaking of bank... Fargo, not one who is averse to speaking his mind about the politics of game design, talked a little bit about where the team stands with funding and using your money to bring the Wasteland sequel to life for eager PC gamers, writing...
I can happily announce that we remain well financed for development, thus allowing us to ship a product without compromise. This is primarily due to our disciplined spending, project planning and the benefit of our back catalog sales to cover any extra product features and content we loved.It’s also important to note that we do not profit from the monies raised from crowd funding as we take 100% of that money (plus extra money in our case) and put it into the game, a game that we can be proud of and one that can become a classic.
Oh yes! That's how you get it done, brother.
“A classic”... that's what every developer should be aiming for when they head to Kickstarter. You're not there to do a cash grab and churn out some AAA-quality garbage, we get that from the AAA publishers. Kickstarter is there to show those money-grubbing bureaucratic money-hats what game culture is all about – how the creative juices for expansive ideas and robust endeavors for new ways to interact with games can challenge the status quo of success and branch a new path for the way developers and gamers connect, which can be both engaging and successful as a product.
Fargo also had some positive things to share in regards to the Unity 3D Engine – an engine that made it possible for a lot of Kickstarters to get their projects done in a timely and efficient manner – writing that...
Unity has played a huge part in allowing us to make a game of this scale in a short period of time. The ease of use with Unity, the asset store and our working with the crowd to help source additional content has allowed us to spend less time on the mundane and more on the creative aspects.
The asset store also played a big part in how the community and inXile worked together to get a lot of menial assets finished and published in the game within a concise and reasonable time frame. This is truly shaping up to be a massive success story once they finally get the game out to the public. Personally? I can't wait and I'm sure there are a lot of other gamers out there craving for a fun title without all the marketing, focus-group-tested BS shoved down our throats by publishers whose names are not worthy of being published in the same article about Wasteland 2.
This post apocalyptic RPG will be heading into beta this October. The game will also receive a retail release courtesy of Deep Silver. We'll keep you posted when Wasteland 2 finally launches.
