News

Obsidian would help Wasteland 2's "narrative and area design"
Posted: 02.04.2012 13:04 by Simon Priest Comments: 7
Should the required $2.1 million get raised through Kickstarter for inXile and Brian Fargo's Wasteland 2 then Chris Avellone of Obsidian Entertainment will be lending his expertise.

He'd be helping shape narrative, area design and the conversation system. The studio's role, which is just Avellone for the moment, is "solely design content work" - Fargo and inXile "running the show."

The Obsidian dev admits they "won't know the final logistics" for a while yet but the funding of the project continues to climb and now stands at $1,869,775 with 15 days left.

"I think it’s a refreshing example of what happens when publishers aren’t involved. It’s something we couldn’t do without a lot of red tape in a publisher agreement (if at all), but when it’s just two developers chatting about something that would be cool... well, there you go. Brian asked, I wanted to do it, so we decided to make it happen," said Chris Avellone.

Will Obsidian itself be playing a significant role in Wasteland 2?

"Currently, it’s just me, and I would potentially be assisting with narrative and area design, as well as conversation editor suggestions and structure. Ultimately, we won't know the final logistics for a short while longer, but we'll keep folks updated - right now, it's solely design content work, which is one of Obsidian's strengths," he continued.

Above all Wasteland 2 is Brian Fargo and inXile's project and Obsidian would only be helping out. "Brian and inXile are running the show. While I’m sure they’ll listen and take feedback into account, nothing can kill a project’s momentum than too many cooks with equal say - the only thing you're cooking up at that point is a recipe for disaster."

"In short, Brian knows Wasteland better than I, he knows the tone he wants to set. Obsidian's job and my job is to provide knowledge from our experiences with RPGs and design, and help him realize his vision in a way that meets and surpasses player expectations (it’s the narrative/level designer creed and motto)."

Check out the full interview between Chris Avellone and GameBanshee. Right now Obsidian Entertainment is handling the South Park RPG but has also been in the headlines for laying off staff and canning projects. They stopped work on Project North Carolina which was a next Xbox title to be published by Microsoft.

Want to see Brian Fargo and inXile Entertainment get all the help they can get? Become a Wasteland 2 backer!

Source: Eurogamer
Related games: Wasteland 2 (PC)

Comments

By PapVogel (SI Member) on Apr 02, 2012
PapVogel
This makes me wonder if more developers will start using kickstarter and bypass the publishers, imagine what a studio like bioware could've done with Mass Effect 3 if EA hadn't been there to push them around.
By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Apr 02, 2012
Chosen_One
Microsoft published ME1, and it was a great game. The thing is, MS just publish the game, not trying to do it in their way. BioWare had green light in all their ideas back then.

As for Fargo...damn I am very exited. I hope we'll see another great post-apocalyptic game.
By PapVogel (SI Member) on Apr 02, 2012
PapVogel
I can only agree, I'd like to see where the creators of wasteland and fallout 1 & 2 brings the post-apocalyptic genre, instead whatever halfassed attempt Bethesda came up with.
By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Apr 03, 2012
Chosen_One
hell yeah! Its 1.9 mil right now!
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Apr 05, 2012
FoolWolf
Now that is comforting, if Obsidian had helped with "technical" skills - I would doom the project-- Ideas however is their forté :)
By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Apr 05, 2012
Chosen_One
2 millions now!!
By PapVogel (SI Member) on Apr 08, 2012
PapVogel
2.1 million now :D!