InXile Entertainment [Official Site] have formally announced that Wasteland 3 is a thing and it will go to crowdfunding site Fig to secure development funding.
It's true: #wasteland3 is coming! Revamped combat, vehicles, and a frozen campaign for both solo and multiplayer! Back us @PlayFig Oct 5! pic.twitter.com/0bIASnsgp4
— InXile Entertainment (@Inxile_Ent) September 28, 2016
I'm going off their twitter and other sites for the main info right now, as it seems we are still not on InXile's press list.
It is already confirmed to have Linux support, along with multiplayer, vehicles, and some form of base building.
Features (Thanks for actually posting the Press Release Kotaku)
- A party-based role-playing game, with a renewed focus on our trademark complex story reactivity and strategic combat.
- By including vehicles, environmental dangers, and a revamped, more fluid action system, we are evolving on Wasteland 2's deep tactical turn-based combat and unique encounter design.
- Play by yourself or with a friend in story-driven synchronous or asynchronous multiplayer. Choices open up (or close off) mission opportunities, areas to explore, story arcs, and tons of other content.
- Your Ranger Base is a core part of the experience. As you help the local people and improve your Ranger Base, quests and narrative will force you to make decisions on how to lead.
- The game will be set in the savage lands of frozen Colorado, where survival is difficult and a happy ending is never guaranteed. Players will face difficult moral choices and make sacrifices that will change the game world.
- Wasteland 3 will feature a deep and engaging story utilizing a newly-revamped dialog tree system from the celebrated writers of Torment: Tides of Numenera
- Simultaneously releasing to Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
They also sent out some promotional images, but these are prototype images and do not represent what the game will actually look like:
Quoting: DrMcCoyThat reminds me: I still need to play Wasteland 2. I started it, got about half-way, then suspended it for a bit (RL, other games) and suddenly, there was a Director's Cut. So I need to restart from scratch there. :)
Couldn't you just continue playing instead? Or is the director's cut that greater? I was more than happy with the ordinary version...
Segata Sanshiro Sep 29, 2016
Quoting: BeamboomSo they didn't even make enough money on Wasteland 2 to finance the development of this one? How was any software house able to produce anything before the crowdfunding services arrived? How could commercial software exist in the pre-crowdfund era?
This crowdfunding epidemic has really gotten out of hand. This is just moving risk out of the company and over to the customers. And that, in turn, leads to laziness.
I agree with everything there. Crowdfunding is a great idea, giving opportunities for those who otherwise wouldn't have had it to create some great stuff. On the other hand, you have developers who simply see it a means to get pre-order money waaaay in advance under the guise of "helping the little guys" - I would hardly consider inXile to be a small indie studio in dire need of cash these days...
On top of that, to those argueing that publishers "limit creative vision" - I have three points on that:
1) Pitching something like an oldschool RPG to a publisher would not be a hard sell these days. There's plenty of success stories.
2) There's smaller, less corporate publishers who don't have such constrictive business practices. Paradox and Devolver are two examples which come to mind.
3) Crowdfunding involves just as much (maybe more?) limiting of creative vision. You have to add pointless multiplayer modes to satisfy those people who demand it, add crafting because people want that for no reason, add silly in-game backer reward rubbish (names on tombstones, that kind of thing and overall listen to thousands of little voices each wanting different things, sort of like a thousand little publishers. I've played plenty of games now which have felt watered-down because they had to pander to this sort of audience, which ironically probably would have liked the game more if they'd left the devs to their own devices.
Last edited by Segata Sanshiro on 29 September 2016 at 5:10 pm UTC
ephemeralcuriosities Sep 29, 2016
Seriously, I keep seeing this nonsensical, childish vitriol regarding crowdfunding in every single gaming site. I've pledged on a crapton of projects and almost all of 'em delivered: Banner Saga, Broken Age, Wasteland 2, Freedom Planet, Detective Grimoire, Undertale—and those are just the videogame-related ones! With as many books, comics, board games and the like that I've pledged to since 2012 (and even more that I couldn't pledge to but still succeeded in their goals and delivered in a timely manner) I have no reason to call ANY of these projects a "scam". And you should all be ashamed of adopting that mentality just because of a couple bad eggs.
Go see a doctor for that tunnel vision you developed—not even the majority of projects have issues. It's just that we only get news of the big bombs like Mighty No. 9 and its ilk.
For fuck's sake, people.
Quoting: ephemeralcuriositiesFor fuck's sake, people.Yeah yeah. I'm happy that you're happy, but that doesn't change anything. It is obvious that crowdfunding is increasingly seen by well-to-do developers as a remarkably risk and obligation free source of funding, as an alternative to publishers, (actual) investors or loans.
I'm more than okay with tiny indie teams with little chance of getting funded otherwise make use of these platforms, but when bigger studios with several well received titles do it pretending they've got no choice, it really rubs me the wrong way. I know, it's no skin off my back. I'll just buy the finished product after I've seen a few reviews. I can't afford to buy stuff I may or may not receive, and may or may not even like anyway.
ephemeralcuriosities Sep 30, 2016
Yes, irresponsible studios are seeing crowdfunding as this—that should not assume the worst intentions from any studio that does it. And do you think a well-received title matters in this equation? Well-received or not, it's not an infinite well of money that will constantly bring them profits years after its release. Do you expect them to pay the team a pittance in the meantime? Don't assume a studio's size means they automatically have the income to develop a thing there and then, and don't assume it's not just gonna run out within the game's development (which is usually several years).
There's a difference between not putting money on a crowdfunded project because you can't afford the risk, and calling crowdfunding a scam. And as I said in the above post, it's all because you (and in case anyone's confused and thinking I'm targeting one person, this is the plural "you" I'm using) focus on the few spectacular negatives instead of the many more positives—which won't be discussed anywhere anyway because the fact that they fulfilled all promises automatically makes them uninteresting to journalists who will keep posting about the few failures since it makes for a better story, making it seem as though they were the norm. That's what pisses me off about this whole discussion, and I wouldn't be so pissed off if it wasn't so prevalent that it drowns out all discussion about the titles that are trying to get money to develop a game in the first place.
Also, "I'm happy that you're happy"? Don't go condescendingly-implying I'm just posting this 'cause I like the game, this is several years' worth of BS comments from people around the gaming sites building up and leading me to finally get it off my chest and hope people finally notice how they're sounding like (regardless of futility). All I want is for people to quit accusing developers (ANY developers, regardless of size) of shadiness just because they're using crowdfunding. Look at a dev's history and make assumptions based on that—NOT the method itself.
Last edited by ephemeralcuriosities on 30 September 2016 at 12:35 am UTC
If you are promising something you can't legally provide (and that is the question about FIG), it is technically a scam. So feel free to argue about that.
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