We gave all of you an update on pre-production last month, and we want to keep doing so in these coming months, so here is another status update! Developers of all disciplines have started rolling onto the game, both those from the Torment team as well as new hires. We also have some exciting contractors helping us out on area design during pre-production.

Design Lead George Ziets and Lead Writer Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie have crafted a strong pass on the overall narrative, and a full list of zones (areas) that we want to be in the game. We don't want to spoil the whole list for you, but we'll be talking about one of those zones (Denver) later in this update. George has detailed out each of these areas at a high level in something we call a Zone Constraints document. Those are then sent to our designers who generate "Zone Briefs" that further define the characters, story, and missions of the zone. If you want a refresher on our area design processes, George wrote a great update on it earlier.

But it's not all paper design. Crucially at this stage we also have time to prototype and work on our tech, as we mentioned last update. Our art department has been setting up the technical details of the art pipeline and also has been making great strides on our technology for snow, as we explore all the possibilities our unique setting offers. Additionally, we are creating a concept art library for the game, which will ensure that we have a consistent vision on the game's look as you move from zone to zone.

Engineering is largely finished porting over code from Wasteland 2, which gives us a solid technical basis, and is now working on the details and functionality of Wasteland 3's multiplayer. It is crucial we have multiplayer functioning in our engine early, as it touches on every facet of our game. When tech is in a good place, systems design can start creating prototypes to experiment with combat, vehicles, and more.​

Most of Denver is in ruins. During the end of the old world, a nuclear weapon exploded high in the air over the city, killing most of the inhabitants. The skyscrapers that remain are jagged, crooked affairs that lean against each other. In their shadows, the lesser buildings have crumbled, forming ever-shifting mazes and subterranean tunnels of broken concrete and rusted rebar.

These urban wilds are battlefields for the predators prowling the city, unaffiliated treasure hunters, and scavengers. Though the radiation is long gone, Denver is still a deathtrap, but one studded with buried riches from the old world.

The Denver Airport Commune lies to the east of the ruins and is now a colony of artists, hackers, conspiracy nuts, mad scientists, and assorted eccentrics. The Commune is centered around the Space Shuttle Atlantis (which landed here sometime after the bombs fell), and is dedicated to strange experimentation, acts of cyber espionage against the Patriarch, and MANY other things.

In the north is the mighty stronghold of the Gippers.

We shared a glimpse of the Ronald Reagan-worshiping cult in an earlier update. As many of you recall, the Gippers were a faction we originally planned for Wasteland 2, but now they will be appearing in Wasteland 3. The leaders of the Gippers are the priestesses known as Nancies - wives to the divine God-President Reagan, lawmakers, and judges. Above them all is the fierce and formidable Mother Nancy Reliance.

People do rather get the wrong idea about us. I can’t say I mind.

Let us be underestimated and ridiculed. They think our Ronnie is dead and never coming back, and they are wrong. They accuse us of seeing communists in every shadow, and well, they’re right. But so are we.

Make no mistake, dears. We are surrounded by the vestiges of the Evil Empire. They have turned our great nation into an irradiated graveyard and they expect us to weep. But we are steel, sisters. We do not bend, nor do we rust. We endure.

So let them laugh at us. We are the wives of the God-President, and we will endure until he returns to us. Until then, his Great Work lies before us, unfinished.

We will arm our sons and our daughters and teach them to hunt Communists and snake-tongued Socialists. From birth, we will turn our children’s hearts to unyielding stone. With our blessing, they will bring peace back to the world, one bullet at a time.

We do this in the Gipper’s name. Amen.
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