Interview Gamebanshee Wasteland 2 Interview with Chris Avellone

[nihil]

My feelings on Wasteland 2 are so fucking mixed. I donated (anything for just a small chance to revert the decline), but still... I can't help having this eerie feeling.

This is the eerie feeling.

[images]

Didn't play any of them, but are you saying they're incompetent games from a technical perspective?

You surely can't mean that they're any indication for what Wasteland 2 will become, content wise?

I'm sure it's been said before, but: Different direction. Partly different team. No publisher demands (the whole point of Kickstarter).

 

[asper]

Oh an Wyrmie what's Choplifter HD got to do with anything(it being a good enough game for what it is considering what it is trying to recreate)? I can imagine you in 1997, with your 33.6k modem, feverishly uploading on Netscape...'Ha ha ha(before LOL) guys I hear Interplay, the makers of Boogerman are making a spiritual successor to Wasteland....Ha ha ha. I'll eat my sacred cow if that works out! Ha Ha Ha'

Holy shit, ha ha ha, I had no idea Interplay made this, ha ha ha! It actually looks like an excellent game

 

[Brother None]

I played it. It's ok, but not my favorite platformer. In fact, the funniest memory I have of it is flipping through the booklet and seeing the artwork was done by Eddie Rainwater. Rainwater, who did the talking heads of Fallout!? (together with Rodenhizer) No way!

 

[Infinitron]

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Ha. I had that game.

 

[sea]

Well I thought that UE3 just couldn't do big areas all that well, but then if there's going to a Fallout style zoomed in mode for particular areas and a character icon on a big map for overland travel then it won't matter much. Oh and as you say inXile know the engine perfectly so it's virtually a given unless they really cannot implement all the RPG things in the way they want..

Unreal can't do big levels? Have you ever played Borderlands? Arkham City? Unreal Tournament 3?

Hell, Anomaly: Warzone Earth shows you can make a great-looking UE3 game on a budget, and it's top-down to boot. Plus, the buillt-in terrain and vegetation systems are very easy to use, and would make making levels of that nature very quick and easy. I think Unreal would be totally fine for Wasteland.

 

[Roguey]

Are the quirks of UE3 really that bothersome? I dunno what independent licensing scheme UE3 offers so I dunno about cost, but there's a lot of advantages to using it: it's properly old to run on old hardware and be well-documented, and inXile knows it really, really well.

Huge Disadvantage: I've never seen anyone make a good RPG with it. I also don't want Wasteland 2 looking like XCOM Enemy Unknown.

 

[Marshall Malibu]

How about gamebryo bros?

And now every other engine seems good.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Graphicwhoring lot yet commie ? I don't think the engine will matter all that much, why would it ? Presentation elements like GUI and the perspective are what will matter foremost regarding the graphics as a whole. And what's interesting is if they will use 3d models (real-time rendering), pre-rendered 3d models or 2d models.

edit: guess I'm graphicwhoring as well.

No, I'd be happy with the Fallout engine or Arcanum/TOEE. I just hate the samey look of UE3. Since there are millions of games using it, it's become so generic, no matter the art style(and in games like Batman it is fantastic) its quirks are instantly recognisable. Pluses are that it runs great on old hardware and it should be piss easy to use being mature and perfectly documented.


Oh an Wyrmie what's Choplifter HD got to do with anything(it being a good enough game for what it is considering what it is trying to recreate)? I can imagine you in 1997, with your 33.6k modem, feverishly uploading on Netscape...'Ha ha ha(before LOL) guys I hear Interplay, the makers of Boogerman are making a spiritual successor to Wasteland....Ha ha ha. I'll eat my sacred cow if that works out! Ha Ha Ha'

Realistically, one would have good reason to say such a thing at the time.

Tim Cain, the man behind Stonekeep, is going to make an ambitious unforgettable post-apocalyptic RPG. Yeah, right!

All that said, no one is a prophet. That works both ways - WL2 may or may not be a good game. However, just as with Tim Cain in 1994, the dice is heavily loaded against the particular developer's favour.

 

[Brayko]

I find it astonishing that you could make a game called 'Boogerman' back in 1995 without strong pressure from publishers and little worry about turning a profit. I remember that game, I even rented it I think, and it makes me realize how much gaming has changed over the years.

 

[Excidium]

That was back in a time when video games were just supposed to be fun.

 

[Pegultagol]

And didn't take itself so seriously; which I hope would be in vein of development design for WL2 as well.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

srsness

the best kind of not so serious is the kind that still ends up feeling a little serious at the end, like the episode "Stage Two" from Archer

 

[Brayko]

Well I wouldn't want Wasteland 2 to be completely silly, that would just be, well, silly. Also, I wouldn't want a too serious tone either, like Twitcher tries to do. Something in the middle, like Divinity 2, would be mint. Serious, but plenty of comic relief to spare.

 

[commie]

Well I thought that UE3 just couldn't do big areas all that well, but then if there's going to a Fallout style zoomed in mode for particular areas and a character icon on a big map for overland travel then it won't matter much. Oh and as you say inXile know the engine perfectly so it's virtually a given unless they really cannot implement all the RPG things in the way they want..

Unreal can't do big levels? Have you ever played Borderlands? Arkham City? Unreal Tournament 3?

Hell, Anomaly: Warzone Earth shows you can make a great-looking UE3 game on a budget, and it's top-down to boot. Plus, the buillt-in terrain and vegetation systems are very easy to use, and would make making levels of that nature very quick and easy. I think Unreal would be totally fine for Wasteland.

Yeah they are small levels. Borderlands had transition areas everywhere. Check out Gothic 3 or Two Worlds or Arma for big worlds. But as I said, the engine is big enough to make the kinds of smaller settlements that would exist for the most part in the wasteland without needing transition areas. That's what I really would want from an engine: as few loading screens as possible. Hopefully one can go into people's shacks without triggering a long loading screen.

 

[sea]

Yeah they are small levels. Borderlands had transition areas everywhere. Check out Gothic 3 or Two Worlds or Arma for big worlds. But as I said, the engine is big enough to make the kinds of smaller settlements that would exist for the most part in the wasteland without needing transition areas. That's what I really would want from an engine: as few loading screens as possible. Hopefully one can go into people's shacks without triggering a long loading screen.

Unreal is fully capable of open worlds on that scale. It does it the same way as any other engine: by breaking the game world into individual chunks which are streamed in as appropriate. The level transitions in most games of this nature are there for the sake of organization and easier game/level design, not because it's the best it can do. There are probably better engines out there for open worlds of course, and you might need to modify it (DC Universe Online is a heavily modded UE3 if I recall) but I mean, do we really expect Wasteland 2 to have like 40 square kilometers of desert to explore? I think just about everyone expects a traditional overworld map.

 

[commie]

Yeah they are small levels. Borderlands had transition areas everywhere. Check out Gothic 3 or Two Worlds or Arma for big worlds. But as I said, the engine is big enough to make the kinds of smaller settlements that would exist for the most part in the wasteland without needing transition areas. That's what I really would want from an engine: as few loading screens as possible. Hopefully one can go into people's shacks without triggering a long loading screen.

Unreal is fully capable of open worlds on that scale. It does it the same way as any other engine: by breaking the game world into individual chunks which are streamed in as appropriate. The level transitions in most games of this nature are there for the sake of organization and easier game/level design, not because it's the best it can do. There are probably better engines out there for open worlds of course, and you might need to modify it (DC Universe Online is a heavily modded UE3 if I recall) but I mean, do we really expect Wasteland 2 to have like 40 square kilometers of desert to explore? I think just about everyone expects a traditional overworld map.

Well I said that it probably wouldn't matter in a game like Wasteland as I'd say an overland map is not negotiable. I don't want the whole wasteland to be crammed into a pitiful area like in FO3. F:NV managed to somehow make it appear more expansive than it was due to interesting locations and quest design which saw you taking more of an interest in each area and really experiencing it rather than just going from one boring ass place to another as quickly as possible as in FO3 which really showed how small the world was, but I want Wasteland to really hammer home the distances between civilized outposts, and overland travel tends to take advantage of particular skills as well. You may discover certain locations only if you have prior knowledge or a good tracking skill. Overhead map would make it reasonable due to the scale as to why you couldn't just stumble on a location as in FO3/NV.

I just want the actual close up locations to not have 'game loading' screen every 5 minutes like in Borderlands.

 

[Wyrmlord]

My feelings on Wasteland 2 are so fucking mixed. I donated (anything for just a small chance to revert the decline), but still... I can't help having this eerie feeling.

This is the eerie feeling.

[images]

Didn't play any of them, but are you saying they're incompetent games from a technical perspective?

You surely can't mean that they're any indication for what Wasteland 2 will become, content wise?

I'm sure it's been said before, but: Different direction. Partly different team. No publisher demands (the whole point of Kickstarter).

Well, here's my view on Wasteland 2.

I'll only support the project by buying the final product.

But otherwise, you just stop and think about these circumstances.

There is a group of people who started developing flash games and iPod after their previous company shut doors. They have done this for a decade after their previous studio shut doors a decade and a half ago. They produced three full fledged games. And those games were critical and commercial disasters.

But here is the worst part. All those three games they made - they were remakes. Remakes of successful games they made in the 1980s - Demon's Forge, Choplifter, and Bard's Tale. And they failed. These guys are living in complete nostalgia. They were successful in the 1980s, and all the recent games they made are attempts to relive the good times from 20 or 30 years ago. They have not ventured to new territory. Even as they are mentally stuck in their successes from a million years ago, they still haven't succeeded on that familiar territory either.

And now, after three remakes - three failed remakes - they want to make another remake of another game they made in the 1980s. And they want you to fund them. And what are their credentials? They had successes in an entirely different era in the 1980s. That's it. And they haven't performed as well since then. You are expected to believe they will revive the magic - the mojo - they once had decades ago.

So while I am glad about the optimism of the donors, this tiny concern will still flicker on the back of everyone's minds. And it should.

 

[Kz3r0]

Wyrmie, the point is that people here want exactly those games from the days of yonder, not shitty, dumbed down remakes.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Wyrmie, the point is that people here want exactly those games from the days of yonder, not shitty, dumbed down remakes.

What is the difference between what people want and what people will get?

One may want to see a funny Eddy Murphy movie again after the 1980s, but that doesn't mean one will get to see a fun Eddy Murphy movie anymore in the 2010s.

 

[nihil]

But here is the worst part. All those three games they made - they were remakes. Remakes of successful games they made in the 1980s - Demon's Forge, Choplifter, and Bard's Tale. And they failed. These guys are living in complete nostalgia. They were successful in the 1980s, and all the recent games they made are attempts to relive the good times from 20 or 30 years ago. They have not ventured to new territory. Even as they are mentally stuck in their successes from a million years ago, they still haven't succeeded on that familiar territory either.

If they were remakes, and InXile is completely stuck in nostalgia, how come the games are nothing like their original counterparts?

They are remakes because they are recognized names, and a small company need to do anything they can to have people recognize their product.

So, basically, what I see:

1) They pitch something a publisher would back up (limited to popamole)
2) They pick a name they own that is recognized

For Wasteland 2, it's a very different story.

 

[Alex_Steel]

What is the difference between what people want and what people will get?

If Fargo fails to deliver the product he promises, his image is ruined. He is only in his forties, far from retirement, so such a move would be suicide, especially under so much media coverage. And if we consider that he has (at least partially) cut off his ties to the publishers, the pressure seems even greater for him to deliver.

I know it probably won't be perfect but I believe it won't stray from some basic concepts. He has a good team to back him up and he seems to know what we want.
As for the last 'Bard's Tale', he had stated that it would be different than the old one, before release.

These facts give me some hope.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Boogerman was pretty boss. Sorta like Earthworm Jim's younger, disgusting brother. Everyone is encouraged to try it.

Summary

You will have an adventure in an unknown world as a caped hero who slings his own boogers to vanquish his foes. The hero of the game is a booger-tossing, noisily burping, fart-spewing man named Sam Leuck. While he lives his pathetic life as an eccentric turd, his natural "in-stinks" come in handy when he dons the mask of the smelly hero Boogerman.

I wonder if he's also a shit slurper.

 

[Volrath]

Wyrmie, the point is that people here want exactly those games from the days of yonder, not shitty, dumbed down remakes.

What is the difference between what people want and what people will get?

One may want to see a funny Eddy Murphy movie again after the 1980s, but that doesn't mean one will get to see a fun Eddy Murphy movie anymore in the 2010s.

Tower Heist bitch. No really.

 

[nihil]

Eddie Murphy didn't write or direct his movies.