Wasteland 2 - Update #8, More Areas, Mod Possibilities

Brian Fargo has penned a new Kickstarter update for Wasteland 2, which is currently just shy of $2M. Trying to drive more pledges, Brian promises two more area designers if they hit $2.5M and mod support if they hit $3M:

I would like to give a little visibility on what we would expect to add to the game if we hit $2.5 million and $3.0 million. And do keep in mind that ALL money raised goes into development.

Scope and scale is the number one request, and it is what we are focusing our monies on primarily. So at 2.5 million dollars we would bring in another couple of designers to help create more areas.  This will not only increase the overall size and depth of the world, but it translates to more story lines and more player options as well.  At this funding level we would also bring more level scripters in to allow us to get levels in faster.  When we get levels in faster it allows more iteration time to really hone things in. I believe that iteration time is the single most important factor towards shipping a polished and deep game.

In addition, we will add more NPC portraits and equipment artwork as per what the fans have requested in the forums. We would also increase the music budget to allow Mark Morgan to layer in even more atmosphere. The bottom line is that this kind of budget ensures that Wasteland 2 is BIGGER than Wasteland 1. And for the people that remember little Billy from WL1... well he was left for dead and he is pissed.

The third most asked about feature is for us to provide a mod kit to allow players to create their own scenarios. I have always loved those kinds of tool-sets to set players loose to keep the world expanding. To create these kinds of tools is time consuming and requires a separate team of guys to do it.  While we are not ready to commit to that feature yet, we can say that if we were to hit 3 million dollars,  it would be possible to do a mod kit  without cutting into the plan for the main game.  In fact, IF we ended up making the mod kit we would not release it until after Wasteland 2 shipped as our hands will be quite full to ensure things are done well.  The game will also increase in scope as well so this is not a binary equation. As always, we will be posting polls in the forums to help with these sorts of decisions.  Yes we are reading the forums!

Brian also comments they have begun pre-production and some new Kickstarter levels have been changed.