Wasteland 2 Is a Reality, Surpasses $900,000 Kickstarter Goal in Two Days

Giuseppe Nelva March 15, 2012 2:35 AM EST

The last couple of days must have been absolutely exhilarating for Brian Fargo and the people at inXile Entertainment, as they watched the numbers on the Kickstarter page of their Wasteland 2 project grow quickly and steadily. I was watching as well, as a gaming writer and even more so as a gamer that moved some of his first shaky RPG steps in Wasteland back in 1988.

As many of you already know, Kickstarter is a portal that allows developers to ask their fans for financial support for their projects. The catch is that the deal is all or nothing: if the set goal isn’t reached, the developer doesn’t get a buck. The good news is that this won’t happen with Wasteland 2. The project just surpassed its goal of $900,000 with little less than 16,000 backers whom have pledged their support to the game at the moment of this writing.

Among those that backed the project we can find Razer’s CEO Min-Liang Tan, that pledged a whopping $10,000 and publicly apologized for pirating Wasteland a long time ago. Thanks to him and the thousand of fans that offered their financial support, big or small, the Wasteland 2 project is now a reality, in the face of the short-sighted publishers that snubbed Fargo and his team because they didn’t make Angry Birds and they didn’t want to make a first Person Shooter.

Fargo promised that fan feedback will be very important during the developement of the game (“You guys are my new boss after all” were his exact words on Twitter). For that purpose an official forum for the project has been set up and can be reached here.

He also provided a few additional details:

The team is leaning towards an isometric point of view, but feedback from the fans will be considered.

Further pieces of concept art will be released soon and submitted to the scrutiny of the community.

The game will included substantial amounts of violence. The edgier the better.

Modding tools are a possibility, but some tech decisions need to be made before firm promises can be made.

Players will be able to create their own party like in Wasteland and Icewind Dale, or select a a pre-set group of desert rangers. NPCs will also join during the game.

Extra money over the $900,000 goal will be balanced between adding extra content and providing the game on more platforms, but making the game better is the first priority.

A Linux and a Mac version will be developed if the Kickstarter project reaches $1.5 million before the deadline.

Brian Fargo plans to do a IAmA (which is basically the redditese for a Q&A session) on Reddit soon.

If you didn’t support the project yet, it’s not too late. You can still head to the kickstarter page and pledge your support. There are 33 more days and extra funding means that we will all enjoy a better and bigger game.