Just a quick update:

The Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Page is now live!

Looks like the pledges are rapidly increasing (was just announced on Twitter 30 minutes ago) and I can't wait to see what happens here. Most professionals and members of the media believe that the sudden success of Double Fine was a one-trick pony and they claim that no other game could ever receive the same amount of funding. (I don't think Kickstarter will be as successful with newer titles from unknown developers, but definitely nostalgic titles since they're targeting 30-40 somethings with disposable income, and they will be promoted by well-known names in the industry. Won't last forever though, the first group of Kickstarter games will get the most funding, before this mostly unknown service gets completely saturated years from now.)

When I first went to the page a few moments ago, it was sitting at 500 backers with $37,648 pledged of $900k.

I'll update the Wasteland 2 sticky when I get a chance. I want to check out the Kickstarter project first and make a pledge.

I'm creating this Wasteland 2 "Status Update" post to keep track of important milestones taking place within the project. My intention is to "sticky" it to the side navigation menu, and continue to update it for some time. When major announcements come along, I might create a new post.. but I will still continue to update this one.

I figured that a timeline of events for everything that has transpired might be interesting to some hardcore fans. Plus, if the Kickstart project and the game itself becomes a success, it might be nice to have a little piece of history about the beginnings of the game that under normal circumstances would be completely forgotten.

Timeline of Events

January 2012
Brian Fargo notes that during this time he had put away all of his Wasteland 2 design notes assuming that it would never happen.

Apparently, much of the basic game design, story, and concepts for Wasteland 2 had already been conceptualized which is why he was able to get a Kickstarter project up so quickly.

February 10
Two days after Double Fine's Kickstarter project was launched, and when it was made evident that it was going to be a huge success, I immediately contacted Brian Fargo to do the same with Wasteland.

Events kicked off from this tweet when I had recommended funding WL2 through Kickstarter.

February 14
Brian Fargo responded to my tweet that he was seriously considering the approach and started an investigation into the possibility.

I immediately updated the blog recommending that readers here add themselves to his Twitter Followers, and to continue encouraging him to develop the game (I noticed a lot of familiar names tweeting him by the way, so thanks for that!). Due to their sheer numbers, I also contacted NMA-Fallout to do the same. He was quickly bombarded with additional tweets, Facebook messages, and emails of encouragement.

February 15
For several months, @brianfargo had been sitting at approximately 128 total followers. By Feb 15, he had reached 187 followers.

Brian spoke to IGN to start promoting the potential Kickstarter project. He mentions that "he and the rest of inXile are currently working on a production schedule to see if its feasible. But he does think that it'd take at least a million dollars, and hopes that the Kickstarter will go live in the next month." He also notes that this preliminary work started due to vocal fans. "The fans started pinging me first."

The new Wasteland game will be authentic and faithful to its roots, meaning a "top-down, probably isometric, party based, skill based -- where if you'd just finished playing Wasteland and moved onto this you'd feel comfortable."

February 17
Kotaku article about Brian's intention to bring back Wasteland, the precursor to Fallout.

Brian announces that Mike Stackpole (one of the original designers) has signed up for the new Wasteland project.

February 17
Kickstarter project should be live within the next 2-3 weeks. They are working through the process and creating a movie.

February 21
Kickstarter and Wasteland 2 Thoughts by Chris Avellone

February 22
Original producer, programmer and designer Alan Pavlish has also been brought on board for the new Wasteland project.

February 24
NMA-Fallout Interview posted.

February 25
RPG Codex Interview posted.

February 27
Eurogamer Article posted.

Brian tweeted that he will be filming the Kickstarter video on Feb 28 and Feb 29.

Announcement that Mark Morgan (who composed the music for Fallout 1, Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment) has signed on for the project.

March 3
Kickstarter project, assuming no challenges, should be launched by late next week.

Wasteland 2 website will be live Monday, March 5.

NMA-Fallout has created a Facebook Page for the Wasteland 2 venture.

Since February 14, @brianfargo has grown from 128 to 1,153 followers.

March 5
Brian has announced that Ken St. Andre has been brought on board for the Wasteland 2 project. He's the creator of "Tunnels and Trolls", and was part of the original WL design team.

Brian has announced that the official Wasteland 2 site is now live.

March 9
Wasteland 2 information and video submitted to Kickstarter, will take a few days to be approved.

Brian has announced that Andree Wallin has joined the project as their Concept Artist.

March 13
The Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Page is now live. They're looking for pledges totaling $900,000, which Brian Fargo has already donated $100,000 personally. The ETA for the game is October 2013.

It appears that Jason Anderson, one of the originally designers on Fallout 1 & 2 has also re-joined the team to work on Wasteland 2.

Notch just promoted the game, and pledged the first $10,000 to it. Brian must be very excited about this whole thing, probably very surprised by the amount that has been pledged on the first day.

March 14
Brian has announced that another original Wasteland designer working on the project. Liz Danforth also created the Highpool map.

Post on Kotaku, "How Wasteland 2 Went From Hopeless to Half a Million in 24 Hours"

March 15
The WL2 Kickstarter Project has met it's goal in only 2 days (42 hours and 30 minutes to be more precise)!

March 19
The Kickstarter Project is about to hit $1.4 million with 28 days left to go. @Brianfargo has also amassed almost 4,000 followers. Interesting that for years the Twitter account was under 120, but has grown this far since the new Wasteland excitement.

March 21

Brian has announced that their PayPal site is now live. I had actually emailed this recommendation to Brian earlier, but he was already 2 steps ahead of me. :)

Kickstarter is now at $1,465,316 and @brianfargo has 4,170 followers. Not bad.

March 22

$1.5 million milestone reached. Wasteland 2 will have Mac and Linux versions.

Brian Fargo has launched his new "Kicking It Forward" concept. Basically, developers that put the "Kicking It Forward" badge on their Kickstarter project are promising that they will put 5% of their finished product's profit back into other Kickstarter projects.

******

What I'm Hoping For (March 5 Update)

When the website goes live, there is supposed to be a way for fans to leave comments on what they want or expect in the game. Here are some of the important items that I'm hoping for:

• Top down isometric view. Squad based combat.
• Real-time movement and exploration, but turn-based combat much like Fallout 1 & 2 (e.g. "entering combat mode" through encounters or via hotkey.) When combat is engaged, you can issue orders and commands to your party members.
• A really awesome main story line. (I'm assuming they probably have a lot of ideas themselves, so there's no point to expand on this.)
• A serious, dark, gritty game. Humor is fine, but nothing overly silly in the game like Killer Clowns. Don't make it a parody.
• A skills based RPG. Large focus on skills, with some players in the party having unique (but useful skills.) Must use skills in order to improve them.
• All of the skills from the original should return, plus many more. For example, Sleight of Hand, Forgery, Alarm Disarm, Bureaucracy.. but make them actually useful in the game (only 1 party member might need them). Pugilism is the only skill that should be removed though, because Brawling makes it redundant.
• A lot of exploration. Breaking into homes, exploring abandoned ruins, hidden & buried secrets, weapon caches, etc. Random events are a must.
• Should be a single player game initially. If highly successful, use momentum for a larger multiplayer game.

Awesome! It looks like there has been more traction on the Wasteland front.

Here's what Brian Fargo had to say during a recent IGN Interview:

He doesn't know if it'd be straight up called Wasteland 2, but he repeatedly emphasized that, despite having thought about it for only 48 hours, it wouldn't be a crazy genre change up. Wasteland, whatever its called, will be "100% faithful to its roots." This means a Wasteland game that "would be focusing on top-down, probably isometric, party based, skill based -- where if you'd just finished playing Wasteland and moved onto this you'd feel comfortable."

When I first announced it, I just called it "Wasteland 2" for effect, but I'm actually hoping he keeps it as the original name. It will need a new story though, not a revamp of the original.

Perhaps even as a prequel to the original Wasteland during the initial formation of the Desert Rangers or the technologically advanced, but xenophobic Guardian Citadel. Or maybe the inception of the killer robot army. :)

Here's what else they had to say about this project:

The big thing Fargo emphasizes, that the fans are often missing, is that "this process means we don't have to do it like the publisher wants." Fans on the boards are worried that the project will start out looking like a hardcore, old-school Wasteland title, but eventually turn into something more "mainstream." Fargo says that they don't have to worry about "will [the audience] get this or get that," they can just be "more like the old days...totally creative."

Fargo has only been working on the project for a mere 48 hours, and he and the rest of inXile are currently working on a production schedule to see if its feasible. But he does think that it'd take at least a million dollars, and hopes that the Kickstarter will go live in the next month.

His twitter account has grown from 128 to 187 followers so far. I'm a huge Wasteland fan, and it would be very cool if my suggestion played a small part in getting Wasteland finally developed. I'm not sure if he was originally considering it before I recommended it, though, so I'll have to ask. :)

* UPDATE:

I got a response:

I was only lightly considering it but no specific project until a few fans like yourself started sending me messages.

I guess you could say I "kickstarted" the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter. :)

I contacted Brian Fargo, and I've made him aware of the Kickstarter service. It's a virtually unknown website that's definitely going to grow in popularity now that a professional game has been announced on it, from a well-known developer.

Brian Fargo has just tweeted that he is seriously considering using this new crowd-sourcing model to bring back Wasteland.

He also tweeted the following:

Pondering bringing Wasteland back through this crowdfunding. It's a world I have longed to work with again.

Wasteland is one of my all time favorite RPGs, and this is something I will definitely be supporting financially if he moves forwards on this.

I would recommend adding yourself as a Brian Fargo Twitter follower, and please continue encouraging Brian with this latest development.

The faster he can get something off the ground with the momentum that Kickstarter is currently experiencing, the better position he'll be in. Other game developers, like Obsidian, will also no doubt be moving to Kickstarter. Eventually, it will be saturated with video game proposals. So, whoever can get in there first will be far better off (e.g. in funding and interest.) When everyone starts doing it, Kickstarter (for gaming development) loses it's novelty, and also potential funding.

This will get a lot more traction (and fan site coverage) once DuckandCover and NMA pick up on it. If you're not familiar with Wasteland, you can learn more about the game and it's history at the (now abandoned) Wasteland Ranger HQ-Grid. I have been communicating with as many different media and industry contacts as possible, and I'm getting them to motivate Brian to release Wasteland 2 through Kickstarter. Let's see how far I can take this!