Wasteland 2: Kickstarter Last Hope For Sequel To Classic ‘80s RPG

Inxile game developers are attempting to raise the money through crowd-funding website Kickstarter.com in order to develop a sequel to the role playing game (RPG) classic, Wasteland (1988) which told the story of a small party of ex-US soldiers travelling across a post-nuclear apocalyptic American southwest. According to lead developer Brian Fargo, this may be their best (and last) hope at resurrecting the iconic computer game.

This really may be the last chance for wasteland 2, said Fargo in a video accompanying the Kickstarter page. So now ultimately it's up to you the fans and how much you want to see this.

Since the Kickstarter campaign was launched just one day ago, the page has raised over $700,000, almost hitting their $900,000 goal with over 30 days to go. The way Kickstarter works is that you get no money at all unless you hit your goal in time. For Wasteland 2, it looks likes betting on their generosity of fans will pay off.

: If we can raise another $160k today we will have achieved our initial goal in less than 2 days, wrote @BrianFargo in a message on Twitter. We have hit tipping point for sure.

Fans of Wasteland are able to donate anywhere from one dollar to upwards of $10,000. For a $15 donation fans will receive of digital copy of the game when it is released. There are two available slots (eight total) at the $10,000 benchmark, which will earn you an initiation to party with the development team in Newport, CA, a digital shrine in the new game, 50 copies of the game upon release and a medal of honor.

In the promotional video accompanying the Kickstarter campaign, Fargo speaks directly to his fans and contributors. He reflects on a golden age of video games, and suggests that crowd-sourced funding may be the route back to the same level of quality games.

At Interplay the mission statement was always 'by gamers for gamer,' he says. The gamers always came first.

In the video also Fargo, and the rest of Inxile's chance to poke fun at the game publishing industry, which he blames for blocking the creation of Wasteland 2 for so long and generally contributing to the decline in quality creative gaming.

So you're turning down a game that the fans want? Fargo asks to an executive.

Hey, I'm a publisher, is the carefree response he receives.

Speaking seriously into the camera, Fargo explains that he will not be taking any of the money raised through Kickstarter, which instead will be spent ensuring the highest possible quality for Wasteland 2. Fargo also explains exactly what kind of game he is trying to create.

It's a turn based, top down role playing game, and it's also party based, he says. That is you control a group of people rather than just one individual character. And you can also take them and split them up and put them in a lot of different places on the map. It allows a more tactical combat to go on and anyone who's played that type of game knows how fun it can be.

Responding to his fans' questions on Twitter, Fargo added, and don't worry the game will be violent....edgier the better.