Wasteland 2 Interview
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GB: You've hinted at the prospect that Obsidian Entertainment might pursue their own Kickstarter project in the near future. Does your collaboration on Wasteland 2 affect those plans at all? If not, when might we see a crowd-funded Obsidian project surface? Chris: No, it won't affect our own Kickstarter projects. We do feel that there was a lot of benefit in learning from Brian's experience with Kickstarter, and I believe there's a lot of smart ways he engineered the process that I'd love to learn from, both in what's shown to the public and how he strategizes internally. Also, Brian's a good guy... I'm sure if we ever came out with a project and asked for help, he'd be willing to put in a good word with us with the community - just as he's already done extensive efforts to "Kicking it Forward" already.
Ultimately, I want to support this process. I want to support Double Fine. I want to support inXile. This style of funding feels more pure to me - it gets player interest first, and draws support from the people playing the title and are passionate about the title, not projections on who might play it and also not from publisher projections on the genre and interest.
There's challenges, but we're willing to meet those challenges head on and make this work.
GB: Despite the fact that Wasteland 2 would be co-developed by inXile and Obsidian, does Brian still have the final say over what the final product looks like? In other words, have you guys ironed out the details on what you'll do to resolve any disagreements in the game's design direction?
Chris: Brian and inXile are running the show. While I'm sure they'll listen and take feedback into account, nothing can kill a project's momentum than too many cooks with equal say - the only thing you're cooking up at that point is a recipe for disaster.
In short, Brian knows Wasteland better than I, he knows the tone he wants to set. Obsidian's job and my job is to provide knowledge from our experiences with RPGs and design, and help him realize his vision in a way that meets and surpasses player expectations (it's the narrative/level designer creed and motto).
GB: As someone who has worked on previous titles with player-created parties (notably the Icewind Dale series and Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir), how do you approach narrative design in a party-based game (Wasteland 2) vs. a single protagonist game (Fallout: New Vegas)? What are the primary areas that you need to get right in order to make the experience as fulfilling as possible to both story-seeking and tactically-oriented player types?
Chris: It's a matter of how you design the conversation systems to allow for the inputs of individual characters and allow those individuals to make skill or experience-based contributions.
Equally important, you also want to allow for checks and conditionals where the person you're speaking with can react to the actions of any individual within the group where it makes sense (Ex: (Hey, you there I see you got a sniper rifle... if you know how to use it, I have a job for you.)). This isn't as hard to do as it may seem, although it's a subject for larger discussion and often comes down to how you want to present that mechanic and reactivity to the player (I feel Storm of Zehir and Icewind Dale accomplished this, although Storm of Zehir felt more elegant to me - and to give thanks where thanks is due, we owe that to the design lead Tony Evans and the UI programmer at the time, Anthony Davis, who got that system in and working).
The short goal: As long as people feel that their individual party members matter, not just in the battlefield, but in other interactions as well, that's what you're shooting for.
GB: We know Obsidian is hard at work on South Park: The Game, but aside from the sad news that Project North Carolina had been cancelled, we're pretty much in the dark on what else the company is working on at the moment. Are there any projects currently in development at Obsidian that the Wasteland 2 partnership could impact?
Chris: We're pitching a number of projects we had on hold during the NC process. Now that that's not occupying time and resources, we're free to re-investigate those options and resume talks with companies who had previously showed interest in our proposals and engine (we didn't have the manpower to deliver a third product at the time of NC discussions, and we prefer only focusing on two projects at any one time).
GB: Finally, before we let you go, is there any new news to report on the XBLA game you were developing last year? How about the Wheel of Time project? And what's going on with Icewind Dale III and that amazing Avellone-created Defiance pitch Feargus talked to us about?
Chris: We'll see what lies in store for the future - from where I'm sitting, we've got a lot of opportunities.
