Regarding Avellone involvement in W2, this interview at GameBanshee may share some more details.

Some quotes that address some of the concerns that have been brought up:

"I suspect I'd be doing area and narrative design, and fleshing out a piece of the wasteland, but we'll have to see what the needs of the project are."

"Currently, it’s just me, and I would potentially be assisting with narrative and area design, as well as conversation editor suggestions and structure."

"To be clear, the Onyx engine isn't being used for Wasteland 2 - that said, there's information and structure components we can share based on how we've constructed RPG mechanics (notably conversation systems and editors, for example) that Brian has expressed interest in and we'd be happy to provide metrics and layout suggestions for."

"All of the programming and coding is in inXile's hands"

"No, it won't affect our own Kickstarter projects."

"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."

"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). "

38,832
BACKERS
$1,906,486
PLEDGED OF $900,000 GOAL
13
DAYS TO GO

13 days left. Lets get it to 2.1mill :)

Wait, what?

Obsidian kickstarter?

They've been saying they are planning one ever since the Double Fine Adventure. Probably will take some time before they launch it, though (which is wise, really).

I've been away for a while so I just read the news about Obsidian. I'm excited and a little worried at the same time. Could be too many chiefs. Obsidian has had some decent games but none that have made me go "WOW!" (I haven't played Alpha Protocol yet either). They're also usually buggy. I liked Troika more than Obsidian and was hoping to get some Troika influence (even though they were buggy too.)

Now I read that it is probably only going to be Avellone which hopefully gets rid of the too many chiefs problem. He's an excellent writer but I hope there's more to the game than just that. Planescape: Torment writing was excellent but at the same time the game often played more like an adventure game than an RPG to me.

And? Where is the problem ;-P

PS:T is hand down one of the best (if not the best) story of any game I've ever played. And I've played them all. But, imo, you have to make sacrifices on other fronts to achieve such story (and narrative) greatness. Eg, the whole "multiple choices" approach of Bioware simply couldn't work with PS:T.

There are plenty of games I prefer, because the play better. But when the heavens are buring and I have to take one game with me, it will be PS:T.

39,811
BACKERS
$1,950,475
PLEDGED OF $900,000 GOAL
12

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts

"
Project Update #8: Increased Funding Details
Posted by inXile entertainment
Things are sure looking good to hit our next milestone of $2.1 million dollars, which makes the game deeper of course, but it also brings the design talents of Chris Avellone of Obsidian. We look forward to having Chris bring his style and prose to the game. When you include the PayPal money on top of the Kickstarter funds we are over $1.980 million with 12 days left to go. One of the questions I constantly get is an understanding of what happens when donations continue to grow. The question is especially important as I think there are more RPG gamers out there than almost any other category.

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 insures 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 insure 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!

On the production front we have already started our pre-production process. We have our art team starting work on setting the look of the game. Once we have the look established, we will run tests across several different technologies we are evaluating to settle in on our tech for the project.

And Andrée Wallin is wrapping up his first concept piece for the Desert Rangers and they look bad ass. It's a beautiful mixture of the military with touches of the old west rangers.

And lastly I wanted to include a description of the Desert Rangers background, as many players are not familiar with them:

On the same day that the U.S. and Soviet Union were attempting to extinguish each other, a company of U.S. Army Engineers were in the southwestern deserts building transportation bridges over dry riverbeds. They worked deep in the inhospitable desert valleys, surrounded by a number of survivalist communities. Located directly south of their position on that day was a newly-constructed federal prison. In addition to housing the nation’s criminals condemned to death, the prison contained light industrial manufacturing facilities.

Shortly after the nuclear attack began, the Engineers, seeking shelter, took over the federal prison and expelled the prisoners into the desolate desert to complete their sentences. As the weeks passed, they invited the nearby survivalist communities to join them and to help them build a new society. Because of each community’s suspicions towards one another, times were difficult at first. But as time nurtured trust, this settlement -- which came to be known as Ranger Center -- grew to be one of the strongest outposts. Ranger Center even proved powerful enough to repel the hands of rancorous criminals who repeatedly attacked in attempts to reclaim what was once “rightfully theirs.”

The citizens of Ranger Center, after first believing that they were the only ones who survived the nuclear maelstrom, soon realized that communities beyond the desert’s grip had also survived, Because they had such success in constructing a new community, they felt compelled to help other survivors rebuild and live in peace.

Toward this end, the Desert Rangers, in the great tradition of the Texas and Arizona Rangers a century before, were born."

It's my gamer entitlement. Nothing is perfect. IF THEY WOULD JUST LISTEN TO ME IT WOULD BE THE BEST GAME EVER!!! :P

I put PS:T among my favorites. There are other things than just the writing that made it great for me. Audio was also fantastic with the musical score and I feel that PS:T is the perfect example of how to mix occasional high-quality voice-overs with written dialogue to get the feel and point across without overdoing the voice-overs. I just hope for a happy marriage between the writing quality of Fallout and Planescape: Torment with the tactics of Temple of Elemental Evil, Fallout Tactics, or Jagged Alliance 2. Maybe I ask too much. I don't mean to be critical, just stating my preference.

I need to get back into Wasteland fervor. Wasteland 2 is going to be awesome!

Dear GOG person,

propose the following to the higher ups and finance types.

Approach inXile and offer GOG as a download platform, now. Tell inXile that all those people who supported the KickStarter project can use GOG as an alternative to Steam.

But wait, why should GOG waste the bandwidth? All those Kickstarter supporters already paid, right? And none of that money goes to GOG. Well, it's not wasted. It's advertising. There are lots of eyes on Wasteland 2 right now. Get your name mentioned right next to Steam, tell people about the free Fallout download you're offering, and you'll get a lot of people checking GOG out. I imagine that when Wasteland 2 is out GOG will be attempting to secure a distribution deal for the non-Kickstarter customers anyway, so the infrastructure will already be there. It's just the bandwidth cost that'll be significant.

(And do the same with Shadowrun while you're at it.)

Sounds neat. Might be a good idea to put the suggestion through Contact Us though.Better chance someone will read it :)

41,498
BACKERS
$2,029,774
PLEDGED OF $900,000 GOAL
11
DAYS TO GO

Wow, almost 100k overnight, i'm impressed. I wish Brian would do another Bard's tale (i do not count the last version) That would get me to contribute big time. Looking forward to futher progress on the new Wasteland.

“I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”

Well, 7 hours ago, to be honest. Before you replied. :)

I finally decided to chip my 15 dollars in last night.

Looks like Chris Avellone is officially on board now. Cool?

New update http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/203680?ref=activity

You can get a higher resolution of the concept art over at Gamebanshee:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/phpthumb/phpThumb.php?src=../images/com_sobi2/gallery/1955/478438_345096442206292_319549084761028_914484_1033372462_o.jpg

(or NMA)
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=4985

I've already put it up as my wallpaper :P