14 DAY TRIAL // inXile Entertainment's Wasteland 2 is one of the success stories that validated Kickstarter as a funding platform for small and large developers alike, and started a the trend of people revealing their pet projects in the hope that they may get to see the light of day.
Talking to Digital Spy about Kickstarter, inXile founder Brian Fargo has said that, if he were to launch the Wasteland 2 campaign again today, it would still be as successful as it was at the beginning of the Kickstarter craze, because it would still fill a niche.
He has pointed to the fact that there was a numerous Fallout audience that wanted something more like Wasteland than what Fallout 3 and New Vegas offered, and so the need for an isometric post-apocalyptic role-playing game was met with Wasteland 2.
"Now if somebody came up with another one after us, it wouldn't do as well, I think, because we would have been scratching that itch. As Schafer delivers more adventure games, the next person can't come along and say, 'You don't get adventure games anymore.' Well, you do now actually," he says, pointing out the importance of timing.
He has said that he would be interested in exploring crowdfunding for future projects of inXile Entertainment, because it's a good way to prove the value of an idea ahead of time, revealing whether a game concept is any good.
"I'd like to know more now rather than afterwards, because I've got lots of ideas, because I'd rather do one that people are going to want to play the most - and they get so engaged," Fargo adds.
He reveals that, when people "vote with their money," they tend to be much more engaged. Usually, everybody wants something from a particular game, but they're much more passive when they're not part of the process.
Once gamers get involved through crowdfunding, however, they tend to be much more active, and he has pointed out to the massive help inXile got from fans, from localization to feedback and everything else.
Fargo says that there is a big risk associated with a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter and that people are often skeptical whether a developer will be able to deliver on their promise or not.
But once that initial trust is established and the audience is confident that they can indeed deliver, then it becomes a question of buying early in order to get the product faster and cheaper.
Wasteland 2 is currently available on Steam Early Access and is scheduled for release on Windows PC sometime in August this year.