14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the fact that Wasteland 2 is working with a collective of scientists in order to add realism to the post-apocalyptic experience, they have no plans to eliminate the humor or the speculative elements that were a hallmark of the first game in the series.
Sebastian Alvarado, one of the members of the Thwacke team, tells Gamasutra that, “When our involvement was first announced, there was a bit of fear along the lines of 'Oh, no, the white coats are going to come and say 'this is unrealistic, throw it out of the game'.' But that's not our job. We are here to help the writers, not get in their way.”
He adds, “Wasteland has this very tongue-in-cheek humor and off-the-wall crazy sensibility in creating their world. The writers ask us questions and we answer to the best of our ability.”
Sebastian Alvarado is himself a Ph. D. candidate at the McGill University in Montreal, specializing in molecular biology.
He believes that all game designers who are currently focusing resources on graphical fidelity and physics should also pay attention to science and its advances and reflect them in their products.
He says that he is a little disappointed each time he sees DNA used as an easy solution for a story arc.
The team at inXile working on Wasteland 2 contacted Thwacke after the team posted a number of blogs about the Animus concept in Assassin’s Creed 3 and about the various scientific aspects of Mass Effect 3.
Alvarado believes that the developers at inXile, led by Brian Fargo, have created some very interesting concepts for Wasteland 2, while his own Thwacke scientists are trying to make sure that the game world is believable.
Wasteland 2 was funded via Kickstarter and will be released in the final few months of next year, exclusively on the PC.