Avellone won't rewrite Wasteland 2, InXile is "running the show"

Obsidian's Chris Avellone has clarified what role he is likely to take in Wasteland 2's development if the project's Kickstarter reaches its target.

Avellone, who will be brought on board if funding reaches $2.1 million, told GameBanshee that he wouldn't be rewriting the detailed narrative outlined in design documents by former inXile staffer Jason Anderson and creator Brian Fargo.

"I have a lot of respect for Jason's story skills based on Fallout 1 and the story layouts for Fallout 2. 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," he said.

"Brian [Fargo] 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."

The Obsidian boss said Fargo knows best and that his own task will be to "provide knowledge from our experiences with RPGs and design, and help him realize his vision". In some ways it sounds like Avellone's task will be more like filling in the fine detail.

"A game story is always a starting place - it provides an overarching vision for the game," he said.

"If it’s anything like Obsidian’s narrative structure process, stories and areas get divided for individual designers to flesh out – it’s easy to say 'Quartz is taken over by a gang that’s holding the mayor hostage,' or 'New Reno is home to 4 mob bosses' but going from there is a long, fun design journey."

Wasteland 2's Kickstarter is at $1.8 million with 15 days remaining.

Thanks, EvilAvatar.