Kickstarter's popularity since the recent gaming boom has become a topic for a lot of media outlets. It hasn't died out yet and, presumably, won't die out until some large budget project flops horribly, effectively pushing the entire situation to the back of everyone's mind. Of course the flip side is that this might actually be a shift in the industry for the better, and many developers like Double Fine Productions and InXile Entertainment are hoping that this is the case.
Speaking of InXile, do you know Brian Fargo, "Leader in Exile" of InXile Entertainment? No? He only worked on games like "The Bard's Tale" and "Wasteland." He even worked at Interplay, which puts him in the company of other big names like Chris Avellone (of "Baldur's Gate," "Planescape: Torment," and "Fallout: New Vegas" fame, and whom we got the chance to interview).
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| Brian Fargo, CEO of InXile Entertainment. |
Fargo said he is excited since the funding of his studio's campaign gives them creative freedom to do everything their way, and he feels that this particular model may be perfect for small or medium-sized companies like his.
Fargo said production for "Wasteland 2" started the minute the project reached it's funding goal on Kickstarter. From design choices about the combat interface to choosing the engine, InXile has been hard at work to ensure that they delivered.
Fargo said he is really excited about giving fans the experience they've been waiting for for so long. "I get to come in every day now and just worry about how to make the game better," said Fargo. "It's fantastic."
Even with the fun, he mentioned that he's feeling a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver.
The team-up with Obsidian Entertainment on the project has also caused a lot of buzz. Fargo says that working alongside Chris Avellone and his team will help with the integration of assets and that Avellone is a large part of much of the creative process.
On a more personal level, Fargo was able to talk about his position at InXile.
In previous years, Fargo had to wear many hats when working. Creative types thought he was a businessman while business types thought he was a creative. However, that was never a problem for him as said that he feels that his biggest contribution is his management abilities. He said he has the ability to communicate well with all members of the development team because of his background in both sides of the industry. That helps him find team members that he feels are the best in their fields.
"I've always made a point of hiring people smarter than me in each category," he said.
Fargo mentioned that it's not necessary to know everything about everything if you're just going to be a programmer, but if you're going to be a producer you should know enough to be an interpreter between the different fields, which is what he tries to be for his teams. He mentioned that he even reads books on psychology, film and music to help him better understand how to marry all the different aspects together for a project.
"Information is always power," said Fargo. "You could be an AI programmer and just be the best of the best in that and not have to worry about those other things," he said. "But the more you know that helps you communicate with your team members, the better."
One of the most important qualities Fargo mentioned that people need to have is persistence. He demonstrated his persistence when he went all the way to Sweden to snag the right concept artist. After only seeing his work on deviantArt, he contacted the artist numerous times, not taking no for an answer, and finally go him on board.
"To me, that's how I work. I see something, I know it's good, I get very passionate about it and I pursue it," Fargo said.
To have a background and a context for game making is critical according to him as well. He mentioned that he used to go out and see dozens of movies, read tons of books and comic books, and look at what games were in the stores and why there were selling. He said having the knowledge of what has been done before and why it worked or didn't helped him a lot in the beginning his career and still works to his advantage today.
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| Knowledge of all facets of culture is a necessity for a producer, according to Fargo |
"I think the most important thing is knowing a category cold," said Fargo. "If you're going to be doing role-playing games, then you better know everything that's come before you."
Something interesting he said was that people trying to be developers and designers were just playing games for fun, and not really sitting down and analyzing games and studying them to understand why they're fun and why they work.
For Fargo, the thing that makes people valuable to a team is if they can teach him things he didn't know before.
"I can't know everything," he said. "To me, the young guys that are tapped in and understand - that's what we need."
His biggest piece of advice for students is to utilize the talent pool available to them at their colleges or universities. Gathering a group of people and actually making something tangible is supremely important.
You can follow Brian Fargo on Twitter here.
