Shadowrun is Going to Hong Kong

[Pinetree]

Up to $576,666  now. I think it will beat $700,000 easily. On a related note, I started on Dragonfall:DC the other night, and played 8 hours without even realising it. Great storyline, feels like a SR novel.

[RooksBailey]

Up to $576,666  now. I think it will beat $700,000 easily.

Yeah, the activity is picking up again.  We will probably break $600K by tomorrow night.  At this rate, $700K should be easily doable long before the fundraising period ends!   O0

On a related note, I started on Dragonfall:DC the other night, and played 8 hours without even realising it. Great storyline, feels like a SR novel.

Me too!  I finished DMS last week and have since moved on to Dragonfall.  I've been pacing myself because I want to complete a blog entry on DMS first and don't want Dragonfall confusing my thoughts, but I still managed nine hours so far!     Like you said, the writing in these games are fantastic.  I particularly love the flesh and blood characters.  They all feel so real with their personality quirks.  Great stuff.   

Dev update:

Hey there!

Kevin Maloney here, one of the HBS designers. I've been around since pre-production on Shadowrun Returns and have been cranking away making shadows for you to run in ever since. Today I'm going to talk a bit about creating Hub Quest Content and a bit about our goals for Shadowrun: Hong Kong.

We've learned that one of the best ways to draw you into the world of Shadowrun is to create a gameplay hub that reflects the part of the world you are in. It was really great to watch Trevor do this with the Kruezbasar in Dragonfall taking it from its first prototype of just a few streets to a dynamic piece of the Flux State with engaging NPC's and a host of interiors to enter. When we were making Dragonfall, we latched onto the idea of the hub being a character that was as important as any team member. We're taking that same approach in Shadowrun: Hong Kong, so you can expect your hub to be filled with interesting NPCs and a few mysteries of its own.

This time around, I get my chance to create the Hub Content - in fact, I've already started! So far, it's just a bus stop with a few crew members in their placeholder appearances plus a collection of triggers needed for basic hub operations, but I'm looking forward to building out the rest of it! So, how do you design a Shadowrun Hub? It all starts with the story - everything we create is in service to that. Once the writers - in this case, Andrew and Mitch - have a good sense of what's going to happen and why, the artists and designers work together to determine the size, look, and feel of the hub in the editor. Then, between us all, we iterate on it over and over, revising and tweaking until we have a layout with a real sense of place and clear locations for all the people we want you to meet.

Developing a hub doesn't stop there, though. In order to make it feel rich and exciting, there are shops to be filled with items, small quests to be developed, and side characters to be fleshed out. The hub will continue to evolve all the way up to the end of production, as we get in the last bit of polish.

I'm looking forward to taking our best ideas about what it feels like to be neck deep in the shadows of Hong Kong and turning them into a place for you to experience.

Cheers,

Kevin

[Pinetree]

Here's an interesting site where you can track the trends and stats off the kickstarter:
http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong/

It even has a nifty little widget:

[RooksBailey]

Here's an interesting site where you can track the trends and stats off the kickstarter:
http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong/

It even has a nifty little widget:

That's neat!  Thanks!

The 2.6 million trend would be...nice to achieve.  LOL!

[RooksBailey]

And another milestone met: $600K!

Our favorite (former) Red Samurai/Ghoul's personal side mission = UNLOCKED! Thanks so much for the opportunity to make it.

In case you were wondering about Wu and Racter's personal side missions, we assure you that there's a plan. At the basic level, their stories will be part of shadowruns we've already planned (similar to how Dietrich's background was tied into the Humanis run in DF). But, of course, there's more to it than that... aaaaand that's all we're gonna tell you. :D

Just rest assured, we're not going to create two cool characters like these and not give you the chance to find out what makes them tick! We're confident that when you experience the story, they'll feel fully fleshed out like the rest of your crew.

And now that you've succeeded in unlocking Gaichu's personal mission, it's on to THE MATRIX!

The Shadowrun Returns team nearly killed themselves to get our original Matrix art and gameplay in the game and we're still extremely proud of that effort. But just like Thorin and Company, we ache to return again and make things right.

Onward!

HBS

O0

The game is now at $606, 046, so it already has a good jump on this final goal.  I hope we make it because the Matrix is bland at the moment. 

I wonder if they will be adding any more goals after this, or are they just going to take any excess money and invest it in the game in general?  I hope the latter.  Don't want to get into feature creep.

[RooksBailey]

Wow, $650,841 with 24 days to go!  I am glad I backed at the $35 level because new bonus features have been announced!

We have our plans set for the story we want to tell in Shadowrun: Hong Kong, but if we're lucky enough to reach the enormous sum of $1,000,000, we're gonna create an additional 4-5 hour Shadows of Hong Kong Mini-Campaign that takes place after the SR:HK story ends. Not only that, the Shadows of Hong Kong Mini-Campaign will allow you to IMPORT your high-karma Hong Kong character for a challenge only a prime runner could accept.

The Shadows of Hong Kong Mini-Campaign will come out sometime before the end of 2015 and will be free to Backers at the $15 pledge level and up. And you'll receive as many copies of the Mini-Campaign as you are eligible for at your reward level. For example, if you get 3 copies of Shadowrun: Hong Kong at the $150 level, you'll also get 3 copies of the Mini-Campaign.

Make sense? Good!

But no matter what funding level we reach, it's BONUS TIME!

Everyone who backs the project at the $35 Reward Level and above will get access to an AUDIO COMMENTARY TRACK from the Shadowrun Development Team. Hear the writers, designers, artists, engineers, and composer discuss how the game was made, the challenges they faced, and the fun they had while making the game. The audio commentary will arrive in an update after the game is released.

AND everyone who backs at the $35 Reward Level and above will also get TWO HIGH-RES DIGITAL POSTERS that, when placed together, combine into combine into a beautiful Shadowrun Panorama. The first poster contains a Timeline of Shadowrun History. The second contains a Glossary of Shadowrun Slang. Tell your friends!

[Pinetree]

Just reached $700,000!We get the upgraded Matrix now, sweet!Sorry, I meant wiz, chummer! Looking on track for a million.

[RooksBailey]

Just reached $700,000!We get the upgraded Matrix now, sweet!Sorry, I meant wiz, chummer! Looking on track for a million.

Woohoo!

Do you think we'll make it to the million mark?

[Pinetree]

I think so, there may be a lull period soon but I think another 300k in  3 weeks is very doable.

[RooksBailey]

I think so, there may be a lull period soon but I think another 300k in  3 weeks is very doable.

I have to admit that I am surprised at the alacrity with which we made $700K.   

Update:

The Matrix Unlocked
   
Posted by Harebrained Schemes LLC
   
   
Huzzah!

Now that we’ve hit our funding goal for the Revamped Matrix, we thought you’d like to hear a bit more about what we’re planning. As we said, our goal is to evolve the gameplay along with the look & feel of the Matrix in Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Overall, we want the decker’s gameplay to feel like dangerous legwork, investigation, and hacking.
One of the ways we hope to achieve this is with increased opportunities for risk & reward. The more chances you take outside the scope of achieving your core objectives, the more potential benefit to you… and the greater chance of being discovered. Combat will still be a factor, but it won’t be your entire Matrix experience.

To that end, we’ve created a list of new Intrusion Countermeasures (IC) that we plan to add to the game. The new IC is intended to expand Matrix gameplay beyond simple combat mechanics by adding new types of interactions. All have been designed on paper and reviewed by our engineers and artists. Once they’ve proven out through prototyping and we’re confident in our ability to execute on them, we’ll share them in a future Backer Update.

As with DMS and DF, you’ll still break into a corporation's secure local systems during a run to gain access to a variety of tactical objectives but there will also be places in the story where you’ll travel through distinct areas of cyberspace to “sculpted systems” - distinct digital representations of their owners.

By revising the basic look and sound of the Matrix and creating small “set pieces” of sculpted systems, we hope to give you a better feeling of traveling through cyberspace (for illicit purposes, of course). Concept art for our updated Matrix environment, including an image of a sculpted system will appear in a future Backer Update.

Stay tuned! 

I hope it feels more computer-y and less like a fevered dream. 

[RooksBailey]

This has been making the rounds on the internet lately.  It is a fan-made trailer for a Shadowrun movie/TV show.  We can dream, can't we?

Well done.     It's fun to try and pick out the movies in there.  Spotted Blade Runner, of course.   :)  There is also a clip from CDProject Red's Cyberpunk game (please come out this year, please come out this year).  Also, Lawnmower Man, I think.

[panzerde]

I think I saw a quick bit from Ghost in the Shell...

[RooksBailey]

I think I saw a quick bit from Ghost in the Shell...

Good catch!  I think you are right! O0

[Pinetree]

With one week to go, its up to $880,379. It's been making a steady average of about $10-12 grand a day. Looking good for a mil.

[Pinetree]

$996,496 now with 2 1/2 days to go. Nearly there! We're going to get a high-powered mini-campaign now.