The project currently has 10,393 backers, no publisher is going to make a game for that audience. Its great that all these projects are being successful and we will see new games but even the most successful of these kickstarter campaigns (DoubleFine Adventure) only had just shy of 80,000 backers, the publishers are completely justified in not wanting to make games for what they see as tiny markets.
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Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter project by Harebrained Schemes [Ended, $1.8M funded]
- Thread starter V_Ben
- Start date
The project currently has 10,393 backers, no publisher is going to make a game for that audience. Its great that all these projects are being successful and we will see new games but even the most successful of these kickstarter campaigns (DoubleFine Adventure) only had just shy of 80,000 backers, the publishers are completely justified in not wanting to make games for what they see as tiny markets.
MMaRsu
Member
Yeah because kickstarter reaches the entire audience right?
I am going to be purchasing many of these kickstarter games and since my time is limited I will purchase less mainstream "big budget" titles. I am probably not the only one.
And I was not suggesting that Ubisoft should have tried to make Shadowrun into the next Assassins Creed-size phenomenon, there are other small shops that could have taken a shot at Shadowrun sooner.
Everything has to be the next CoD or GTA these days......
As well as the rebirth of 'Mech games (Mechwarrior: Online, Mechwarrior: Tactics, Hawken, etc.).
Ignis Fatuus
Banned
I really wonder what they were planning to do with just $400,000. I mean the Leisure Suit Larry guys say they need $500,000 to remake an existing adventure game. Brian Fargo marked $1,000,000 as the absolute minimum for a game in the same genre. $400,000 sounds like a shoestring budget with just a handful of people.
Fortunately it looks like they're on their way to making that $1,000,000.
Fortunately it looks like they're on their way to making that $1,000,000.
I sometimes wonder if these game Kickstarters are more for just a bit more cash to actually produce a game (and get guaranteed sales at the same time). In that case they may've had the funding set for Shadowrun, but needed to build capital for that last push, and if possible go even further as more comes in.
EternalGamer
Banned
That's my read. They hope for more, but they can self fund the rest if they can get the minimum, at least I hope that is how they are planning it.
In some cases they can throw their own money in, but the majority of money in budgets goes to dev wages, so I imagine they are taking cuts to make this sort of thing feasible (it also helps that they actually get to keep the profit generated with post-release sales).
That tends to be why budgets are high - teams are large and each person has to be paid, often over the course of more than a year. If the people on the team take cuts at the start of development, then they can whittle that budget down pretty substantially.
DiscoJer
Member
Well, I think it's pretty much going to look like a hi-res version of the SNES game.
Whereas Wasteland 2 probably has a higher target - starting at Fallout.
Bear in mind, Harebrained Studios does mobile games (someone posted screens of their previous titles), so that's probably where they are starting from, while inXile has started on consoles/PC and gone to mobile
Dr. Kitty Muffins
Member
Harebrained teamed up with Bungie Aerospace for one title. I wish that this game was actually big enough in scope that they would collaborate again.
MrCunningham
Member
11,134 Backers
$501,489 pledged of $400,000 goal
23 days to go
Already at half a million dollars!
$501,489 pledged of $400,000 goal
23 days to go
Already at half a million dollars!
Ignis Fatuus
Banned
Good to see it's not really slowing down. The shortened timeframe does create a greater sense of urgency.
Note how much they talk about 'levels' and about participating in missions or 'runs', along with lots of mention of short stories leading to a cohesive whole. I have a feeling from reading between the lines a little that they're actually going for a PnP RPG feel - that is, characters being persistent through a set of discrete *standalone* modules. Doing that rather than a single massive quest in an open world should save a fair amount of money.
DangerousDave
Member
Well, it's kickstart a game, not pay all the development cost to be able to distribute the game free.
With the initial money you can start depeloping the game and have some results in order to look for an investor (or credit), finish the game and then use the revenues of the sales of the game. The kickstarter money is not all the money that the game will make.
Lonewolf_92
Member
$533,917 so far, 22 days to go.
Here's a (brief and doubtlessly incomplete) overview of the works of Tom Dowd, one of the people involved with Shadowrun Returns, in the Shadowrun Universe for those interested (and to pad out this post a bit
):
Source Books:
Harlequin (Shadowrun Adventure)
Harlequin's Back (Shadowrun Adventure)
Street Samurai Catalog
Neo-Anarchists the Guide to North America
Cybertechnology
Virtual Realities
Fields of Fire
Paranormal Animals of Europe
Bug City
Silver Angel (Shadowrun Adventure)
Divided Assets
Short Stories:
A Plague of Demons (appearing in "Into The Shadows")
Novels:
Night's Pawn
Burning Bright
Loved Bug City, maybe we'll see some Insect Shamans in SR: Returns? For those unfamiliar with the SR setting, shaman take on aspects of their totem animal, a Rat Shaman might get beady eyes and buck teeth and a love for cheese for example, but those who heed the call of Insect Spirits take on this quality even more so, becoming pawns of their spirit rather than merely being guided by them and their bodies get twisted into bug/human hybrid forms able to inflict similar results onto even those not magically gifted. Bug City, Chicago of the Shadowrun universe, is one place where such a breakout happened. The infestation was so extreme that the UCAS simply walled off the city and posted heavily armed guards to contain it instead, leaving the citizens to fend for themselves. Imagine a post-apocalyptic future Chi-Town swarming with creatures sort of like the Xenomorphs of Aliens, throw in a little S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (several Megacorps had important branches in Chicago before the infestation), and you sort of got the idea of the setting in the book. He was also one of the guys behind the Harlequin character as he appeared in SR (I seems to recall someone mentioning him in this thread).
Here's a (brief and doubtlessly incomplete) overview of the works of Tom Dowd, one of the people involved with Shadowrun Returns, in the Shadowrun Universe for those interested (and to pad out this post a bit
):Source Books:
Harlequin (Shadowrun Adventure)
Harlequin's Back (Shadowrun Adventure)
Street Samurai Catalog
Neo-Anarchists the Guide to North America
Cybertechnology
Virtual Realities
Fields of Fire
Paranormal Animals of Europe
Bug City
Silver Angel (Shadowrun Adventure)
Divided Assets
Short Stories:
A Plague of Demons (appearing in "Into The Shadows")
Novels:
Night's Pawn
Burning Bright
Loved Bug City, maybe we'll see some Insect Shamans in SR: Returns? For those unfamiliar with the SR setting, shaman take on aspects of their totem animal, a Rat Shaman might get beady eyes and buck teeth and a love for cheese for example, but those who heed the call of Insect Spirits take on this quality even more so, becoming pawns of their spirit rather than merely being guided by them and their bodies get twisted into bug/human hybrid forms able to inflict similar results onto even those not magically gifted. Bug City, Chicago of the Shadowrun universe, is one place where such a breakout happened. The infestation was so extreme that the UCAS simply walled off the city and posted heavily armed guards to contain it instead, leaving the citizens to fend for themselves. Imagine a post-apocalyptic future Chi-Town swarming with creatures sort of like the Xenomorphs of Aliens, throw in a little S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (several Megacorps had important branches in Chicago before the infestation), and you sort of got the idea of the setting in the book. He was also one of the guys behind the Harlequin character as he appeared in SR (I seems to recall someone mentioning him in this thread).
Minsc
Gold Member
They need to update some new funding goals pronto! The 425k Mac version goal got pasted like minutes after the update lol. Nice to see it being backed so heavily, I enjoyed the SNES version from what I can remember, never revisited it or spent much time with the PnP versions, but perhaps I'll check out one of those novels soon.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
An alternate $100 box tier would do me nicely.
ElectricThunder
Member
They HAVE to get a sizable update out today, ideally somewhere this afternoon to give some clarity/specific figures. I mean, given the whole Mac lapping thing that took like 5 minutes, at this rate the funding has probably already secured another thing or so that they would've mentioned yesterday or whatever if they'd had time to do so.
They need to give the weekend something concrete and multi-faceted to chew on, and ideally not something that'll get gobbled in 15 minutes before people head out for Friday night as hilarious as that would be.
They need to give the weekend something concrete and multi-faceted to chew on, and ideally not something that'll get gobbled in 15 minutes before people head out for Friday night as hilarious as that would be.
Jordan said in the update video that they are working on planning additional stuff for the extra funding. But I'm unsure when they will be ready to announce it.
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
they were not prepared for the onslaught im sure they have hourly dance offs every time they recheck kickstarter gotta give them time to come up with new cash goals
Great Poster
Member
An XBLA/PSN version would be sweet...I know the dev costs on those platforms are higher and the profits aren't as nice, but I'm guessing the fan base would probably add about 20-30% more in total sales...
With those platforms it's entirely up to publishers, and publishers are the reason why this Kickstarter exists in the first place. If there's one thing I want changed next gen, it's for Microsoft and Sony to significantly relax their online platform restrictions.
Lonewolf_92
Member
Things that have been discussed to be added for additional funding:
Linux version
Riggers
Co-op
PVP Death match
Polishing the editor
Riggers and polishing up the editor are the ones I'm most interested in myself, but I'm sure I'm likely in the minority.
Linux version
Riggers
Co-op
PVP Death match
Polishing the editor
Riggers and polishing up the editor are the ones I'm most interested in myself, but I'm sure I'm likely in the minority.
Dr. Kitty Muffins
Member
Remember, you can manage your donation at any time should you decide to increase it.
15 dollar automatically gives you a downloadable copy of the PC game and it can be activated on Steam.
15 dollar automatically gives you a downloadable copy of the PC game and it can be activated on Steam.
Ignis Fatuus
Banned
I like how the $10,000 tier is already sold out. People like their tabletop I guess.
Vyse The Legend
Member
I'm in for $30. I'm willing to go up to $100 if a boxed version appears.
I'm just hoping all the extra money doesn't make them try to add too many things to the game and either 1. bloat it up too much or 2. extend the release date significantly.
That said, I'm definitely in, and I'm leaning towards $100. Shadowrun Genesis is one of VERY few games I ever replay (as in one of only two or three).
That said, I'm definitely in, and I'm leaning towards $100. Shadowrun Genesis is one of VERY few games I ever replay (as in one of only two or three).
I'm in! All in baby. I loved both the Genesis and Super NES Shadowrun titles, never got to play the Sega CD one, and would love to see more of the same. I of course hope these guys can deliver the goods but even if the game isn't amazing I at least hope that it along with the browser game give the franchise increased visibility and make it look attractive for a real big budget game. But hopefully this Kickstarter game turns out amazing anyways.
MightyHedgehog
Member
Yeah, the turnaround time is too short for a game like the SNES or Genesis ones, but enough time to put together a turn-based ruleset-driven game environment with editor to create standalone scenarios. If it is this way, I'd love to see extra money go toward making the game feel fully-integrated in all of its features and content. Instead of a plain-Jane mission browser, I'd love to see a small 3D Seattle (like the old Ghostbusters game) to travel to these Johnsons for jobs and then to the appropriate predetermined mission site or to a point inside of the mission area for final deployment. Random missions while traveling the map could be based on character skills and stats, like fame or reputation, as well as being hunted for by other (AI) members of or contracted 'Runners working for factions. If your Perception checks succeed, you may be able to spot those stalking you on the map and work from there, getting away or initiating combat on your terms, kinda like a Pac-Man-like simplicity to the city/mission navigation, but with SR-driven action and options. It would all be simultaneous turn-based using an easy and quick boardgame layout and navigation interface and a character creator/editor/browser.
Anyway, just an idea for integrating campaign and user-created missions into a singular user's view of Seattle when polling the network for available missions, passively using character match criteria or with user-enabled filters. Much better than a detached set of lists, anyway, but probably only something better fit to consoles and dedicated handhelds.
New update: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects.../202725?ref=email&show_token=9da5a0e83dab4c83
They're dropping Linux support, Multiplayer and Coop because of scope concerns. Seems reasonable, thought I feel bad for our Linux brethren.
They're dropping Linux support, Multiplayer and Coop because of scope concerns. Seems reasonable, thought I feel bad for our Linux brethren.
Ignis Fatuus
Banned
That's a pretty nifty graphic. I think they'll hit a million easily.
We still have ShadowRun Online still.
MightyHedgehog
Member
Gotta love the way Weisman handles these videos. Excellent stuff.
So true. They're handling this stuff very well. I imagine Kickstarters will just become better as time goes on and people can look back on things that others did that were effective or not.
Yeah, they really nailed the spirit of Kickstarter. They look honest and willing and that's how we like them.
indigo-cyclops
Member
Love the sound of what may come if it hits $1m...can't fucking wait for new ShadowruN! AHH!
Just makes the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter more frustrating, heh. It feels like they could have done so much better, even though they already went past their original amount quite a bit.
Even something like regular video updates can have a big effect. Weisman here is giving people some good information and he's doing it early on, and personalizing it via video instead of just text.
DiscoJer
Member
I love how he described what the game will look like - X-com like.
I was just going to go in for $15, but I think after this, $60 it is.
Ignis Fatuus
Banned
Yeah that's the sort of thing that helps a lot. Even if it isn't video, just putting some concrete info out there is a good idea. Fargo hasn't really done much of either, unfortunately.
Jake Tower
Banned
Sweet. Now do a new Crimson Skies.
Ignis Fatuus
Banned
I don't think Fargo really needs any more money. They'll be hitting 2.5 mil easily with the end spike.
Every chunk of cash helps. DFA didn't need anywhere near 3.3 million either, but they got it, and that'll just make for a bigger, better game.