Shadowrun Shadowrun: Hong Kong Pre-Release Discussion [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Infinitron]

Here's something I missed: http://memoryleakinterviews.com/jordan-weisman-harebrained-schemes/

• 0:00 – Introduction
• 2:23 – The recent Shadowrun : Hong Kong crowdfunding campaign. Co-financing on kickstarter, and the relationship between HBS and their backers.
• 5:04 – The differences between pitching a publisher-backed project and a crowd-funded one, and why connecting with consumers directly is so much fun.
• 8:16 – Incorporating backer feedback mid-development. Letting consumers see inside the chaos of development.
• 10:23 – Peter Molyneux, Godus, and the intrinsic unpredictability of game development. How HBS fell short of development goals for Shadowrun Returns and communicated with their backers.
• 13:23 – How to convince a business-minded person to invest in your creative work. Why pitching investors is like stand-up comedy.
• 16:16 – How to get comfortable with the inherent risks of creating art for commercial consumption. Mixing your artistic ambition with the realities of running a business.
• 22:18 – Why Jordan still prefers to work in smaller companies, on small teams.
• 29:04 – The differences between making games today and when Jordan started creating video games in the 1980s.
• 31:26 – The overhead of communicating with backers versus working with a publisher. The boost in team moral that results from sharing development with consumers.
• 36:09 – How to create the perfect intellectual property. A step-by-step guide using Crimson Skies as an example.
• 43:55 – The emotional challenge of losing rights to an IP you’ve created.
• 46:43 – How it felt to return to Shadowrun after so many years away. Why Jordan feels like the fans of Shadwrun are the true owners of the property.
• 50:17 – The formation of Jordan’s first company, FASA Corporation, in 1979. How a bridge simulator inspired him to leave school.
• 55:02 – Jordan tells me what he would do differently if he could start over again at the beginning of his career.
• 58:03 – I ask Jordan about working with his father and other members of his family in the companies he founded.
• 1:00:57 – Jordan discusses the 3-legged table; socialization, story, and gameplay. Why these things are central to the human experience.
• 1:04:02 – Thank you, and goodbye!

 

[Mr Giggles]

I backed Hong Kong at the $55 tier. It marks my first contribution to a kickstarter campaign - that's how much these recent shadowrun games have grown on me.

 

[Infinitron]

UPDATE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong/posts/1193346

Okay - on to some fun stuff!
In the last update, I mentioned that our new animator, Jakob, was upgrading some old animations in order to get his feet wet before busting out new stuff. Today, he's gonna share some of that new stuff!

Jakob: He-Who-Rocks-the-Anims
Hello! My name is Jakob and I’m the new animator on the Shadowrun team. I’m extremely excited to be working on Shadowrun and, hopefully, you’ll see that passion spill over into the game. I’ll be creating an extra level of immersion through animation with small things like ambient animations for NPCs in the background as well as designing new animations for the super awesome skills that have been added to Shadowrun: Hong Kong. One thing I really want to tell you about, though, is my favorite character you’ll be running with in Hong Kong - Gaichu!

Gaichu is a samurai and one of the ways we can show this is through his movements. To help catch the nuances of his traditional samurai technique, I looked at a lot of older samurai films such as The Seven Samurai. However, Gaichu’s also a ghoul and, typically, ghouls are deteriorating and don’t have complete control over their muscles. This leads to the very unique way Gaichu moves about the world, how he swings his katana and how he deals with his opponents.

This is why Gaichu is getting a whole suite of animations where you’ll be able to see the fusion between his ghoul deterioration and his samurai training. Everything he does is his own, and no one else has the same exact animation due to his unique situation. This, in turn, makes him standout an incredible amount compared to other people you’ve met in our previous Shadowrun games.

What's a samurai without a little stabby stabby?
As you can see, Gaichu can utilize either side of his ghoul-samurai duality. He has an assortment of ghoul based attacks, as well as a number of new samurai-katana based attacks.

What's a ghoul without a little rippy rippy?

And then there's this...
But that’s not all!

Gaichu is just one of the many characters who will get unique animations. Not all characters get full new suites of animation like Gaichu, but, oh boy, there’s a lot of new stuff coming. Almost all of the existing animations are getting pushed farther to be more appealing, and all of the unique skills your team members and you acquire will have their own animation sets. The goal is to make you and every other character you come across somewhat varied in some form or fashion. I want to try and capture the diverse universe that is Shadowrun, and a great way to do that, is body language.

Overall, I’m so excited to be working on a game that everyone on the team and all of the fans are so passionate about! It’s great to be surrounded by people constantly pushing to bigger and better heights, and to have such a dedicated community at our back.

That’s all from me!

--Jakob

 

[Darth Roxor]

sr ding dong will be so much better than poe its not even funny

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Did they release the soundtracks for the backers already? (from the first 2 obviously)

 

[Infinitron]

Get your books: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong/posts/1203155

Come and Get It!!

Now that we've locked down BackerKit, we've distributed the first of the digital rewards!! Depending on your pledge level, the following rewards will be found in your BackerKit account.

• Shadowrun Returns and Dragonfall Soundtracks
• Shadowrun 5th Edition Digital Tools Box
• Out of Print Sourcebooks - both rewards and add-ons
• Shadowrun Returns Key for Steam, GOG or Humble
• Shadowrun Dragonfall for Steam, GOG or Humble

All you have to do is log in here: https://shadowrun-hong-kong.backerkit.com/ to download the files and get the keys.

Note that your rewards will not be granted to your account unless you have completed your BackerKit survey and your account is fully paid which you can still do at the same link. We will distribute rewards to late backers early next week

As always, if you have any questions, please email us at info@hbs-studios.com.

Enjoy!

HBS

PS: Thank you so much to everyone that donated to the Bagel Fund! We had our first batch of bagels last Friday and they got us through the day!

And, here's a quick peek at a handful of the great Backer portraits that are being created by our Character Concept Artist, Joel. We'll have more about his work coming up soon!

 

[hoverdog]

 

[undecaf]

Reading the quickstart rules for the pnp and hoo boy, rolling a bucket full of d6 will no doubt be... exhilarating.

 

[Darth Roxor]

obligatory gming_shadowrun.gif

 

[Bleed the Man]

I don't seem to be able to download the PDF sourcebookI backed, while I had no problem downloading Dragonfall's soundtrack. Anybody here has been able to download their sourcebooks?

 

[Blackstaff]

I've been able to download shadowbeat without any problem. Just send a mail to HBS to sort that thing out : info@hbs-studios.com

 

[Infinitron]

Confirmed: Shadowrun Hong Kong Codex pledges come with the mini-campaign.

EDIT: Or is it?

 

[Infinitron]

Actually, wait a minute...how did I get that extra pledge on BackerKit? I gave $5 to the Codex campaign, not $15.

Did I just get an extra copy of the game by mistake? Has this happened to anybody else?

 

[rrc2soft]

Actually, wait a minute...how did I get that extra pledge on BackerKit? I gave $5 to the Codex campaign, not $15.

Did I just get an extra copy of the game by mistake? Has this happened to anybody else?

Me too. I gave $10, and I received a notification about an extra pledge on Backerkit.

 

[ArchAngel]

After PoE ending up the way it did, now I hope this game does not disappoint. Dragonfall DC was my GotY 2014, maybe this one will be for 2015

 

[Ulminati]

obligatory gming_shadowrun.gif

That is pretty much what GMing SR2E and SR3E was like if your group had a decker. SR4E to a lesser degree as well.

I just tell my players that if a run requires a dedicated decker, a NPC will be supplied. Everyone knows how much of a bother it is to run meatspace/matrix at the same time, so noone complains. Once that's out of the way, DMing shadowrun is a lot easier than DMing (non-prewritten) d&d.

Reading the quickstart rules for the pnp and hoo boy, rolling a bucket full of d6 will no doubt be... exhilarating.

If 5E is like 4E, it's not too bad. The only thing you care about is 5's, 6's and 1's. I bought one of these (black with white pips):

Then I used a black marker to remove the 2, 3 and 4 side pips. A red marker to mark the 1's for glitches and a green to mark the 6 for exploding dice on karma. We use dice cups to keep them from scattering all over the place, and you just count the # of colored dice after a roll.

Attribute + Skill + Modifier * D6 in the cup is actually a lot easier to remember than a bunch of different DCs and modifiers in D20. And the RNG distribution is more predictable (while still allowing for upsets) than rolling 1d20+2.

 

[Prime Junta]

Those backer portraits are gud. Way better than the ones in P:E.

 

[Darth Roxor]

That is pretty much what GMing SR2E and SR3E was like if your group had a decker. SR4E to a lesser degree as well.

Bonus points if the decker docks at the same time some wise-ass wizard asshole goes into the astral spehs while the rigger drives off in his Benz

 

[Stompa]

SR4E to a lesser degree as well.

Probably to higher, because 4E's Matrix rules were fucking retarded and broken.

Bonus points if the decker docks at the same time some wise-ass wizard asshole goes into the astral spehs while the rigger drives off in his Benz

Add in two or three drones for extra fun.

 

[Shadowfang]

Actually, wait a minute...how did I get that extra pledge on BackerKit? I gave $5 to the Codex campaign, not $15.

Did I just get an extra copy of the game by mistake? Has this happened to anybody else?

I haven't got mine yet. Hey, give it back man!

 

[Zetor]

You should get a mail saying 'response required', but the mail + backerkit site is a bit screwy if you also used the same email address to pledge to the KS directly... I actually ignored the mail at first because I figured it was another of those "CONFIRM YOUR PLEDGE NOW OR IT WILL BE LOST FOREVER LIKE TEARS IN RAIN" type reminders.

FWIW I pledged $15+ to the codex fundraiser, and I had a new 'chummer' ($15) entry in my backerkit account containing a SR:HK key, a mini-campaign key, soundtracks, and a wallpaper.

 

[SCO]

wait, i still haven't got any email from any source after paying the 15$ into the shadowrun HK codex campaign. Are people already receiving the codes?

 

[Infinitron]

wait, i still haven't got any email from any source after paying the 15$ into the shadowrun HK codex campaign. Are people already receiving the codes?

No, no codes, just a survey to fill on BackerKit on whether you want it on Steam/GOG/etc

 

[SCO]

Well i apparently don't have backerkit account because the 'confirmation email' is not appearing. Is this shit invite only? Because it's asking the 'associated kickstarter account' but remember: the codex made the payment. I'm checking the codex registered email, which is the same as the kickstarter one.

Well fuck this noise anyway, i only backed 15$ so no rewared here. Maybe that is the reason, not registered peons yet because no game digital download available yet.

 

[Gord]

I might be mistaken, but didn't the 15$ tier include the soundtracks for the first two games? Not that they aren't available on youtube, anyway...