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Interview Modojo Interviews Jordan Weisman on Shadowrun Returns

Crooked Bee

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Tags: Harebrained Schemes; Jordan Weisman; Shadowrun Returns

Modojo, a website dedicated to handheld gaming, have interviewed Jordan Weisman, the Shadowrun creator and the man behind Shadowrun Returns. One substantial piece of info is that you'll control "an entire team of Shadowrunners" in the game.

Congratulations on meeting the 400K goal in record time. You mentioned additional features that would be possible if that happened. Care to shine some light on what those would be?t

It has been a wild ride, and we can't believe the community rallied so quickly to fund the game in its first 28 hours. It does make an old man feel good to see that the game setting we created 23 years ago still has resonance for people, and that they responded so strongly to bringing that world back to life on modern platforms.

We added the Mac version, as that was a clear message from the fans. We are currently catching our breath and internalizing what we've heard from the community, and mapping it against our design goals and aspirations. Our plan is to post more about the game and funding "stretch" goals by the end of the day.

What about the graphics? Should we expect something along the lines of the Shadowrun Super Nintendo game? How far do you intend to push the iPad and Android devices?

We pride ourselves on the look and feel of our games, such as Crimson Steam Pirates, and Shadowrun Returns will be a beautifully gritty world that takes advantage of modern graphics. That said, our game concept is designed to be played in 2D, presenting a great deal of tactical information to the player to intelligently control an entire team of Shadowrunners, each of whom may have very different world views and each providing the player with more information and interaction options.

Some gamers feel these devices cannot be taken seriously when it comes to offering "core" experiences. How do you see Shadowrun Returns possibly changing this perception?

Shadowrun Returns will also be on PC, which is the home of "core" games. Having said that, the perception of mobile tablets as a platform only supporting very casual broad market games is a factor of installed base and is only a limitation of imagination. When a general purpose device has a limited installed base, you have to make games that appeal to everyone in order to have a big enough market, but with the enormous install-bases that iOS and Android devices have now, the market is big enough to create games for specific audiences, including the core audience. Plus, there is just something "right" about playing Shadowrun on a device that was science fiction when I wrote the game.​

Be sure to have a look at the full interview.
 

Havoc

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Sounds good. I hope they won't concentrate on tablets.
 

Bulba

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If you read the interview, than you must realize that it's being made primeraly for tablets and than for PC. This kills any desire for me to back this project.
 

Jaesun

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If you read the interview, than you must realize that it's being made primeraly for tablets and than for PC. This kills any desire for me to back this project.

Since Baldurs Gate and Planescape: Torment run on a tablet, I don't see the problem?
 

Crooked Bee

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On the other hand, he's talking about there being an appropriate "niche" on tablets and implying the game won't be a "casual" handheld title but will rather be directed at the "core" Shadowrun audience. And keep in mind he's giving an interview to a tablet gaming website, so the "will also be on PC" bit doesn't really mean PC comes second development-wise.

I'm not really taking sides, but I dunno, it can go either way imho.

EDIT: This was in reply to Bulba, obv.
 

mediocrepoet

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If you read the interview, than you must realize that it's being made primeraly for tablets and than for PC. This kills any desire for me to back this project.

That's exactly the reason I didn't back it. I think Shadowrun is awesome, but I don't have a tablet and have no interest in tablet style gaming. If they produce it and it looks like something I'd like to play on my PC, I'll pick it up then.
 

Spectacle

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Since they're supporting android, I'm hoping that I'll be able to run this game on my google glasses. M:
 

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You have to be one really assburned individual to not back a project just because of the mentioned order of the platforms. :lol:

Oh really. You actually think the design of a videogame would remain unchanged, wether it is being developed for an Android tablet or for PC?
 

sgc_meltdown

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I'm still looking for evidence of previous 'hardcore' tablet and mobile games. I'm not saying they can't pull that off, but it would be nice to see that such things are actually being bought.
 

sgc_meltdown

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48908562.jpg
 

Jaesun

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I'm still looking for evidence of previous 'hardcore' tablet and mobile games. I'm not saying they can't pull that off, but it would be nice to see that such things are actually being bought.

What publisher on Earth would ever Publish and fund such a game? None. There is no profit in it.

The fact PST and BG run on a tablet are proof enough for me.
 

sgc_meltdown

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The fact PST and BG run on a tablet are proof enough for me.

The other factor: the budget, still looks really low to me for the kind of awesome cybernetic elf with minigun experience I dream about

If they put out the right sound with their updates I'm guessing 1.2 mil in the end, maybe 1.5 and it will be the biggest budget tablet game ever and at least a step up from the console shadowrun games.

sweet 2D sprite cyberpunk rpg graphics
 

Jaesun

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The fact PST and BG run on a tablet are proof enough for me.

The other factor: the budget, still looks really low to me for the kind of awesome cybernetic elf with minigun experience I dream about

If they put out the right sound with their updates I'm guessing 1.2 mil in the end, maybe 1.5 and it will be the biggest budget tablet game ever and at least a step up from the console shadowrun games.

sweet 2D sprite cyberpunk rpg graphics

I'm NOT expecting TEH GREATEST CRPG IN THE GREATEST SETTING OF ALL TIEM!!!!!! for this project (That will be Wasteland 2).

When we have the fucking CREATOR of the PnP setting Shadowrun wanting to make a classic cRPG, that get's my attention. Someone who actually PLAYS PnP sessions.

But there is a number of worrying things, and as the weeks progress, hopefully most of these will be clarified. I highly doubt he will do a HARD CORE CRPG based in the Shadowrun setting, but it can't be any worse than the shit BioWare and Bethesda shit out. But that doesn't really say much. heh

Still, I'm backing this and cautiously fapping....
 
Unwanted

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The Kickstarter page mentions using a conversation system inspired by that SNES title. What can we expect from in-game conversations?

Well, they won't pass the Turing test and convince you our NPCs are real, but they should provide a lot of relevant contextual information and "color", hopefully without the frustration of having to navigate conversation trees.



:x
 

sgc_meltdown

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we have the fucking CREATOR of the PnP setting Shadowrun wanting to make a classic cRPG, that get's my attention.

Surprised me at first, but after a check I see he's been in the games industry awhile so he's not new to the business. It appears to be more of a 'what I've been wanting to do' project like WL2 so he's got that going for him, plus the setting of course.

But there is a number of worrying things, and as the weeks progress, hopefully most of these will be clarified.

yeah I might back this actually but I need to see him say something besides this vague 'core game' outline first. A lot of people compare this to preordering but not many people are going to preorder on that alone, however novel.


chin up son maybe it'll be like cyberpunk jagged alliance 2 aww yeahh son gimme that corporation warfare sup clockwork knight
 

Jaesun

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The Kickstarter page mentions using a conversation system inspired by that SNES title. What can we expect from in-game conversations?

Well, they won't pass the Turing test and convince you our NPCs are real, but they should provide a lot of relevant contextual information and "color", hopefully without the frustration of having to navigate conversation trees.



:x

I wondered that too, but I never played the game. Were they terribly done design wise or people are just idiots?
 

Roguey

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The Kickstarter page mentions using a conversation system inspired by that SNES title. What can we expect from in-game conversations?

Well, they won't pass the Turing test and convince you our NPCs are real, but they should provide a lot of relevant contextual information and "color", hopefully without the frustration of having to navigate conversation trees.



:x
Dialogue trees are honestly pretty terrible.
 

Aeschylus

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I don't see any particular reason why games for iOS and Android are *inherently* limited to being casual games. I mean, as has been mentioned Infinity Engine games are perfectly playable, as are old classic adventure games in ScummVM.

Granted, the basic design philosophy behind most tablet/smartphone games up to this point has basically been to be as simple as possible in order to turn a profit with minimum expense. That said, touchscreen controls have all the functionality of a mouse, though they're less convenient to use. It would be perfectly possible to play, say, Fallout on a tablet with minimal UI adjustments. It's just a matter of someone designing a game that doesn't suck. Maybe this will be it, maybe not. I just love Shadowrun enough that I don't really care.
 

Cosmo

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Has anyone played their game ? Does it get an honorable mention ?
 
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Hmm i was pretty stoked about this, but the issues with the game being developed for tablets plus their catalogue of casual titles makes me worried.
 

Stabwound

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If I remember the dialogue trees of Shadowrun SNES correctly, it was almost identical to the ones in Morrowind. You pick from a list of topics and certain "dialogues" unlock more topics for you to use. It isn't really that great of a system.
 

Grimlorn

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It doesn't matter if the infinity engine games can play on the tablets or not. The fact is they weren't made to run on tablets and I doubt playing them on tablets is as good as on PC. I bet there are control issues and it's an overall pain. They are going to have to make a game that plays well and controls well on tablets. This is going to be like a console game getting a PC port only worse because it will be a tablet game getting ported to PC.
 

superdeluxe

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He is talking to a site dedicated to mobile devices, do people really think he was going to talk up the pc and show mobile as a afterthought? Now we need a pc site to do a interview so people can step away from the ledge.
 

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