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[Column] General: Shadowrun: Hong Kong Defies KickStarter Fatigue
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Like many of you I’m suffering from Kickstarter fatigue. I’m even starting to grow weary of writing about it. Even new IPs from well renowned developers fail to raise my pulse if they are seeking money from players first and plan on delivering a product second. Crowdfunding is definitely a viable financing option for developers, however, and a highly successful developer has gone back to the Kickstarter well. Harebrained Schemes is looking to their fans to help expand upon their planned third Shadowrun game Hong Kong.
Read more of Rob Lashley's Shadowrun: Hong Kong Defies KickStarter Fatigue.
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UPDATE:
I wrote that Tuesday night. Since then they have broke the $450,000 mark and added more stretch goals. You can view them here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong
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I was able to trudge through the first one, but it never really felt much like the PnP, and instead felt clunky and tedious throughout.
I am actually very surprised it's gotten this much funding.
Dragonfall was a huge improvement over DMS, and of course it will not feel like PnP. It's impossible to re-create PnP feel in game because PnP relies heavily on interaction with your friends. Hell even playing PnPs online over chats/forums is vaslty different than doing it 'live'.It's still a decent game on it's own however if you like RPGs with turn based tactical combat.
As for the KS itself, Harebrained been pretty open from the start that Hong Kong is already underway and will launch anyway, even if the KS would fail. I think a lot of people didn't even treat is a kickstarter to begin with. Just a way to pre order with chance for extra content if they reach certain goals.
"While Seattle had some obvious Japanese influences on its culture, Hong Kong will have even deeper Asian influences and more cutting edge technology."
I just lol on this one, apparently Japanese have bad tech? I mean "Made in China/Hong Kong" does tell you something, cheap and broken all the time.
Seattle isn't Japan. Cheap goods aren't made in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a dramatically different place than mainland China. The game setting is in the future.
You stay sassy!
Even so, US have worst tech than hong kong? The chinese can use tech, but innovation is not their strong suit, they just copy stuff.
Americans during 60s and 70s have said the same thing about Japanese and German tech. First comes imitation. Then comes innovation. And people still make same inane comments. Some things never change.
I'm still waiting for a Shadowrun game with a world map and nonlinear gameplay. Not open world, just something like Baldur's Gate. Dead Man's switch felt like a corridor shooter in RPG form. As far as I know, Dragonfall let you choose your next mission from a bunch of alternatives, but its campaign was still entirely linear.
I suppose to each of their own. I really dislike majority of so so-called open world singleplayer games because too often they end up having no direction whatsoever and the open world content is limited to repetitive grind tasks with no impact on the world. With games like that I really prefer to just follow story, hence i wasn't impressed with DA:I ... too often 'open world' experience is pretty much just singleplayer version of MMO leveling.
Note the red part. Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Arcanum, The Witcher, etc. successfully avoid the corridor feeling without being like Skyrim.
Agree 100% I'm playing through DA:I right now and it's alright, but you are completely disengaged from, what should be, your primary concern. Hmmmmmm, kill demons and save the world or help this person pick flowers?
I think that in a cRPG it's always been about string story-driven gameplay and that seems to be something lacking these days, unfortunately.
I don't know that Shadowrun really defies KS fatigue, though. I mean it's a series, so if you like the series you should get an immediate infusion, and then it'll probably taper off. I mean Day 1 they had like $270k, Day 2 was half of that, Day 3 was half of Day 2, and so on. It'll be down to a trickle after that, probably. TBH., though, they're doing it right. $15 for a game is a pretty good deal. Wasteland 2 did the same, and didn't disappoint (and it's currently selling for $45 on steam).
Crazkanuk
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You don't have to help someone pick flowers in DA:I, if you are doing that it's by choice.
And I disagree about not being able to make a game feel like PnP, I don't mean the social aspect. The gameplay was just not very much like PnP. The closest I've seen a shadowrun game come was in a mud, and it was a lot better than Returns in that regard.
Shadowrun 3rd ed is the most I'm familiar with and perhaps that's why there's a disconnect, but in that version you could do SO MUCH with character creation. You could start with a million credits and access to some of the best gear if you wanted, or you could start with very little money but great stats and skills.
And why aren't we rolling dice in these games? I would love for one of these games to give us dice exactly to the PnP ruleset, and let us see them get rolled in full graphical glory.
You should go play Dragonfall Director's Cut (DLC expanded and made in to a standalone game). It is glorious.
I love it when they use stuff like "partners",gamer's who give devs money are NOT partners,not in any form fashion or way,not even 0.000000005 %,notta nothing.
If these guys or anyone want my money,then sell shares ,i can even accept ownership holds 55% but sell shares so people who invest actually feel like "partners".
Anything other than selling me a share in the business is just FREE hand outs.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. Hong Kong is as different from Mainland china as New York is from Russia.
In Hong Kong, the population was using smartphones with color screens back when people in the US and Europe where still using Nokia 6210's. Hong Kong is one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world.
No http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions
Papermaking - China was the first country in the world to make proper paper.
Movable-type printing - Chinese invention of Woodblock printing first appeared over 2,000 years ago, and produced the world's first printings
Gunpowder
Compass
Iron and Steel Smelting
Mechanical Clock - the world's first clock was invented by Yi Xing