Shadowrun Returns Interview

GameInformer had the opportunity to corner S hadowrun Returns executive producer Mitch Gitel for a post-release conversation about the game’s successful Kickstarter campaign, its XCOM-inspired combat system, the relative linearity of its storyline, and more.

What response do you have to players who feel that the campaign is overly linear for an RPG?

I refer to your earlier question. Harebrained Schemes is a small studio working with a small budget and made a good looking RPG with a classless character creation system, fun combat, and a decent story in about a year and priced it at only $20. The games we’re being compared to often have 10-100 times the budget and team size and sell for as much as $60.

But my most important response is that we invested enormous time, budget, and effort to create an editor that allows people to unlock their creativity and create their own stories which players can download from Steam at no extra charge.

I am very, very proud of the team and our accomplishment.

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What are your hopes for how Shadowrun Returns will continue to grow in the coming months? What plans does the team at Harebrained Schemes have to add to the game, whether in the form of gameplay patches or new content?

We just released the iPad and Android tablet versions, and we’re supporting them and the PC and OSX versions of the game. The beta of our Linux version of the game is imminent. And our next update is almost complete. Beyond bug fixes, we’ve added some new features to the editor that our community of game masters should really like.

Most importantly, we’re working on our next story of roughly the same scope as Dead Man’s Switch, which takes place in Berlin. We’re very excited about it. Here are our main goals for the Berlin campaign:

‘¢ A more flexible main story arc choose which runs to complete first, and which factions to complete objectives for

‘¢ More depth to the NPC runner characters

‘¢ New weapons, outfits, portraits, music, and enemies including more magical creatures

‘¢ Improved Physical Adept gameplay along with additions for some of the other existing archetypes

‘¢ A European city with a very different look, (vibe), and cast of characters

‘¢ A story that highlights the compelling themes of the Shadowrun: Germany sourcebook