Shadowrun may be the most popular geek franchise you’ve never heard of. The game started life in 1989 as a pen-and-paper roleplaying game, and while it never quite achieved the same notoriety outside of nerd circles as its distant cousin Dungeons & Dragons, or even it’s contemporary Vampire: The Masquerade, it’s always been much beloved for its kitchen-sink approach to fantasy. Elves, trolls, and orcs? Check. Dystopian cyperpunk future? Check. Wizards and hackers rubbing shoulders as they battle against massive evil corporations? Check.
Now, after many years in the wilderness, Shadowrun is back in video game form, thanks largely to a $1.8 million dollar Kickstarter campaign that allowed the game’s creator, Jordan Weisman, to get his hands back on the property. Weisman and producer Mitch Gitelman were on hand Sunday at SXSW to show off some of the results, in their RPG Shadowrun Returns.
There have been video game adaptions of Shadowrun before. The early 90s spawned Super Nintendo and Genesis versions. There have also been a number of tabletop spinoffs, and the print game has survived. However, due to the ailing fortunes of FASA studios, the game’s original home, the video game license has spent many years in limbo. A particularly poorly-received Xbox adaption in 2007 was believed to be the final nail in the coffin. That was when Weisman reacquired the rights the to the game, which had been held by Microsoft.
Weisman’s time — and the money of his backers on Kickstarter — has been well spent.The game has the look and feel of the best computer RPGs of the 90s and early 2000s, sporting a clean, top-down isometric perspective that allows an excellent view of the player’s character as he or she skulks through the rainy streets of Seattle. But the game’s impressive visuals aren’t the most interesting part. The developers will be releasing their home-grown level editor along with the game so that players can start from scratch and make their own adventures.
”You can take the entire campaign apart, see how we did everything,” and tweak it to your heart’s content, said Weisman.
Weisman and Gitelman walked the audience through a quest that they showcased first in a video released on Friday, outlining the game’s underlying systems as their characters sneaked through a hidden corporate lab. Fans of the tabletop version will find familiar rules under the hood, governing everything from whether or not guards in the next room respond to the sounds of gunfire or transferring your consciousness into a robotic drone and maneuvering through ventilation shafts.
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Fielding a question from a fan about which of the many incarnations of Shadowrun is most closely represented in the game, Gitelman was confident that there would be something in the game for all the fans
“We’re trying to attract people that love Shadowrun,” Gitelman said. “Narrowing that audience in any way makes no sense to me.”
Weisman agreed, noting that because of the Kickstarter funding model, he and the rest of the team felt a huge responsibility to the fans.
”This is the highest pressure gig I’ve ever had,” said Weisman.
“We’re working in a fishbowl,” Gitelman added.
But both also expressed hope that kickstarter could be not only a way to resurrect beloved fanchises, but also a venue for developing new and interesting properties.
“We’re here because this is a property we all cared about previously,” Weisman said. “But I hope Kickstarter moves beyond these nostalgia plays.”
Players hoping to build their own elven street samurai or troll shaman can get their hands on Shadowrun Returns later in 2013 as a DRM-free download for PC, Mac, and Linux.
Really looking forward to this. I loved the Shadowrun books as a kid.