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Jordan Weisman raises 57% of requested $400,000 on day 1 to reboot Shadowrun

Kickstarting to bring Shadowrun Returns to tablets

Jordan Weisman raises 57% of requested $400,000 on day 1 to reboot Shadowrun

The man behind creating the venerable Shadowrun role-playing game world is looking to bring its turn-based cyberpunk to the mobile gaming market... provided he can raise the capital.

Following in the phenomenally successful steps of Double Fine, Shadowrun's original creator Jordan Weisman, and a host of veteran writers and designers, have launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring Shadowrun Returns to iOS and Android tablets.

A simultaneous PC release is also planned, and should the Kickstarter campaign exceed the project goal of $400,000, a Mac version will follow.

Back in the day

Weisman has a long track record as a developer, co-founding the Microsoft-owned FASA Interactive, and working on game franchises such as MechWarrior and Crimson Skies.

More recently, he released Crimson: Steam Pirates for iPad published by Bungie, via his newly formed Harebrained Schemes studio.

He describes Shadowrun Returns as "a graphically rich 2D turn-based single player game with deep story interaction, meaningful character development, and highly-contextual tactical combat".

It will be more akin to the 1997 Super Nintendo version of Shadowrun than the 2007 first-person shooter, which received mixed reviews.

Do it yourself

The decision to make the gameplay turn-based will likely appeal to fans of retro games and the Shadowrun intellectual property itself (tabletop RPGs rarely transition well to FPS engines).

Also appealing to fans of richer role-playing experiences is Harebrained Schemes' announcement to release a PC-based level editor to grant the ability to create new missions and levels.

While Weisman states that it is "… about as far from the polished LittleBigPlanet editor as conceivable," he notes it will be the same one used to make the game.

Cash in

As for whether Weisman will get his cash, things are looking good.

At the time of writing, over $220,000 has already pledged with 24 days to go, making it likely we can look forward to some tablet and PC-based Shadowrun fun in the months ahead.

Indeed, in the time it took to write this story, the total sum of donations shot up by $15,000.

You can check out more details on its Kickstarter page.

Matthew Diener
Matthew Diener
Representing the former colonies, Matt keeps the Pocket Gamer news feed updated when sleepy Europeans are sleeping. As a frustrated journalist, diehard gamer and recovering MMO addict, this is pretty much his dream job.