Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Interviews & Updates

Couchpotato

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The Kickstarter campaign for Shadowrun: Hong Kong continues to earn more money by the minute, and has now made over four times what Harebrained Schemes asked for.

Harebrained Schemes released three more updates in the last 24hrs.

"Our first Kickstarter for Shadowrun Returns funded at $400,000 in 28 hours. Can we beat that by 2pm Pacific time? Looks like it's gonna be tight! "
And of couse they did make it by earning $404,361, and another strech goal.

"That's like 400% or something...

That means the (former) Red Samurai Gaichu is yours! Congrats on your new badass!

And don't forget, now that Racter and Gaichu are unlocked, their NUMBERED COLLECTIBLE FIGURES have been added to THE TALISMONGER Reward Level! That's now five figures total. Huzzah!

Our next funding goal is Enhanced Cyber! That means new cyberweapons with new animations and effects. Sure, it means other stuff like cutting edge cybertech... but come on! Cyberweapons? Sa-weet!"
I'll finish the new-bit with a few links to a couple of interviews this week.


  1. RPGamer - Shadowrun: Hong Kong Interview
  2. GhostVolta - Developer Interview: Hairbrained Schemes
  3. Arcology Podcast - Mitch Gitelman Interview
More information.
 
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I don't say it enough times already so here goes congratulations Harebrained Schemes, and to all you doubters & cynics I also have something say.

You were all wrong as the game is on track to make more money then the first game.

Link - http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong/

Lets just hope pledges don't crawl to a stop, and as usual pick up at the end.
 
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Excellent team! Well worth the success. Also Harebrained is easily the best Kickstarter performer. They deliberately set the price low at 100K, this time, to get amazed, how donations progress. It was a good idea: will give emotional support through the campaign and keep energies for the team high!
 
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I don't say it enough times already so here goes congratulations Harebrained Schemes, and to all you doubters & cynics I also have something say.

You were all wrong as the game is on track to make more money then the first game.

Link - http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong/

Lets just hope pledges don't crawl to a stop, and as usual pick up at the end.

Obviously at this early stage the trending from sites like Kicktraq & Kickspy aren't likely to be very accurate predictions. I'd love to see this KS break Torment: ToN's record.. but I'd guess it is more likely this will end up around $2million again at best.

Hong Kong already has nearly 1/3 of the total number of backers SRR ended up with... so that's great and if all these people keep spreading the word, the number of backers could grow exponentially. However, there aren't as many high rollers as in SRR's KS; the highest tier that has been claimed so far is $1,000. It seems that people are being a bit more cautious in how much they give to KS projects these days. Aside from supposed KS fatigue, it could be that this being the 2nd SR Kickstarter, some of the excitement / nostalgia factor of another SR game has worn off... Or there's too many fans who have played the decent "Dead Man's Switch" campaign, but have yet to play the absolutely outstanding Dragonfall DC.

Or maybe the SR fans with disposable income just don't like the rewards as much.
I've been following the KS comments and while they're mostly positive, there have been some complaints about the limited physical rewards. Lots of people want boxed copies, posters, and other collector's items. I think HBS is being really smart here about limiting the amount of physical loot; I've heard they spend nearly 1/3 of the $1.8 million from their first campaign just fulfilling the physical rewards. So it could be that even if this KS doesn't raise as much money as the first, HBS will actually receive more funds to put into the game development.
 
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I have to wonder what they would do, stretch goals-wise, with $4 million? A multitude of side missions?

Most of the rewards aren't that interesting to me, although I might go for the 'Beginner Box and Alpha Toolkit' if they explained what they are. More digital modding tools or lightweight physical goods (postcard-sized picture or a laptop sticker) would be nice.
 
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Although I never said I did not think they would make their goal (and would have said they would make $100,000 no prob) I definitely did say I did not think they would make as much as last time so I guess that would make me a naysayer. I'm not quite wrong yet but it is looking that way.

So like Couch said, congrats Harebrained. I hope that I get proven WAY wrong.
 
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I'm probably in the minority but I like stretch goals that are more vague. Use the extra money to make the game better (how the dev sees fit) and spend more time polishing and bug fixing. The less specific stretch goals, the less complaining when it turns out something won't work in this instance.

I think it would be great if at a certain point they just said something along the lines of "thanks for the continued support. We will use any extra funds to continue to make this game the best it can be and help fund future projects." Maybe that would not drive as many new pledges but it would be clean and honest.
 
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Yes, specifying goals that allow some wiggle room is probably best; those allow for significant design changes to be made without disappointing (or annoying) contributors. Apart from the new crew members, none of the current funding goals seem to lock them in too ridigly.
 
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