In early April, game developer Harebrained Schemes launched the latest attempt to fund a major game project with the Kickstarter crowd sourcing website. The project was Shadowrun Returns, a revival of the cyberpunk-themed game series. On Saturday, the Kickstarter campaign ended after 25 days and the game ended up with $1,836,447 from the website.
Harebrained Schemes also used Paypal for people outside the US who couldn"t fund the project via Kickstarter. Adding that amount brought the full total of the Shadowrun Returns funding campaign up to $1,895,772.
Now the team actually has to make the game. Shadowrun Returns will be a 2D turn-based game with strategy elements and will be released for the PC (along with a level editor), as well as the Mac. iPad and Android tablet versions are also planned. The game itself is being developed under the leadership of Jordan Weisman, who created the Shadowrun franchise 25 years ago. It"s due to be released in January 2013. More information on the game will be revealed on the Shadowrun web site.
In related news, the Kickstarter campaign to make a remake of the first Leisure Suit Larry game, with its creator Al Lowe involved, has now exceeded its $500,000 goal with less than three days to go before the campaign shuts down.