Harebrained Schemes LLC | "DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!"

More proof that the best crowd-funded games do indeed make it into production once they grab huge sums of money, here’s a long look at a tiny chunk of what hardworking indie developer Harebrained Schemes (yes, that’s their name!) has cooked up so far with the $1,836,447 backers ponied up on Kickstarter. In addition, even if you happened to miss out on the big pledge drive, you can still pre-order the game in three affordable different configurations at prices ranging from $15 to $75 for PC, OSX and Linux-based computers. With an expected release window of sometime this summer (May/June 2013), as well as gameplay that’s decidedly old school (and great looking) 2D turn-based RPG in a cyberpunk setting (and you get a level editor to fool around with, to boot), it looks as Shadowrun Returns will be one of those cool indie games that makes a few “best of” lists once gamers get their hands on it…

Yikes. Just when I get to griping about underfunded indie games that NEED more notice, along comes this news, which I gather will make people forget all about that last post. I guess I need to pay more attention to Kickstarter, huh? Anyway, a bunch of ancient mariners behind the original game (you HAVE to love the name they chose for their studio: Harebrained Schemes, LLC) are getting together and bringing the FASA classic Shadowrun back with an all-new title called Shadowrun Returns.

Of course, the project is already doing SUPER well as it zooms toward its funding goal of $400,000. Amusingly enough, I kind of wish they were doing an English translation of the Japanese Sega Mega-CD version, as that’s one of those completely unique versions of the game that was only released on one platform and a pretty hard game to track down even if you happen to own the proper equipment to run it on.

Oh, don’t worry, I’m not complaining at all or anything. Er… other than wishing the economy was a hell of a lot BETTER for the games industry so that all of these projects could appear as physical product at a fair price point so MORE people would be able to buy and play them…