Shadowrun Returns Interviews

With just about one month left to go until Shadowrun Returns releases unto swathes of hungry RPG fans, we’ve got a couple of new interviews about the game to tide you over. Both of them are themed around the level editor that is shipping along with the game.

TechZwn offers a very short interview with executive producer, Mitch Gitelman:

TechZWN: This game is being labeled as an indie title, but has actually been a long time franchise. When working for the project, does it feel more like a more humble indie game production or something larger?

Gitelman: Shadowrun has been around a long time but you can’t quite label it a franchise because it’s gone through so many owners and developers. It hasn’t been controlled by one company for many years. Harebrained Schemes has no publisher and no marketing department. We work directly for our players. As I look around the room at our team of tired developers, I can tell you it feels really indie to me.

TechZWN: I noticed on the provided website there will be conversation editing and character editing. Will this be done in Unity or another package? Will this editor be free of charge? Does Harebrained Schemes intend in seeing a lot of user mods for this title?

Gitelman: There’s far more than conversation and character editing! We’re releasing our complete game editor exactly the same tools we’re using to make the games. In addition, we’re releasing the entire campaign in the editor so you can see how it was built and borrow as much as you need to jump-start your own creations. The editor comes with the game on Windows and Mac and we hope to see a ton of community created content for it!

Shacknews has an article-style interview with Jordan Weisman:

One aspect of the editor that’s off-limits is weaponry and magic. Weisman says that’s out of respect for the Shadowrun lore, particularly the Shadowrun book and pen-and-paper RPG’s. It’s also because the system doesn’t have an opening to create a new weapon.

That doesn’t mean game masters won’t have an entire playground’s worth of assets to play with. The entire Shadowrun Returns campaign will be available for the game editor, something Weisman says continues the idea of Shadowrun as a pen-and-paper RPG.

“Ultimately, what’s played around the tabletop is a world that is created by the game master and the players,” said Weisman. “We don’t view our campaign as *the* story for Shadowrun, we view it as just the first story for Shadowrun. It’s just a building block for everything else.”

While Shadowrun Returns will release concurrently on PC and tablets, don’t expect the game editor to come to the palm of your hand. Inherent limitations means the game editor will not be coming to tablets, though Weisman hopes to bring user-generated content to tablet owners in some capacity.

Thanks to RPGWatch for finding these stories.