Shadowrun: Hong Kong Kickstarter Update #28: Development Status Overview #2
Shadowrun: Hong Kong Kickstarter Update #28: Development Status Overview #2
Game News - posted by Infinitron on Sat 21 March 2015, 02:18:04
Tags: Harebrained Schemes; Mitch Gitelman; Shadowrun: Hong KongIn the first Shadowrun: Hong Kong Kickstarter update since the game was successfully funded last month, Mitch Gitelman provides us with another development status overview, in the same style as the one from early February when the campaign was still running. I'll quote the most interesting bits. As before, there's also an image of one of the game's companions at the end.
Mitch here again in our new office space. Thanks to your funding, we grew out of our old space and had to move into a larger room in the studio. As you can imagine, it's been a period of intense work since the Kickstarter ended. The entire team is in full production on a spectrum of cool stuff across the game so I thought it was time to pull my head out of production for a minute to give you another “peek behind the curtain” at the development process of Shadowrun: Hong Kong.
Design
Tyler and Connor have completed their first and second passes on most of the side runs in the game, except for the crew’s personal missions. We want Andrew to get more time writing and exploring the crew before we start making those. Kevin has been busting on new Matrix gameplay for quite awhile now and all is going according to his cunning plans. Exciting stuff there. Trevor has taken a fresh look at all the spirits and drones in the game and is completing work on all our new crew abilities. He’s also driving the new interface features and updates we’re implementing.
Writing
Andrew and I have had the toughest time on the project so far. While I was managing the Kickstarter campaign, Andrew completed a detailed story outline. Once we had focused time together, we realized that our story was too complicated to tell within our time budget. We decided to step back and reassess our basic assumptions so that we didn’t end up with some sort of “Frankensteined” version of our story. When this proved to be a more time-consuming than I was comfortable with, I called in Mike McCain, the Game Director of Shadowrun: Dragonfall, to lend us his editorial perspective. I’m pleased to report that the process worked and we have a story we’re happy with. Andrew is now hard at work, happily writing dialogue and consulting with the designers on their runs. Huzzah!
Programming
Speaking of additive music, Brenton coded up the system and tested it with Jeff to make sure it works in a variety of gameplay situations. He’s working on Dragon Lines now - they’re the HK equivalent of the leylines that mages and shaman use to augment their abilities. Garret’s pounding away on new Matrix features and we’re optimistic that our revamp is going to come together well. More to say about those in a future update!
Full speed ahead!
Like I said in my last status update, the development of SR:HK isn’t going to be smooth as silk. The story iteration was frustrating for Andrew and concerning for the team but we’re happy that it’s behind us so we can move forward confident that we have the right story to tell. There are more challenges ahead, of course, but we prefer to live in the moment, trying not to worry about those. We’ve put together a great group and have fun working together. It’s a real pleasure making this game.
That's it for now. Before I go, I thought you’d like a look at how our favorite Somali dwarf decker, Is0bel, is looking.
Shame about that cut storyline. Maybe we'll learn what that was supposed to be someday. Sounds like the whole affair was a bit traumatic for the team, though. Hopefully they won't have to pester the Dragonfall guys anymore to get things done.Design
Tyler and Connor have completed their first and second passes on most of the side runs in the game, except for the crew’s personal missions. We want Andrew to get more time writing and exploring the crew before we start making those. Kevin has been busting on new Matrix gameplay for quite awhile now and all is going according to his cunning plans. Exciting stuff there. Trevor has taken a fresh look at all the spirits and drones in the game and is completing work on all our new crew abilities. He’s also driving the new interface features and updates we’re implementing.
Writing
Andrew and I have had the toughest time on the project so far. While I was managing the Kickstarter campaign, Andrew completed a detailed story outline. Once we had focused time together, we realized that our story was too complicated to tell within our time budget. We decided to step back and reassess our basic assumptions so that we didn’t end up with some sort of “Frankensteined” version of our story. When this proved to be a more time-consuming than I was comfortable with, I called in Mike McCain, the Game Director of Shadowrun: Dragonfall, to lend us his editorial perspective. I’m pleased to report that the process worked and we have a story we’re happy with. Andrew is now hard at work, happily writing dialogue and consulting with the designers on their runs. Huzzah!
Programming
Speaking of additive music, Brenton coded up the system and tested it with Jeff to make sure it works in a variety of gameplay situations. He’s working on Dragon Lines now - they’re the HK equivalent of the leylines that mages and shaman use to augment their abilities. Garret’s pounding away on new Matrix features and we’re optimistic that our revamp is going to come together well. More to say about those in a future update!
Full speed ahead!
Like I said in my last status update, the development of SR:HK isn’t going to be smooth as silk. The story iteration was frustrating for Andrew and concerning for the team but we’re happy that it’s behind us so we can move forward confident that we have the right story to tell. There are more challenges ahead, of course, but we prefer to live in the moment, trying not to worry about those. We’ve put together a great group and have fun working together. It’s a real pleasure making this game.
That's it for now. Before I go, I thought you’d like a look at how our favorite Somali dwarf decker, Is0bel, is looking.
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