Harebrained Schemes General Discussion Thread

[scytheavatar]

There is no room in the market for a mediocre or barely good game

What. There are lot of room in the market for mediocre and barely good games. It's just a matter of finding the "audience" that "click" on the game you made.

The problem with this latest Lamlight game of theirs is the fact that its artstyle, gameplay, theme, and everything is not reaching any real audience. Then come the insane price tag for what looks like indie game quality at best and you have your product failing.

The lesson here is to not let your damn budget spiral out of control. HBS's previous successes were made on low-seven-digit-figure budgets. They spent 6+ times as much as they usually do and expected their success to scale..? Spendthrift Ebba's the one who likely deserves the brunt of the blame for this, but Wester should have done a better job of reeling them back once he became CEO again in late 2021. Cutting the cinematic trailer and using very sparse or no voice acting were very easy decisions that should have been made. Letting them have two years or cutting it just to one would have been difficult, but with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better for Paradox's finances if they had cut out that year. Game possibly/probably would have been worse as a result, but they were looking at a money-loser regardless. Comes down to how much money you're losing.

The sad thing is that Harebrained were actually a very efficient low budget operation. They pushed out three Shadowrun games (including modding tools!) in the time it took many developers to produce one game. At the time many Codexers were impressed by this, and wished other studios could be like Harebrained.

I don't understand why they didn't keep doing it. Did they not make money, despite seeming to be quite successful on the player end? Or is this another story of bored devs leading to the collapse of a company because they don't want to do the same thing again? Although I have to question the sanity of devs who want to make something that looks like Lampfucker Lounge over Shadowrun.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...e-to-acquire-harebrained-schemes-faq.1103665/

When Paradox brought HBS this is what they said about the studio:

HBS will continue to focus on what it does best which are tactical games with rich stories.

This speaks volumes about what Paradox thinks of HBS and by extension what HBS thinks of themselves (since they would have never sold to Paradox if they didn't think everyone is on the same page).

 

[Phinx]

So are there any worthwhile modules for the Shadowrun games? They come with a level editor after all. Someone has to have made something good with it.

You can give my UGC a crack which will be uploaded on this weekend. My first hub is currently in testing by a few people. I will be uploading the fist hub along with 3 major missions, 4 minor repeatable missions, and 3 side quests + tons of NPC's this weekend.

And as the next few sets of missions are done with testing I will releases the next set which hopefully will be in two weeks from now. I've also polished a ton of the early dialogue, as well as giving my runners all custom move sets. So best to wait for my new update, over trying my old one.

 

[Axioms]

https://mailchi.mp/paradoxplaza/har...paradox-interactive-to-part-ways?e=f3babee5a8

Paradox and Harebrained split up apparently? Lmao.

 

[mediocrepoet]

https://mailchi.mp/paradoxplaza/har...paradox-interactive-to-part-ways?e=f3babee5a8

Paradox and Harebrained split up apparently? Lmao.

HBS still exists? I figured with this flop they were basically just a name with no dev staff post layoffs.

 

[Lord_Potato]

https://mailchi.mp/paradoxplaza/har...paradox-interactive-to-part-ways?e=f3babee5a8

Paradox and Harebrained split up apparently? Lmao.

but didn't Paradox just fire 80% of Harebrained employees?

 

[Roguey]

Paradox and Harebrained are officially over https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/...attle-based-developer-seeks-new-opportunities

Paradox Interactive (Paradox) and Harebrained Schemes (HBS) – developers of the Shadowrun trilogy, BATTLETECH and The Lamplighters League – have decided to part ways on 1 January 2024. The separation is the result of a mutual agreement, stemming from each party’s strategic and creative priorities. Paradox will retain ownership of The Lamplighters League and other games developed by the studio. HBS will seek new publishing, partnership, and investment opportunities.

“Paradox has refocused its strategy towards its core niches within strategy and management games with endless qualities,” said Charlotta Nilsson, COO of Paradox. “We and HBS’ leadership have been discussing what would happen after the release of The Lamplighters League, but a new project or sequel in the same genre was not in line with our portfolio plans. Hence, we believe that a separation would be the best way forward. We’re very happy that this talented, gifted studio has the chance to continue and can’t wait to see what they will make next.”

“Harebrained Schemes will support The Lamplighters League through the end of the year while we seek funding and partnerships for an independent future in 2024," said Brian Poel, Studio Operations Manager of HBS. “Our studio mission remains the same: to make games that challenge your mind and touch your heart.”

Perhaps HBS will go crawling to Microsoft and offer to make some Shadowrun and Battletech games for Game Pass.

 

[negator2vc]

WTF??!
I thought Paradox acquired the studio. They weren't just the game's publisher.
Will HBS give back the money (~7 mil)?

 

[Roguey]

WTF??!
I thought Paradox acquired the studio. They weren't just the game's publisher.

They did.

Will HBS give back the money (~7 mil)?

Looks like Paradox is writing off the entire venture as a loss.

 

[Delterius]

how do you part ways with your own subdivision

 

[Axioms]

Damn I posted this a while ago in the Lamplighters thread, forgot about this one.

This is just insane stuff. What a shit company.

 

[Roguey]

how do you part ways with your own subdivision

They sold off Hardsuit Labs to someone else. I guess there weren't any takers for Harebrained.

 

[Hellraiser]

how do you part ways with your own subdivision

Like this I guess:

 

[Damned Registrations]

how do you part ways with your own subdivision

The only way I can think of it working is that the 'studio' is gone in all but name. HBS has their employees and name... and no IP, licenses, capital, etc. In other words they were all sacked.

 

[Infinitron]

Corporations do sometimes spin off parts of themselves. If they don't want to deal with some part of the business anymore but the head of that division wants to strike it out on his own, a deal is made and off they go. The company I work for did this once.

 

[motherfucker]

I'll forever remember how in Dragonfall I got prompted for admin password and absentmindedly typed "admin" and it fucking worked. That game was full of small details like this. HK had some very interesting mission designs though, with the museum spirit and building feng shui

 

[scytheavatar]

how do you part ways with your own subdivision

Presumably Paradox still owns all the Harebrained shares and anyone who wants to buy Harebrained will need to pay Paradox. But Paradox will have no input in whatever indie game Harebrained is making next.

 

[Roguey]

how do you part ways with your own subdivision

Presumably Paradox still owns all the Harebrained shares and anyone who wants to buy Harebrained will need to pay Paradox. But Paradox will have no input in whatever indie game Harebrained is making next.

They're not saying it's up for sale. They're saying as of January 1st, Harebrained is free to do whatever they want (which includes going out of business if they can't find someone to buy them or fund a new game).

 

[Smerlus]

I smell a kickstarter coming!

 

[Cael]

Man, I was going to make a comment on how the latest HBS game flopped to the point Paradox was writing it off as a loss and then I came into see that Paradox has finally woken up and kicked the cunts to the kerb. Looks like there are still a few working brain cells at Paradox that the woketards have not managed to get yet.

 

[bobocrunch]

love when retards say shit like this not realizing the woke shit they whine about is because of paradox

 

[Cael]

love when retards say shit like this not realizing the woke shit they whine about is because of paradox

Kevin and Rachel Perez is Paradox? Really?

 

[bobocrunch]

sorry not aware of who you're raging over on twitter today

 

[Cael]

sorry not aware of who you're raging over on twitter today

Funny way of admitting you were wrong you got there. I thought it was pretty well-known that HBS went woke without Paradox ever needing to interfere. Sad to see some Weissmann cocksuckers still refusing to admit to it.

 

[cpmartins]

sorry not aware of who you're raging over on twitter today

Funny way of admitting you were wrong you got there. I thought it was pretty well-known that HBS went woke without Paradox ever needing to interfere. Sad to see some Weissmann cocksuckers still refusing to admit to it.

The only thing you need to do is look at BattleTech's writing. It's horrifyingly bad. Insultingly so.

 

[Cael]

sorry not aware of who you're raging over on twitter today

Funny way of admitting you were wrong you got there. I thought it was pretty well-known that HBS went woke without Paradox ever needing to interfere. Sad to see some Weissmann cocksuckers still refusing to admit to it.

You only need to do is look at BattleTech's writing. It's horrifyingly bad. Insultingly so.

Hence my reference to Kevin and Rachel.