Shadowrun Returns

[melkathi]

 

How does writing or resolution affect the ability to code a save-feature?

The writing is done by someone else in the team and so is most likely the whole graphicsystuff.

 

Do they have a dedicated writer, or does the writer also program? (on smaller teams people become multidisciplinary)

 

For SRR they seem to have a dedicated writer. Or at least the writer is not a progammer. As far as I know Jordan does not code, he does the writing and has managerial duties, but no programming ones?

[alanschu]

That's entirely possible.  I haven't really followed the development too closely, and only preordered in large part because of their tech demo they showed.

[Majek]

Hmm so this is in Unofficial faq. Any comments?

 

Saving System

[A-02] Q: What will the save system be like?
A: We're planning a checkpoint system. No one on the team likes checkpoints better than save any time you want. But we're a small team with a LOT to do and save games are complicated. Thanks for understanding.

[A-02] Q: Where are the default checkpoints? Will we be able to place checkpoints where we want with the Editor?
A: The default is before and after a "scene" which might be a run or might be a chunk of roleplaying/legwork in a location. We'd like to give player-GMs the ability to place checkpoints where they want but it's complicated and will likely not make it into the final release.

[A-05] Q: Are checkpoint saves tied to characters, or to events?
A: The game auto-saves at each checkpoint, which we try to space to at most 15 minutes apart. Your checkpoints will be listed on the main menu by character, you can reload any auto-save on the list. Multiple characters will not mess with each other's save games.

http://www.shadowrun.com/forums/discussion/25197/shadowrun-returns-faq-unofficial

Edited April 14, 2013 by Majek

[ShadySands]

The DRM-Free Version Of Shadowrun Returns Sounds Kinda Lame

 

Nothing new but I wonder if the bad press will hurt them

[babaganoosh13]

It's kinda funny how I liked Fallout 3, but absolutely hated that MS POS Shadowrun game, meanwhile they both basically turned those two isometric game franchises I loved years back into FPS's. (I guess the Sega one was top down, but still...)

 

FO3 lead to us getting New Vegas, which will hopefully lead to them doing 4 right. No good came from MS purchasing FASA.

[Nightshape]

I don't get it, aren't saves basically files that store variables? I would think adding map #s and xy coordinates to the rest wouldn't be that hard.

 

No. Data serialization can be extremely hard, especially in complex code-bases. Check point based systems allow for some control over the matter.

[Hurlshort]

It's kinda funny how I liked Fallout 3, but absolutely hated that MS POS Shadowrun game, meanwhile they both basically turned those two isometric game franchises I loved years back into FPS's. (I guess the Sega one was top down, but still...)

 

FO3 lead to us getting New Vegas, which will hopefully lead to them doing 4 right. No good came from MS purchasing FASA.

 

I'm pretty sure the MS version of Shadowrun had nothing in common with RPG's, and didn't it focus only on team based multiplayer?

 

FO3 was still an RPG, even if it changed the perspective.  

[babaganoosh13]

 

It's kinda funny how I liked Fallout 3, but absolutely hated that MS POS Shadowrun game, meanwhile they both basically turned those two isometric game franchises I loved years back into FPS's. (I guess the Sega one was top down, but still...)

 

FO3 lead to us getting New Vegas, which will hopefully lead to them doing 4 right. No good came from MS purchasing FASA.

 

I'm pretty sure the MS version of Shadowrun had nothing in common with RPG's, and didn't it focus only on team based multiplayer?

 

FO3 was still an RPG, even if it changed the perspective.  

I guess I have successfully blocked it from out of my head. All I remember was trying to warp through walls.

[ShadySands]

I may be the only one interested in Shadowrun Online but here is their latest update

 

 

As promised last time around, we want to give you a little bit of insight into the plot of the game. Now I don’t mean to fill this with spoilers, so we will take a peek into the story and learn a bit more about how we want to treat story progression in Shadowrun Online.

Now, as you know, SRO will be kind of an MMO and kind of not. Many backers have expressed their wish to run with their friends and we totally want that too, but it isn’t as simple as it sounds. Anyone having played MMOs may have experienced the effect of different progress speeds. You start off with your friends but then some of them or you may not be able to keep up with the progress speed of the group and then someone gets left behind. For a while there, the others help him or her progress, but that member is missing important raids and after a while drops from the group. This effect is even more pronounced when you add different platforms in and take our mixed model of campaign and free to play accounts in consideration. So how are we tackling this?

Well, first of all, unlike many solo-RPGs, we don’t think of the game as a linear main-story with side-quests. We think of it as experiencing different phases – chapters if you will – in a continuing development of the 6th world (well, the little corner of the world on our servers) as the meta-plot moves towards certain key events. So, from the get go, you of course experience YOUR version of the game, stringing together your specific path of progression inside the plot, which becomes your unique story, but that isn’t the same for everyone. It is also clear, that the rest of the people on the server contribute toward the advancement of the game world.

Obviously, with the world being moved forward by all the players, we don’t want to leave anyone behind or put off newcomers, which is where the phases come in. Many of our runs consist of ‘mission boxes’, so they aren’t necessarily linear and it is up to the player how to tackle them. For example: Your Johnson – an overworked and desperate Ares officer – contracts you to stop a marauding bunch of psychotic gangers on some new drug. These guys have holed up in different locations, indiscriminately killing the inhabitants. Now, depending on your team, you may want to tackle the ones hiding away in the talismonger’s shop or the guys barricaded in at the Stuffer Shack, or the guys burning cars on the street corner or the ones holding hostages in the office building etc. We don’t force you to do all of them – though you are free to do so. Once you’ve secured a certain number of locations, you may discover a common pattern to the craziness of the gangers, unlocking the next mission box for you and thus progressing the plot. Once enough other players have advanced this far, Ares will hire a strike against the drug distributors and a new global mission box will unlock for all players, perhaps offering a special mission for those who have a good standing with Ares. And there may be a mission box on top of that, dealing with stopping the drug from being produced at all. All of those mission boxes may in turn improve Ares’ standing on the megacorp ‘leaderboard’, influencing the next layer of missions to be unlocked (for instance, other megacorps might start hiring operatives to do sabotage runs against Ares). Many of those boxes can be played at different power levels, at least within a certain tier of power. So while there is a slow, server wide-progression that coincides with the collective effort of runners, new players may just see parts of the boxes and once they advance into the appropriate power tier, Ares might have already been brought down a notch. By then, NeoNet might want you to steal a shipment of those drugs for examination in their SOTA lab. So, while it technically means you play the same mission map with the same goal (get to the shipment of drugs), the mission context changes and so does your personal story – and of course, enough of those runs add up to NeoNet gaining an advantage on the corporate ‘power board’, unlocking new global missions from or against them.

So what does that mean for you and your group? Well, for one, you don’t have to do every mission in order, one after the other, making it easier for runners that ‘missed’ a mission somewhere to join the team. Secondly, your group may do runs together, or each player may do them at different times to team up again for the ‘next’ unlocked mission box. And last but not least, if you are at different levels, you can still play the same missions, even though your characters are on different ‘power levels’ and both, you and your chummers, profit from it. And all of you contribute to the standing of your favorite corps, which sweetens the deal.

We have several tiers of power in the game, which coincide with plot phases. So after a while your runs will lead you deeper into the scheme of the game and to more juicy missions. This finally leads you to where all the factions/corps involved are scrambling to control ..well, the ultimate mission box of the campaign. We will see an all-out shadow-war for something unique that holds the key to some of the 6th world’s most interesting secrets… and no, it isn’t an artifact J. The struggle can take the form of actual PvP against other runners or joint and coordinated PvE conflicts (think of it as all of one faction adding their successful mission completions up against the other factions) within a given timeframe.

The goal here is to open up the classical MMO structure and to mix this with the experience of a dynamic world, while allowing you to select your personal mission path in the world you help shape. We want you to play with your group (or potentially your association, or network, or whatever term we will find for ‘guilds’) no matter whether you have been running the shadows together for the past few weeks, or just happened to find the chance for a spontaneous session now. We also want you to later on join forces with other players when the stakes are getting higher, without requiring 30 people to be there at the same time to do a massive raid.

It is an ambitious goal and it may sound slightly complicated, but we hope in the game it will play fluidly and feel natural.

One thing we need to do in order to keep control is to lock you down in certain locations. All MMOs do this in one way or the other (the world geography ends at some point, areas unlock over time), but we went all the way and actually lock you down as a story element. In fact, even the campaign book for SRO will be called Lockdown! Instead of finding some weird mechanic to stop you from veering off the course, we actually decided to make that a cornerstone of the story: The city you play in is on lockdown. Nobody gets in or out. And this means resources are scarce and a lot of Johnsons need extra hands to help them, as most law-keeping forces and corp armies have their hands full enforcing the lockdown. With a total lockdown, a lot of things (including most virtual connections) get cut off, which means fewer prying eyes. An ideal situation for people with shady businesses to get their work done, for gangs to take advantage, for old feuds to be settled (the hard way), for power grabs and for straight forward havoc on the streets. The city is plunged into chaos, as violence erupts amidst a desperate struggle between several corps, who hire every disposable asset they can. This equals a lot of blood in the streets and even more work for the Shadows. And so, a city is left to its own devices while a shadow war wages… who wouldn’t want to be part of this?
 

And, to give you a little teaser of the story, it all starts with a blurry trideo recordings of a dragon suddenly emerging from an underground complex in mid-town, writhing in agony and then going totally crazy, killing hundreds of people in a mad frenzy, laying waste to a corporate arcology, leaving a weird trace of iridescent rain… and a whole city having to deal with the aftermath. Welcome to Shadowrun Online: LOCKDOWN!

 

[melkathi]

I may be the only one interested in Shadowrun Online but here is their latest update

 

I backed them as well.

And I expect fewer (or no) nasty surprises from them

[Hurlshort]

 

I may be the only one interested in Shadowrun Online but here is their latest update

 

I backed them as well.

And I expect fewer (or no) nasty surprises from them

 

Clearly you aren't a Jagged Alliance fan

[melkathi]

 

 

 

Clearly you aren't a Jagged Alliance fan

 

Indeed

Only tried Back in Action and wasn't too convinced (though I hear the old ones were the good ones).

I am more an UFO: Enemy Unknown kinda guy.

[Hurlshort]

Back in Action is not really Jagged Alliance either.  If you haven't played Jagged Alliance 2, you've missed out on one of the greatest games ever created.

[ShadySands]

I'm impressed that they actually created a separate(ish) matrix 

 

 

 

Update here

[Keyrock]

I'm impressed that they actually created a separate(ish) matrix 

 

 

 

Update here

You hear that Mr. Anderson?  That is the sound of inevitability (the game fairly really soon).

[Keyrock]

 

 Hey everybody!

 

Chris Rogers here; I head up the character art team here at HBS and with launch right around the corner I get to pull back the curtain a bit and show you some of the character customization options in Shadowrun Returns.

 

At the start of development, we knew we had to capture that independent and rebellious Shadowrunner spirit. From the hard-boiled, coolant-for-blood samurai, to the wild-child decker putting the punk back into cyberpunk, to the young shaman with an old soul in the newly Awakened world, Shadowrun is full of unique, memorable characters that simply don’t exist anywhere else. In order to bring those characters to life we decided to embrace that individuality and specificity, creating each piece of character art with a strong viewpoint and identity in order to give you the tools you need to create your own unique denizen of the Sixth World. If you’re reading this dev diary you probably know the basics: in Shadowrun Returns you can choose to play as a male or female human, elf, dwarf, ork, or troll. The two visual elements that really define your character in the game are a painted portrait and a 3D in-game model. The portrait captures the inner life, detail, and subtlety of the character while the model distills all that down to one instant and bold impression in the game.

 

 

I’m a big believer in the alchemy of art, that the right elements can combine and reinforce each other, suddenly creating something new. And character creation in Shadowrun Returns involves some serious alchemy between your character’s portrait and your model. Continuing our “best of both worlds” approach of melding 2D and 3D we have leveraged the strengths of both elements to help you create your character. Its not a one-to-one… we have a limited number of 3D assets to match with the much more diverse portraits, but the results tend to feel very natural even when the portrait and the 3D model aren’t a perfect match . The subtlety of the painted portrait communicates attitude and expression. In the isometric world, where you need to be able to take in the entire tactical situation at a glance, the 3D model synthesizes all that personality down into a simplified silhouette that you can instantly “read”. 

 

Character Portraits: Up Close and Personal

 

 

It is in the portrait that you will see a lot of detail and psychological depth in your character. As of this writing, there are nearly 200 player portraits in Shadowrun Returns. When our portrait artist, David Nash, started painting we put a special emphasis on the inner life of each character. To give you some idea of what I mean by that, here are some early portrait notes I pulled from an old e-mail, “Male elf, the handsome grifter. He’s the double-crosser, the guy who is always one step ahead of his enemies with a trick and a quick one-liner. He can move easily from the highest society to lowest gangs and seems to know everyone… He will shake your hand and promise you an honest deal even as he is stealing the watch off your wrist.” And one more example, “Human female, the brutal survivor, she was orphaned at a young age and has survived on the streets by making the hard decisions that others would flinch from. There is nothing -nothing- soft about her.” 

 

Dave then took those notes and created a portrait laden with all that subtext, investing the portrait with an inner life that continues to inform play throughout the game, as you can see in the examples below.

 

 

That psychological diversity compliments all the physical diversity in your portrait options. In addition to covering the basics of the ten possible gender and metahuman combinations, the portraits cover a wide range of ethnic backgrounds and etiquettes. Animator and character artist Hollie Mengert has curated the portrait set, putting some final touches on each and adding a number of variants- including cool piercings, arcane tattoos, painful scars, and cutting-edge cybereyes (though your portrait’s cybereyes are cosmetic and not tied to gameplay). Many of those variants are meant to support more magic focused or tech-centric characters, and some are simply opportunities Hollie saw to add something cool to the game and give you one more option that might spark your imagination.

 

 

The In-Game Model: Your Runner in Action

 

Complementing your portrait is the in-game model, which has to succeed in a completely different way. In the game environment details can get lost, or, worse, make the character look muddy and hard to understand visually. In Shadowrun Returns your character will have access to over 30 different gear sets (we’re still putting the final touches on the last few so we don’t have a final number yet), and we have designed each to immediately communicate an idea about your character in the isometric environment. Mike did a great job in Update 48 explaining how we get our (pretty small) characters to pop visually in the game environment. Check it out if you are interested! Here I want to talk about how those gear sets influence the look and feel of your character during legwork and combat.

 

 

At the beginning of the development process we were thinking of gear sets as exactly that: sets of gear that a character might wear. We realized pretty quickly, however, that that wasn’t quite the right way to think about it. Given the zoomed-out isometric camera the gear sets weren’t something a character might wear, the gear sets were characters. I reworked some of the concepts, looking for that big visual punch. We found that once we started concentrating on distilling the clothes and gear down to the very essence of an idea, that defiant Shadowrun individuality really started to show up in game. It became pretty clear that we were on the right track when we started spontaneously referring to each set with nicknames like “Street Monk” or “Slick Mage” and everyone understood each other. All those names are just our internal shorthand; the gearsets aren’t tied to your archetype and you will be able outfit your character as you see fit from the in-game vendors. 

 

In-house we have been calling that instant impression of the character the “iso read”. There’s that one dominant area of each character that captures your imagination and communicates a bold idea simply, but the execution is anything but simple: too much detail and your character collapses into a pile of chattering pixels, too little detail and your character looks like a little tiny doll in a diorama. Maury Weiss and Fiona Turner have done an amazing job balancing the level of detail, value, and color in order to make sure that your character stays grounded in the reality of the game.

 

 

 

In the example above you can see how a gear set moves from concept to model – note how some details become emphasized or subdued in order to get the character to read in game. The idea behind the concept was to update the wandering fighting monk from Asian cinema. Here he still has his prayer beads and incense scars, and he’s swapped out his robes for some updated fighting leathers with a little flair. The cuffs are the primary read, with the most detail, followed by the prayer beads. Other details fade into the overall read – there’s a lot to see there, but it’s subdued in service of the whole. Once the concept is approved the 3D team begins work, keeping a careful eye on maintaining detail while avoiding chatter. Notice, for example, the number of prayer beads were reduced and scaled up. The final texture is painted based on the design rules mentioned in Mike’s update (such as using darker color values lower on the character, leading to brighter colors on the chest, shoulders, and arms). The final result is that in the game you have a character that still communicates attitude and function even when they occupy only a very small amount screen space.  

 

Finally, for you samurai out there: a number of those gear sets are sleeveless so you can show off your cyberarm – once you save up enough nuyen to get one done, that is.

 

Putting it all Together: Alchemy

 

 

And this is the result when you combine the portrait and model on the character creation screen. Once you choose a gender and metatype, you will be able to select a portrait. We have assigned each portrait a corresponding skin color, hairstyle, beard, hair color, and (where applicable) set of horns so as you scroll through the portraits your model will update to match your selection. But let’s say you want a little more control over the look of your character… no problem! you can unlock the model and the portrait and toggle through a variable (say hair color or style) for the model by hand. In addition to working up lots of cool visual effects for the game, technical artist Steven Rynders has collaborated with AJ Bolden on the engineering side in order to make sure the system handles all the different elements.

 

Before I sign off I want to mention how exciting it is, once you’ve made your own character, to hire three more runners, each with their own identity (like the samurai, decker, and shaman I mentioned at the start of the post). During those runs your “character” is really the entire party. A few weeks ago we asked you, the Backers, to help us with some names and descriptions of Shadowrunners, adding one more layer of depth to your group of runners. It’s a blast right now to sneak into a tenement with runners like Daytona, Macabre, and Jack Nine, trailing drones and ready to call in spirits at the first sign of trouble.

 

***** 

 

So that’s a quick look at the visual aspects of your character, and we haven’t even touched on the more design-oriented aspects of character customization like karma spends and implants. Ultimately, of course, your character won’t come alive until the game releases, when you’re out there on the rainy streets of Seattle 2054 – asking questions that powerful people don’t want asked, hiring runners, bribing, cajoling, and, of course, fighting your way to the answers. 

 

Until then we are here furiously tuning things and polishing everything up in anticipation of launch!

 

Cheers, Chris 

 

PS: If you’re going to be at Gencon, be sure to sign up for our events. Mitch and Jordan will be doing a panel discussion, we’re offering two hands-on Editor workshops and a Hack-a-thon. Hope to see you there! 

 

 

I gotta say, those portraits and character models look great.  I really like the somewhat cartoony art style (I know some people wanted something a bit more realistic and 'gritty') and they way they make certain details pop on the models, but not clobber you over the head.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Keyrock

[Oner]

Cool stuff. When is the planned release again?

[Keyrock]

Cool stuff. When is the planned release again?

June...  ...ish.

[Drowsy Emperor]

I like it.

[Oner]

 

Cool stuff. When is the planned release again?

June...  ...ish.

 

Thanks!

[Drowsy Emperor]

Will this be the first released of the Kickstarter RPGs we're anticipating?

[Keyrock]

Will this be the first released of the Kickstarter RPGs we're anticipating?

It looks like it.  Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of Lounge Lizards Reloaded and Legends of Dawn should also come out roughly around that time frame, but I don't know how many other people besides myself are also anticipating those games.  Wasteland 2 and Broken Age I think are September or Octoberish, and maybe also Grim Dawn, but I'm already playing that one. 

 

So umm, yeah, it looks like the deluge is coming, and Shadowrun Returns seems like the tip of the spear.  

[Hurlshort]

Will this be the first released of the Kickstarter RPGs we're anticipating?

 

Isn't there a couple out at this point?  It is the first I pledged.  It does seem to be the first big RPG, for sure.

[Drowsy Emperor]

 

Will this be the first released of the Kickstarter RPGs we're anticipating?

 

Isn't there a couple out at this point?  It is the first I pledged.  It does seem to be the first big RPG, for sure.

 

 

I wouldn't know. Its difficult to keep track of kickstarter since coverage is sporadic in standard gaming sites and some of the games are only represented on their own websites. 

The only kickstarter game I played so far is FTL.

[melkathi]

Its the second game I pledged that is comming out. But the first rpg I pledged.