Lynata wrote:
Heh. I remember years ago when I first discovered Shadowrun I thought cybernetics were ugly, and tried my best to build streetsams that relied more on non-implanted technical equipment.

Nowadays? Cybereyes and datajack are a given. Arms with built-in recoil compensation and a hidden cavity for spare SMG mags? Yes please! Wired reflexes? Now we're talkin'!

Project Update #50: A little Summer Update & Dev-Diaries
Posted by Cliffhanger Productions

Hoi Chummers,

The temperatures are rising but here at Cliffhanger Productions we’re staying cool and working the shadows to create more Shadowrun Online features.

Right now we’re finalizing the first, basic version of the Character Creation system. That means that you won’t have to play with the predefined party any more which we created for you, but instead you can build your own avatar, select looks, weapons and companions for the run. This becomes even more important as we’re also working on getting an early version of Coop ready, so you can play the missions with other runners, making Shadowrun Online a true multiplayer experience.

As we know a lot of you have been looking forward to both Character Creation and Coop we’re working hard on getting those features to you as soon as possible. We can’t provide you with a fixed ETA yet, however we can tell you that while both features won't make it into the next update, they will be in the one after that.

Speaking of next update: On July 8th we will release a new update that contains a new gameplay feature everyone has been asking for ever since we released Shadowrun Online into Early Access: the Free Initiative Selection. Gone are the times when you had to move Payday before Takshak could cast his shield. Now you can move your characters in any order during your team’s turn which increases your tactical options a lot. This is just the tip of the iceberg though, as we add several other features (hint: Border Scrolling!), introduce Daily Missions and fix a lot of issues.



For those of you who'd like to get more insights into our development we started a new Dev-Diary Series on www.shadowrun.com. Here are excerpts from the first two installments:

#1 Dress-up!

Hi! This is Tom – you might know me from one of the dev Q&A sessions. In our first installment of our dev blog I’m going to give you a couple of insights into how our technical item system works for the long awaited character customisation. We always knew that creating and customising your Shadowrunner is the big thing, but the details were vague up to a few weeks ago. As with all systems that we want to do the deciding factor is effort – can we implement the system initially, and can we support it with enough content in the long run? (Read more)

#2 Tuning the AI

“Organ Farm”, just after our team has cleaned out a hallway full of gangers. The next door opens and who comes running? Our new not-quite-buddy, Bert. One of my jobs on the team is to make sure Bert the ganger behaves somewhat believable. So let’s start with what we think is “believable” with a guy like Bert. (Read more)

So prepare to enter the Shadows again on July 8th and if you can't be there due to a well deserved vacation, start thinking about what your Character shall be like once you can create him later this summer.

See you in the shadows, Chummers!

 Corpsesarefun wrote:
Played this the other day, it's a fun little game and was a steal at £2.74 in the sale but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was playing a fan made shadowrun mod of something else.

A Special One-Year Anniversary Update For Our Backers




As Jordan discusses in the video above, exactly one year ago today we released Shadowrun Returns on Steam. It was a pivotal moment for our little studio here. In 14 months, we’d gone from a dozen developers working out of a storage closet to being a full-fledged indie RPG developer. And the last year has been just as important for Harebrained Schemes - in the weeks and months following launch, Shadowrun Returns received a bunch of great reviews and kind words, from old and new fans alike. We even made several Game of the Year lists for 2013.

But most importantly, we got YOUR feedback. We learned what was working and what wasn’t about the game we’d worked so hard to create. Even better, we were able to take a lot of this feedback and channel it directly into Shadowrun: Dragonfall. Save-anywhere. A more open story with more compelling choices and locations to explore. A fully-realized team of runners to command and grow with over the course of the campaign.

And when Dragonfall launched, we were incredibly happy with the response it received. Reviewers praised the story, characters, and writing as some of the best in the business. For an indie studio like ours, that’s a huge deal! Still, as with Shadowrun Returns, we heard feedback about some things that folks wanted to see improved or simply wanted more of. We also heard many requests for a standalone version of the game - since it’s narratively independent of the Shadowrun Returns campaign, players wanted to be able to dive directly into Dragonfall.

So we thought: Why not just… make Dragonfall better?

We’re excited to announce Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director’s Cut. Inspired by other passionate, community-focused developers like CD Projekt RED (who continued to improve and add to their Witcher titles post-launch), we decided to make an even bigger & better Dragonfall for you guys. The Shadowrun team has been hard at work taking the existing Dragonfall campaign and making it even better - adding new features, missions, art, and more.

And we’ll be releasing it as a standalone title on Steam, GOG and the Humble Store.


What’s more, as a continued “thank you” for your support, the Director’s Cut will be FREE to all Backers and to all owners of the expansion version of Dragonfall. If you’ve played Dragonfall already, this should be a great opportunity to return to the streets of Berlin and enjoy the improved campaign all over again - to try a new archetype and make different decisions. And if you haven’t played Dragonfall yet, this will be the definitive version of the game to dive into.

We’ll be talking more about the specifics later next month - but we wanted you, our Backers, to be the first to know what we’re working on. The Director’s Cut will be released sometime in September.

Stay tuned for a full announcement in August. Until then - from the entire Shadowrun team - thank you again for your continued support, and for your help making Shadowrun Returns and Dragonfall a reality.

Mike McCainGame Director, Dragonfall

Project Update #54: The new update is coming tomorrow!
Posted by Cliffhanger Productions ♥ Like

Hoi Chummers,

With August gone and September already among us, it’s time for a new update for Shadowrun Online. We’re proud to announce that the new version will be out tomorrow, September 3rd. The servers will go down at 10am CEST and should be up again with the new version half an hour later.

What can you expect from the next update? Here are the patch notes:
New features:

Rent-a-hench: Choose your henchman for the next mission from a list of other player-generated characters
New Metatype: Elves have been added as playable characters into the Character Creation
New Missions: Three new runs round out our prequel campaign about the missing girl Alisi
New Outfit: The Tribal Shaman outfit has been added to the Character Customization
In-Mission-Chat: When playing Coop or PvP, players now switch to a dedicated chat-channel, allowing easier in-mission communication.
Character name as nick name: The name of your character is now used as your name in the chat
Action Counter: A new indicator shows you how many actions each character has left in this turn.
Know who you run with: The name of the character you're playing with is now shown in Coop missions.
Know what your partner does: Floating texts above a character now show which skill is used, allowing you to see what your Coop-Partner is doing.
What comes next? The name of the next mission is now shown in the main menu.
Quick switch: The animation for switching weapons doesn't delay the gameplay anymore.
Longer Names: The number of allowed characters for the player name has been increased to 18 up from 12
3D-Sound: Sound effects are now played on the corresponding speaker, depending on the camera position.
Improved Effects: Visual weapon effects have been reworked:
new Shield effect
Machete's "Stimulants" now increases character animation speed
new Mana Bolt and Spark effects
new bullet streaks for Rifle, Pistols, Shotgut
blood splatter now look more voluminous
Updated info screens: Credits, Options and Help screen have been reworked.

Fixes

Fixed a lot of clipping issues in character customization
If matchmaking gets aborted by a matched opponent an appropriate error message is shown.
Options menu can now be opened and closed using the ESC key
Credits have been updated
It's not possible anymore to press any hidden buttons while the news screen is shown.
Players don't see the opponent’s chance to hit display during PvP- and Coop-matches anymore.
Fixed an issue that made the UI of the mission visible in the debriefing

A new update of course also means we will hold a new LIVE Q&A with the Devs! We’d like to invite you to sit down with us, discuss the new update, hear what we are working on and bombard us with your questions!

The 6th Q&A Session will be held on September 8th at 9:01pm CEST / 12:01pm PST on Google Hangouts here.



Since it’s been a while since our last update, we have also posted several Dev-Diaries on Shadowrun.com in the meantime. Here’s what you have missed:
#7: Thank you!

You might have heard some developers say you shouldn’t get too close to your prospective players while you’re working on a game as this might taint your vision. Others will tell you that working with your community provides a very unique experience and opportunity. As always the truth might be somewhere in-between, but ever since we started this journey to make Shadowrun Online, we were leaning towards the latter side. The last weeks proved to us that this was the right choice. Case in point? Your Graffiti. (Read more)
#8: Making a Pair of Pants

It seems many of you have already taken a liking to find a cool, crazy or even gender-bending outfit, so it’s only fitting that in today’s dev-diary Stefan, who worked (and still works) on the various pieces of clothing, talks about what it takes to make a pair of pants. (Read more)
#9: Convention Season

It’s that time of the year again, Chummers: As summer starts to draw to a close (at least in some countries, Austria alas included), everywhere conventions try to attract the big crowds. And we Cliffhanger People are right among them at two special events. (Read more)
#10: Convention Season (Part 2)

Hoi Chummers! Those of you who follow us on Twitter, Facebook and/or Google+ may have heard a lot about our ventures to Cologne, Indianapolis and Boston this week. But those who haven’t – or can’t get enough – here’s our follow up to last week’s diary and our tales of convention season. (Read more)
#11: Some Nostalgia

In this week’s Dev-Diary our lead programmer Tom Kment looks back at what Shadowrun Online looked like waaaaaay back – and he’s even got us some pictures so everyone can see how far we’ve come since we started on this journey! (Read more)

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came to visit us at gamescom and Gen Con – it was nice meeting so many of our Backers in person!

See you in the game soon, Chummers!