Shadowrun has had a bit of a storied history. It began in 1989 as a pen-and-paper role-playing game in the same vein as Dungeons and Dragons. The big difference was that it traded its setting for a near-future cyberpunk environment while keeping all the magic and wizardry of D&D.
It even got a few video game iterations back in the early/mid 1990's, but then it went dark for twelve long years until it was resurrected for the Xbox 360 and Windows Live. Which, to the fans, was kind of a disaster. We actually thought it was pretty cool from a certain Counter-Strike meets D&D sort of way, but cool or not, it was a very meager game for full price.
Fast forward five years and the series has managed to crawl out of the depths of fan hatred and attempt resurrection via the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. Though it wasn't clear at first whether the game could see the same success as the likes of Tim Schafer's new adventure game, the venture soon exploded.
Though the crew at Harebrained Schemes only asked for a meager $400,000 (by comparison), the fans were so enthusiastic about the project, they ended up with a colossal $1,836,447 as the countdown ended today.
The extra fundage will be going toward improving the game and increasing the overall scope, as well as releasing the game on other platforms like Linux.
Now all they've got to do is create a sequel to a series that hasn't had a decent video game in over two decades, and has a ravenous and passionate fanbase (that will rip them to shreds if this goes wrong). Best of luck to the guys/gals at Harebrained Schemes on this one. We don't envy this task.
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