Shadowrun Returns joins the pack of Kickstarter-funded projects

Crowdfunded sequels, remakes, and reboots are the new...whatever was popular before crowdfunded sequels, remakes, and reboots.

Crowdfunded sequels, remakes, and reboots are the new...whatever was popular before crowdfunded sequels, remakes, and reboots. Adding to the pile today is Shadowrun Returns, a PC and tablet game in the Shadowrun role-playing universe to be headed up by Jordan Weisman, founder of FASA Corporation, the creator of tabletop classics Shadowrun and BattleTech, and FASA Interactive, which brought us the MechWarrior series.

Shadowrun Returns, which has already gathered over $100,000 of its $400,000 goal, will be developed by Weisman's Harebrained Schemes (man, he loves founding stuff), a small studio which "mixes grizzled old veterans like Jordan Weisman, Mitch Gitelman, and Mike Mulvihill with bunch of talented young people who were still in swaddling clothes when Shadowrun first came out."

The plan is to build a "graphically rich 2D turn-based single player game with deep story interaction, meaningful character development, and highly-contextual tactical combat," take fewer story liberties (which the producer playfully apologizes for) than Microsoft's 2007 shooter "Shadowrun," and to include a PC level editor to emulate the storytelling freedom of tabletop role-playing.

Check out the video above, the Kickstarter page, and Harebrained Schemes' official sitefor tons of details on the history of Shadowrun and Weisman's ambitions for the game. And learn to love hearing about Kickstarter projects if you don't already, because I have the feeling that the bandwagon is just getting rolling.