Trivia / Shadowrun Returns

• Follow the Leader: A downplayed example, in that Harebrained Schemes makes it a design philosophy to borrow mechanics from other games, provided that they understand why those mechanics work and that they can serve to make their current project better for it. For example, the combat mechanics are shamelessly lifted off of games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which have been shown to work well on computers as opposed to a more direct adaptation of combat mechanics designed for Tabletop Games with dice.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Microsoft still owns the Shadowrun rights as part of their acquisition of FASA. Jordan Weisman was able to get permission to make a new Shadowrun game with the license, but that license only extended to making a game for personal computers and mobile devices, which means that a dedicated video game console version of Shadowrun Returns depended on Microsoft, not Weisman. Part of the deal to let the game be made at all involved Microsoft retaining the exclusive rights to make console games with the Shadowrun setting. Which is the reason why the console ports took almost a whole decade to be released.
• What Could Have Been: Is0bel was originally envisioned as a sniper on the Kickstarter page. In the final product, her weapons of choice are a machine pistol and Grenade Launcher.
  • A list of cut content for Dead Man's Switch can be found here. It also explains Baron Samedi's unexplained disappearance from the story after the Telestrian run: he was supposed to have died then.

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