Shadowrun Online opens Kickstarter campaign

A second Kickstarter project set in Jordan Weisman's Shadowrun world has now been launched, following the successful backing of Shadowrun Returns a few months ago.

The new project--titled Shadowrun Online--is aiming to raise $500,000 by Tuesday, August 14. It will be a free-to-play browser and tablet MMO with co-operative gameplay and player vs. player faction wars set in the world of Shadowrun, and will be developed by Cliffhanger Productions.

"While our MMO is extremely modest by the big-budget standards of today, it costs far more than a development company of our size is able to afford on our own," Cliffhanger said on the project page. "Due to the licence restraints, it is hard to get traditional publishers interested, and we didn't want to give away creative control over the project, or the ability to shape the game together with you, the fans."

According to the project's Kickstarter page, the collective actions of players in the game will determine the fate of the online game world with a player-driven plotline. The game will be powered by the Unity 3D game engine, and will be accessible through browsers and tablets (Windows, Mac, Android, iOS), as well as the possibility of Linux support in the future.

In April, Shadowrun creator Jordan Weisman and his studio Harebrained Schemes launched a Kickstarter project to raise $400,000 for development of a new game in the fantasy cyberpunk series for PCs and tablets. The project hit the goal in just 28 hours.

Other recent Kickstarter projects hitting their funding goals include Tim Schafer's Double Fine Adventure, Inxile's Wasteland 2, and the Ouya video game console. Other campaigns launched include Al Lowe's push to remake the original Leisure Suit Larry.