[Shadowrun Online] Executive Producer Jan Wagner has been working closely with the teams behind the Shadowrun tabletop RPG as well as Harebrained Schemes, the studio developing Shadowrun Returns - another video game adaptation - to craft a single, coherent universe across all three experiences.

Shadowrun Online takes place 20 years after Shadowrun Returns, and both studios are working with storyline developers on the Shadowrun tabletop system so that each game impacts the other. In other words, what happens in Shadowrun Returns will have an effect on Shadowrun Online, and Shadowrun Online will in turn move the meta-plot of the tabletop system forward.

Concept vs. Final Art

Most of you understand that games are developed using "placeholder art", but I am adding this since we've seen some complaints about the "test dungeon" art in the video. In previous games, we sometimes represented a character with a grey box or a red "X". The "game images" you see in this Kickstarter project are all placeholders. Some of them are really beautiful placeholders, but they may or may not be representative of final game art.

In particular, the 2D top-down image included in the video is a concept piece. That is the point of view you will have in the game, but the actual image is a placeholder. The actual Hero-U game will give you the freedom of movement and tactical actions that the top down view allows, but it will be carefully crafted to look Really Nice in the game. As it is, our prototype is way nicer than boxes and X's. :-)