User:McDougle/sandbox

Shadowrun Online is a cyberpunk and fantasy online tactical role-playing video game under development by Cliffhanger Productions, an online video game publisher based in Vienna, Austria, that acquired the license to develop a Shadowrun Online game in 2011. The game´s public release is estimated for 2013, and is to be available as a downloadable game client.

Development
Cliffhanger Productions, being dedicated Shadowrun and Paper-and-pencil fans themselves, wanted to create a high quality rpg and strategy game set in the Shadowrun universe and thus licensed the game from Smith & Tinker in 2011. Because of license restraints preventing them to publish the game on current video game consoles, they were not able to gain the interest of a publisher. Just like the developers of Shadowrun Returns, they are currently collecting funds through the Kickstarter crowd funding platform to realize the game. The project was opened to pledges in July 2012 and raised $200.000 as of July 31st 2012. The project will be funded if they reach $500.000 in pledges until August 14th 2012.

The game was originally being developed for Windows, Mac, iPad and Android tablets, but is now actively seeking to support Linux and Ouya upon popular demand by the Linux gaming community and supporters of the Ouya console.

Jan Wagner stated that "[t]he game will be a tactical action RPG in isometric 3D, with emphasis on the RPG part. The game will feature two major parts – the action map, where a runner group executes missions and the meta game, with a city map where the legwork mission take place and the hubs are and your own upgradable hideout, where mission preparations, crafting of software and character management takes place".

In collaboration with Harebrained Schemes, characters and plotlines of Shadowrun Returns, set approximately 20 years earlier in the Shadowrun timeline, will be carried on to Shadowrun Online.

During the course of its Kickstarter Project, Cliffhanger Productions released early prototype gameplay footage on the video upload platform Youtube, which is still heavily based on their in 2012 released online game Jagged Alliance Online.

The Business Model(s)
The game was originally promoted as a Free to Play (F2P) MMO title, which provoked overall negative responses in the community. Based on community feedback, Cliffhanger Productions introduced the Campaign Server which will run parallel to the F2P Server. While the F2P Server will be financed by the implementation of Microtransactions and the possibility of a Premium Subscription, the Campaign Server won´t feature these, but instead requires players to buy the game in advance (similiar to the business model of Guild Wars). Instead of splitting the player base by this approach, the developer aims to enable players who bought the campaign to move their characters back and forth between both servers.