Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Interview @ RPGamer

RPGamer has a new interview with the CEO and Creative Director of Harebrained Schemes Jordan Weisman about the upcoming launch of the directors cut version of Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

How has the fan community taken off for Shadowrun Returns, specifically regarding scenario development?

JW: It’s been really positive. We spent a lot of time building the editor because we wanted to empower the audience to create content, and they have. They’ve created thousands of pieces of content, some of which are quite brilliant. But it was a very significant investment, and I’m not sure it’s something we can afford to do forever. But for a small subset of the community, they really, really dug it. The creativity they exhibited was fantastic.

Is there a specific piece of content or adventure you’d like to single out?

JW: The guys who’re redoing the SNES game are awesome. We did a series of Play It videos where we chose some of what we thought were the stronger ones. Those are some of the ones we thought were really interesting.

I’ve held off on playing Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall because I’ve heard the director’s cut is right around the corner. What can newcomers expect from this game, and what has been added to lure back old-time shadowrunners?

JW: Dragonfall is a big step up over Shadowrun Returns. As we learned how to use our tools better, we learned how to use them in ways much more creative than in the first scenario. We built this powerful tool, but it was V. 1 for the first campaign. Dragonfall, V.2, really benefited from that, both in RPG-play and combat-play.

Number two, because we gave you a specific character to inhabit and specific NPCs in a relationship, we were able to craft the dialogue much more specifically to the character’s backstory. You have a much greater depth of character in Dragonfall than we were able to do in Returns because in Returns you could be anybody. In Dragonfall we narrowed that down and subsequently got more depth. Dragonfall is a much more involving story.

The director’s cut takes that to another level. We added five more missions, so there are 5+ new hours of content, alternate endings, new dialogue trees, new UI, new AI for the opposing characters, so combat becomes more interesting and fun. For instance, we changed how cover works to make it more interesting. Plus, it’s stand-alone, so you don’t have to have purchased the first title.