ScrapYard Armory

For those of you living under a rock, you may not have heard about a little Kickstarter being run right now.  Harebrained Schemes, a company led by one of the founders of BattleTech Jordan Weisman, is collecting funding for a turn based tactical game set in the 3025 era.

Given the previous success of the Shadowrun video games I am looking forward to seeing what this ultimately turns into.  Mr. Weisman’s company has a good track record for success and delivering well polished and well received games.  I also think that the previous work on Shadowrun has helped this Battletech game by showing the way and giving confidence to potential backers.

A Slow Burn

The first thing that pops up when I looked at the campaign was the expected delivery.  May 2017.  Thats right, we are looking at a year and a half development cycle for this game.  That is a long time to wait.

Granted there is expected to be a Beta period (available at the $50 pledge level and up) that may get players into the game earlier but be forewarned that this campaign is going to require patience as the Harebrained Schemes crew cooks up the full game.

And perhaps this is only being honest.  Software takes time.  Most kickstarters are late to deliver by some degree due to aggressive schedules.  Perhaps this is about as honest a schedule as we have ever seen on a Kickstarter this size.

Not Much to Show, Yet…

From what I am able to discern it looks like nothing is currently completed for the game except for concept art and general planning.  Nothing wrong with that but it gives us an appreciation for the amount of work yet to be completed.  I recall Shadowrun Returns had some basic movement, action, and combat demos working at the time of the Kickstarter.

Swag Galore

I’m going to admit that some of the swag levels look really cool.  Totally useless but cool none the less.  Kinda like dice at GenCon.  You don’t need it but it feels great to hold in your hand.

I’m going to be a late backer as I try to scrounge what I can to possibly afford the $125 level.

Looking Forward

I am going to guess that we will end up in the $4.5 Million range when all is said and done.  Right now we are in the bottom of the bathtub curve but if history is any guide we should see a large upswing as we come to the last few days.

Games like Shadowrun Returns have helped pave the way for this Battletech game to be a success.  I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the final product.