Having just released the critically acclaimed Shadowrun Hong Kong, the wheels of production doesn’t stop over at Harebrained Schemes as they are now working towards what their next project title. Working with fans through a Kickstarter, Jordan Weisman is bringing back an old creation of his – BattleTech. BattleTech was a humble tabletop game where you would build up resources in order to face your opponents with Mechs.
According to the reveal post, the PC game version of BattleTech will be “an open-ended Mercenaries-style campaign that blends RPG ‘Mech’ and MechWarrior management with modern turn-based tactics”. When interviewed by AListDaily for a bit more information concerning how the game will play, Jordan clarified that he intends to bring in the depth of character and skill trees that existed in the Shadowrun games to really emphasis that this game will not just be about Mechs but MechWarriors as well.
Jordan and the Harebrained Schemes team will be consulting with Catalyst Game Labs in order to fine tune the world that is in development and that he had already put in place and make sure that the way it plays works with the game. This also works in to trying to make sure the game is still accessible yet sophisticated.
The use of Kickstarter is also explained in the interview. Weisman loved the way his team interacted with fans and attributed that fact as the reason for his games success with the Shadowrun series. He intends to keep this relationship going so as to make sure he could provide everything that fans would love.
A wise move to be sure; he’s obtained enough goodwill and provided very satisfying games that had succeeded through these Kickstarter campaigns. The current plan for BattleTech is to start the Kickstarter later this fall and hopefully bring BattleTech to PC and Mac.