Shadowrun Devs Fund New Mecha Game In 53 Minutes

I was thinking about Starsiege, Heavy Gear and Mechwarrior earlier this week and lamenting the fact that mecha games have gone a little the way of the dodo. So it’s good to see that Harebrained Schemes, makers of Shadowrun series, have a different view. And so do gamers.

It’s called BATTLETECH. Yes, it’s all in capitals. And yes, it’s a Kickstarter campaign.

But here’s the good news: it’s bringing the BattleTech universe back to life. The campaign has already raised nearly US$700,000 in its first day, smashing its US$250,000 goal.

“ALPHA STRIKE A SUCCESS,” the developers wrote in their first update. “FUNDED IN 53 MINUTES. MAINTAIN SUPPRESSION FIRE.”

The project, which is targeting a May 2017 release, is being lead by the MechWarrior and BattleTech creator Jordan Weisman. It’s a single-player turn-based game, although the notes say “the game may also include PvP multiplayer” if funding surpasses US$2.5 million.

Curiously, while the game was only asking for US$250,000, the developers said a full story campaign wouldn’t be included unless funding reaches US$1 million — although at the insane rate of donations, that’s not an issue.

BATTLETECH, which is being built in Unity 5, will also be entirely in 3D. “We’ll be building an all-new codebase in Unity 5 to deliver a ‘Mech command experience that can fully do justice to the awesome scale and depth of the BattleTech Universe,” Harebrained writes.

The minimum tier to grab a digital copy of BATTLETECH will set you back US$25, while the US$35 tier comes with the soundtrack and BATTLETECH concept art.

Over 9,300 backers have already jumped on board, which isn’t much of a surprise: it’s not like there are a surplus of mecha games (that people are universally happy with, emotions not attributable to MechWarrior Online and HAWKEN).


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


8 responses to “Shadowrun Devs Fund New Mecha Game In 53 Minutes”