Kevin Maloney (Shadow Run) was not fired but hired

[Wilhelm-Streicher]

Well well finally a good news? Kevin Maloney who was a loan from Harebrained Schemes is now hired by Hardsuit Labs as Senior Content Designer. https://twitter.com/kmoney380/status/1319405314081345536 I think its only fair to Bloodlines 2 that i report also some interesting hirings. I haven´t played any of Harebrained Games but i believe that all of their games have good reviews from critics.
Maybe i am wrong and they are bad. I don´t know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harebrained_Schemes
The interesting part of this story is that Maloney was loaned which isn´t that common in the industry but it makes sense because Harebrained Schemes is a Seattle developer (founded by BattleTech creator Jordan Weisman) and is since 2018 fully own by Paradox.

[Talyn82]

Well if he is good at what he does then that's great news.  I never heard of this Harebrained Schemes or their games.  But I will check them out. Thanks for the news!

Edit: Whoops, you mentioned they developed the Shadowrun games I've heard about them.

[Wesp5]

Whoops, you mentioned they developed the Shadowrun games I've heard about them.

Are those not isometric games? So whatever experience this guy has, it can't help with the first person view gaming which most people found lacking in the demo. Also if he is working on content, how can Outstar claim that everything from Brian Mitsoda and Cara Ellison is still in the game and they are just polishing things?

[Talyn82]

Whoops, you mentioned they developed the Shadowrun games I've heard about them.

Are those not isometric games? So whatever experience this guy has, it can't help with the first person view gaming which most people found lacking in the demo. Also if he is working on content, how can Outstar claim that everything from Brian Mitsoda and Cara Ellison is still in the game and they are just polishing things?

Yes, they are isometric games.  As for your question I do not know.  I haven't been up to date with Outstar.

[mdqp]

Well, at least he was already working/helping there, so there is some continuity. I played the first Shadowrun game, and it was enjoyable overall (although the game never felt too "wide", and kept getting narrower toward the end, with a rather tedious final section). I think the budget for their games was always quite small, however, so that probably affected how many alternative paths some sections had.
I figure his role would be more about designing interesting setpieces, maybe small dialogues to open alternative routes, where to allow certain skills to have an impact, and so on, right? The "gamey" end of quests and world design.

[Wesp5]

It just appeared to me that this could be only a marketing stunt to compensate for the news of firings and leavings. After all he was on load already for a year, so all his work is already in the game and he was kept, and even hired, during the same time when they fired Mitsoda and Ellinson left. Also so much for the theory they want to save money.

[mdqp]

It just appeared to me that this could be only a marketing stunt to compensate for the news of firings and leavings. After all he was on load already for a year, so all his work is already in the game and he was kept, and even hired, during the same time when they fired Mitsoda and Ellinson left. Also so much for the theory they want to save money.

I don't think anywhere near enough people would care about this to make it a good marketing move (I don't think his name has mass appeal). But yeah, it does throw shade at the "saving money" theory.

[Highwayman667]

I haven't played the Shadow Run games yet. Any recommendations there ?

[mdqp]

I haven't played the Shadow Run games yet. Any recommendations there ?

I only played the first one Shadowrun Returns, so I can't speak for the other in the series yet, but I think it's a decent game. I did hear, however, that the sequels are more polished, so it's worth keeping in mind. There are a few things to consider with the first game:
1) The game remains fairly linear throughout. Don't expect much in hubs you can explore, usually you don't find entire side-quests or big areas with lots of secrets. You get some amount of freedom to roam around, but the areas are usually fairly small, and you might get the occasional side objective or really small side quest here and there.

2) Since the game is overall not so huge, some of the skills are under utilized, so don't agonize over your choice of "etiquettes" too much, for example.

3) Don't try to make a 100% "charismatic" guy with no fighting abilities. There is a good amount of fights, and more than a few are unavoidable. The final section in particular is cruelly obnoxious if you don't have a decent ranged weapon skill, since the game forces your main character to wield the only other weapon that can hurt certain enemies (and absurdly, the game gives you a chance to refuse the only other character that can wield such weapon, as far as I know).
I didn't do multiple playthroughs, so I can't guarantee there aren't some alternatives to damage dealing if you are a mage, for example, but from what I saw and lore wise, it didn't seem the case.

4) If you like the style of the writing, then you'll probably enjoy almost all the dialogues. I think the quality and style is very consistent, and I enjoyed most conversations.

5) The combat is fairly well done, although I feel like the experience varies perhaps a little too wildly between specializations (so perhaps consider restarting if your chosen skills don't mesh with you).

6) While this is a bit spotty, the game tries to give you multiple approaches to solving certain quests/objectives, and it manages to be very pleasant at times. Don't expect it to be a constant through the game, however, some quests are more "blessed" than others.

7) Dialogues are often flavourful, but the choices aren't always meaningful (since the game is linear, there are almost no quests which can be refused, and the order is pretty much always the same). You'll ultimately move forward no matter what you do or say most of the times (in a few cases you can make your life easier if you are smart, though).

I am trying to list most of what could be flaws of the game, but I think it is worth checking out, as long as you aren't expecting another Fallout or Arcanum (which score much higher as far as role-playing reactivity and freedom go). There is probably going to be a sale soon (I bet GOG and/or Steam are probably going to have something for Halloween), and these games are pretty cheap when that happens, so you should be able to try one out for little to no risk.

[Radical21]

I think of the series of Shadowrun adventure games the best was definitely Dragonfall.

[Wilhelm-Streicher]

I don't think anywhere near enough people would care about this to make it a good marketing move (I don't think his name has mass appeal). But yeah, it does throw shade at the "saving money" theory.

Well i don´t think that the dev name and his / her reputation is really that important. Nothing against Kevin Maloney, i believe that he is a good addition to the team, but like you pointed out he is more of a noname, but that´s not the point why he is hired.
Hardsuit Labs really want the possitive news out that the project is still on the right track and the departure of Cara Ellison isn´t that worrisome. I know that should rule out the "saving money" theory but does it really?
Yeah, they hired Maloney but is it for the sake of Bloodlines 2 or for its perception / marketing?
"Look they are hiring people so everything is fine."
The most interesting question is, would Kevin Maloney still be loaned if the Ellison story wasn´t out? I think so. Of course you can make the argument that maybe his hiring is a big coincidence but the same week as Ellison's story? Very unlikely.
I believe that they are desperate right now and have nothing good to show regarding Bloodlines 2 itself so this hiring's only purpose is to counterbalance Ellison's departure news.
Also who knows what deal Moloney´s former employer Paradox / Harebrained Schemes made with Hardsuit Labs?

[mdqp]

I don't think anywhere near enough people would care about this to make it a good marketing move (I don't think his name has mass appeal). But yeah, it does throw shade at the "saving money" theory.

Well i don´t that the dev name and his / her reputation is really that important. Nothing against Kevin Maloney i believe that he is a good addition to the teambut like i you pointed out he is more of a noname but that´s not the point why he is hired.
Hardsuit Labs really want the possitive news out that they the project is still on the right track and the departature of Cara Ellisonisn´t that worrisome. I know that should rule out "saving money" theory but does it really?
Yeah they hired Maloney but is it for the sake of Bloodlines 2 or for its perception / marketing?
"Look they are hiring people so everything is fine"
The most interessing question is would be Kevin Maloney still be loaned if the Ellison story wasn´t out? I think so.Of course you can make the argument that maybe his hiring is a big coincidence but the same week as Ellison story? Very unlikely.
I believe that they are desperate right now and have nothing good to show regarding Bloodlines 2 itself so
this hiring only purpose is to counterbalance Ellison departure news.
Also who knows that deal Moloney´s former employer Paradox / Harebrained Schemes made with Hardsuit Labs?

Honestly, I think at this point everyone at Paradox and HSL just want to get the game finished, there is no point in trying to play the PR game by hiring one person. I don't think anyone thought the project is running out of money or needed one more dev (we don't even know enough about the game's state to guess whether that's true or not), plus the guy was already working there.

I do agree they probably don't have much good to show, or else we would have gotten some juicy gameplay/story videos to ease people's worries together or soon after the "organizational changes" as they called it.

[Wilhelm-Streicher]

Honestly, I think at this point everyone at Paradox and HSL just want to get the game finished, there is no point in trying to play the PR game by hiring one person.

Like you mentions later in your post Maloney already works for HL for a year so why not make it official to have a good news for the moment?
Of course everyone wants the game out right now but that´s not gonna happen soon.
Maybe even not in 2021 and that´s really bad for the PS4 and Xbox One ports of the game because i doubt that in 2022 games on those plattforms would sale enough. Maybe PS4 but the Xbox One is already dead right now.

They currently don´t have anything to show (i don´t think that this will change for the rest of the year) but they also want to stop the negative press about the game.
So yeah this is only a marketing move to show that the "organizational changes" aren´t bad because they still hire devs.

[mdqp]

Like you mentions later in your post Maloney already works for HL for a year so why not make it official to have a good news for the moment?
Of course everyone wants the game out right now but that´s not gonna happen soon.
Maybe even not in 2021 and that´s really bad for the PS4 and Xbox One ports of the game because i doubt that in 2022 games on those plattforms would sale enough. Maybe PS4 but the Xbox One is already dead right now.

They currently don´t have anything to show (i don´t think that this will change for the rest of the year)
 but they also want to stop the negative press about the game.
So yeah this is only marketing move to show that the "organizational changes" aren´t bad because still hired devs.

If this is their plan, I doubt it will work, but anyway, we'll see. It would be hilarious if more and more people randomly got hired between now and the release. 

[Wilhelm-Streicher]

If this is their plan, I doubt it will work, but anyway, we'll see.

Well i also doubt that their plan will work, but to be fair they create the image that they are still commited to this game. With all of these major departures (to be fair right now we only know that 5 people have left) some fans have questions if this game will still come out.
By the way i am not 100% sure, but isn´t it so that Bloodlines 2 has lost all of the public known spokepersons that they used for their previous marketing?
Mitsoda, Ellison, Schlütter and Schwarzer are all gone.