Harebrained Schemes has started teasing their new game called Graft. The brief video appears to show a sci-fi setting, which may or may not be based in the Shadowrun universe. Gamers interested in following the development of Graft can register for the newsletter on the official website. Don't expect to play the game this year or the next, though: the LinkedIn profile of Executive Producer Mike McCain (who returned to Harebrained Schemes earlier this year after directing BATTLETECH and Shadowrun: Dragonfall) mentions an unannounced game launching in 2026.
Then again, it's an appropriate timeline if you know what the studio has been up to. HBS launched the turn-based tactics game The Lamplighters League last October. Unfortunately, the game's reception and sales performance were so weak that parent company Paradox Interactive quickly parted ways with the developer, causing Harebrained Schemes to lay off many developers. The studio was also forced to go indie and seek funding elsewhere for its new project, which we now know to be called Graft.
As for what it actually is, we know very little about it from the HBS blog. In January, they wrote:
It is audacious. It builds on the best of the studio’s history while still being something new and compelling in the strategy space. It’s narratively rich, and there are so many natural connections between the narrative themes and the gameplay systems.
The developers made a demo and showed it to publishers at GDC 2024, where it reportedly got a lot of attention, according to Mike McCain:
This indie band has been firing on all cylinders! Iterating daily, and making smart and pragmatic decisions with some big creative wind in our sails. We landed in San Francisco with a stronger prototype and vision for our next game than we could have imagined at the start of the year. We met with a whole bunch of potential partners at GDC, and got some fantastic reactions to both the world we’re crafting and the prototype we’ve built. A couple ideas in particular really got eyes lighting up and folks nodding along with enthusiasm. Now, we keep talking and see where that energy leads.
Following this teaser, we might learn some actual details about Graft in the near future. Until then, stay tuned.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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