HAREBRAINED SCHEMES

The former Paradox developer charts a course into a future without Shadowrun or BattleTech

- BY JULIAN BENSON

Having made his fair share of tactics games over the years, it’s no surprise that Chris Rogers, creative director and studio head at Harebrained Schemes, approaches the subject of his studio’s history with tact. “Ten years ago, we were a bunch of eager beavers, hoping for restraint,” Rogers begins, before opting for restraint. “Going into the launch of Lamplighters League, we knew that there was a lot of baggage on the Paradox side.”

Strategy-game publisher Paradox Interactive had earlier invested in 2018, 2023’s The Lamplighters League was a PC/Xbox and 1930s pulp adventures — was to be the first product of that union. Three weeks before its release, however, Paradox bid most of the studio’s staff, leaving it with just nine people to complete the game. “It was a shock,” Rogers says, sticking to his tactic of understatement. “We’d had a lot of cooks to make the meal, and we didn’t have the staff to serve it.”

Almost no sooner had the result been dished up to the public that it was declared a failure by its publisher. “The commercial reception has been too weak, which is frankly a big disappointment,” Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester said in a statement released soon after launch. Meanwhile, at Harebrained, the battered team was left to pick up the pieces. “We had 300,000 players on Game Pass,” Rogers says. “We had this obligation, and we knew we had limited time to make it a better game.”

While it wouldn’t be public knowledge until January 2024, behind the scenes Harebrained and Paradox were in talks to separate. Rogers describes the uncoupling process as smooth and mature. “I’m thankful to Paradox for that,” he says, keen to emphasise its rationale. “The truth is — and Paradox has said this — their strengths are in publishing, and our strengths and our expertise was not that,” he says, “look at our games. They’re not about pushing the map, they’re about getting to the heart of the game.”