Harebrained Schemes teases GRAFT, its new game

Originally posted on Video Games on SI | By Marco Wutz | Last updated Jul 18, 2024 6:41 AM ET

Harebrained Schemes, the developer of Shadowrun, BattleTech, and The Lamplighters League, has teased its newest project: GRAFT.

A short teaser on social media site X shows a futuristic city with skyscrapers built around a large hole leading underground. After a few seconds, the lights on all buildings begin to flicker and then die out completely, with the white light coming from inside the giant tunnel turning to a menacing red.

In the second half of the teaser, we’re shown an orbital megastructure hovering above a planet with the game’s title coming in, flickering as if it was fighting against interference.

Something's coming. Sign up at https://t.co/31DiZdZFeB and be the first to know. pic.twitter.com/U5vmt8MdRZ
— Harebrained (@WeBeHarebrained) July 17, 2024

The developer’s website doesn’t offer any other hints as to what GRAFT may be about, though with Harebrained Schemes’ pedigree we’re probably right to assume that it’s cooking up some sort of tactical experience.

In a blog post from March 2024, Harebrained Schemes’ executive producer Mike McCain wrote that the team had come to GDC 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,” he added.

It looks like things might have worked out for the studio, given that the team feels ready to tease a reveal.

Harebrained Schemes was owned by Paradox Interactive from 2018 to late 2023, but the Swedish publisher cut ties with the studio after The Lamplighters League failed to score any commercial successes, leaving the developers to fend for themselves.

This article first appeared on Video Games on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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