New knowledge unlocked : when the Shadowrun Returns developers were raising funds on Kickstarter they developed a system of encrypted reward codes that they would generate, send to a Kickstarter backer, he would paste it into the options menu and get access to extra goodies unlocked in the main campaign via internal variables called "user entitlements". A list of all codes that unlocked goodies and player characters in the Dead Man's Switch campaign has already been released about three years ago here.
I reverse - engineered the whole thing in the last couple of days and found a way to generate my own codes. That means that if I want to create a Kickstarter fundraiser for this rather ambitious campaign I'm working on - and I've been inclined to do it - , I now have the means to reward multi-tier backers with extra goodies like player and NPC cosmetics, or unlock a vendor with new outfits. What I won't do is give away extra medkits, DocWagon kits, nuyen, karma or other gameplay-altering drugs.
Don't get me wrong: it won't cost nearly as much as the Kickstarter to create the game had cost. It was a huge game made with love and a big team to feed. My Kickstarter will be intended only to pay for the hours that I'll be able to set aside from my daily work routine and dedicate to the "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" project, apart from a big fraction of my leisure time, the cost of maintaining this website, and it will be a win - win for everybody that enjoyed the game trilogy, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner.
More news coming soon, chummers!