Human Head 'fully intends' to bring back Rune

Human Head co-founder Ted Halsted talks about the company's plans for a Rune sequel in the wake of Prey 2's development issues.

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Human Head Studios has been dropping hints of a Rune revival. Now that Prey 2 is likely pulled from the studio's slate, the company is being a little more overt about its hopes to bring back the franchise.

"I can't reveal what we've got planned, but we fully intend to bring digital viking mayhem into the here-and-now," Human Head co-founder Ted Halsted said.

Halsted told Neogamr that the recent Facebook poll was to "gauge fan excitement" and learn more about what aspects of the original game they enjoyed most. He says viking combat is "where Rune's heart beats."

He also suggests that the story of the sequel will focus on a more brutal Ragnar, since the end of days (Ragnarok) has come. It will still be a third-person action game, but Halsted says the combat is still "evolving." The company wants to make the game more like modern titles with more tactical options for the action. Plus, thanks to the fan support of multiplayer, he says it will focus on that aspect and clan features.

As for how the studio will fund the project, many guessed a Kickstarter fund was only a matter of time after the word broke of a possible feature. "We certainly wouldn't rule out Kickstarter," Halsted said. "As a developer, we're pleased that there's a wide variety of funding methods for modern projects, from Kickstarter to investors to the traditional publisher model."

While Human Head hasn't officially been taken off Prey 2, Bethesda's delay announcement was harsh, to say the least. It claimed the game had "not progressed satisfactorily" and "does not currently meet our quality standards." An anonymous source told us that the studio had stopped work on the game last November due to a contract dispute, which would leave plenty of time for pre-planning of a Rune sequel.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 25, 2012 9:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Human Head 'fully intends' to bring back Rune.

    Human Head co-founder Ted Halsted talks about the company's plans for a Rune sequel in the wake of Prey 2's development issues.

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      April 25, 2012 10:25 AM

      Definitely going to be following this.

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      April 25, 2012 10:54 AM

      I am more interested in why Bethesda thought they were unfit to finish Prey 2. What happened there..

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        April 25, 2012 1:54 PM

        [deleted]

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          April 25, 2012 1:56 PM

          wouldn't any payday contract disputes have been settled at the very beginning of the process, before they spent a few years in full on development? The way things were originally reported, it made it sound like they were not living up to their end of the dev process and were given the boot. If anyone has the real story, that would be great

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            April 26, 2012 1:04 PM

            There was that thing with Obsidian recently, that they missed out on huge bonuses because their metacritic was 1 point off their target. Maybe they had a similar contract and wanted to renegotiate.

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          April 25, 2012 6:47 PM

          Maybe they just like to keep the trend of delaying games. Prey 1 was canceled and delayed and took 10+ years. Any game you buy rights from 3D Realms has a release date 10-20 years from when it gets started.

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      April 25, 2012 11:16 AM

      "The company wants to make the game more like modern titles with more tactical options for the action"

      Please tell me they mean Demon's Souls style tactical options, and not Gears of War style "tactical options."

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      April 25, 2012 12:56 PM

      welp i went from "oh hell yeah" to laughing in under 30 seconds i think that's a new record for being disappointed by video games

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      April 25, 2012 1:57 PM

      Speaking as someone who helped resurrect a decade-old IP, I can only offer my initial thought...

      Don't do it. This way lies ruin.

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        April 25, 2012 2:38 PM

        but sin episode one owned :(

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          April 25, 2012 2:51 PM

          Rune sold around 300k total units if I remember correctly. That's lower than the sales figures for SE1.

          I'm not sure that's a large enough existing user base to build a proper sequel off.

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          April 25, 2012 2:52 PM

          That was great. Too bad they didn't get to continue. :(

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            April 25, 2012 5:54 PM

            I really liked it too. I think it just came out at the wrong time or something. If they'd released it now with all the Steam sales, they might've done better.

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      April 25, 2012 4:54 PM

      Rune wasn't even that good.

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        April 25, 2012 5:00 PM

        The MP was novel in that you could throw heads around and beat people with their own limbs, but yeah. I never finished the game. And going back to it a few years later to try and finish it was super painful.

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