How to save whenever you want in Shadowrun

In order to save anywhere, you need to have either Oracle's VirtualBox or VMWare's VSphere. Oh, and alot of patience.

Get Vbox here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/virtualbox/downloads/‎

Get VSphere here: https://www.vmware.com/ and then spend some money. Vbox is free.

Install steam in your VM - either Mac or Windows - once Linux is supported, you could do that too. Which would probably be better....

Then, whenever you want to save - take a snapshot from your VM software of choice.

If you die or whatever, you can reload your save by reloading the entire machine state from the VM. It is like a one-size-fits-all save mechanic.

Game doesn't offer save feature? Well... Just save the state of the entire machine and reload (and wait) and voila....

I wrote this guide because nobody has yet. If you really want to 'save anywhere' you can, and here is how. However, I think the reasons you cannot are really interesting and get to the heart of what it really means to create a game.

Gamers (myself included) look at the finished product and think:

• It would be so cool if you could X.
  
• Why can't you X?
  
• I wouldn't have bought this game if I knew you couldn't do X.

Programmers (myself included) look at the in progress product and think:

• I would love to do X but I have to finish Y.
  
• Why can't I deliver Y in 2 weeks, so I can do X?
  
• There aren't 42 hours in a day, so I guess X is out of the question, I wouldn't have worked on Y if I knew I couldn't get to X.

The interesting thing about Kickstarter is that it allows for anyone to see how an item is funded (this is a simplified statement, because many projects go there for last mile funding, but still).

So people look at the finished project and think: 'This 3 dimensional tape measurer cost 32K to create... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I could've thought of it for 15K.'

Or, THIS GAME COST 1.8 MILLION TO MAKE!? THEY MUST HAVE POCKETED LIKE 1 MILLION OF THAT AND THEN FUNDED SOMETHING ELSE WITH THE OTHER 0.8 MILLIONS! FOR REAL?! PROGRAMMERS MAKE 35K A YEAR?! TOO MUCH.

For me it is eye-opening, both in what people think other people's time is worth, and what really was accomplished with Shadowrun.

Consider this:

• Harebrained valued modability over a non-checkpoint save system.
  
• Harebrained valued a non-CTD experience over a non-checkpoint save system.
  
• Harebrained and the community revived a DOA franchise with a whim and prayer.
  
• With a litle patience, you can have a save anywhere system.
  
• Programmers make considerably more than 35K a year, and deservedly so, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

You can now skip all these steps and update your game to get save anywhere.