Harebrained Schemes announces a new version 1.1 patch for Shadowrun Returns is now available in beta, offering improvements for the game, as well as Linux support for both the game and the editor. Here's word on how to participate:

Beta Process

Beta Process: We’re doing things a bit differently than the previous patches we’ve released. We’ve pushed a version up to Steam in a special opt-in “public beta” channel before releasing it to the general public. We will be monitoring this build and the forums closely for any bugs or issues that people may encounter, and if things go smoothly, we expect to promote it to the main release after a week or two.

So if you’re interested in helping the community by reporting bugs, or just need to play with the new toys right away, you’ll want to head over to the Steam forums to learn how to join the Beta and help out. If you’d rather wait for the main release, that’s fine, too!

Just a quick note here: we do not plan on providing DRM free versions of Beta builds during this process. We will of course be putting up final builds in the Backer site when the patch is ready for prime time, but while we work through any last minute issues, Steam will be the only place to get the bleeding-edge (possibly slightly buggy) version of Shadowrun Returns.

Linux

Patch 1.1 will see the Linux port of Shadowrun Returns sit alongside its Mac and PC brethren as a first class citizen at last. We now have a couple of Linux machines in house, and have been busy ironing out the major kinks internally as fast as we could. We know a lot of you have been waiting patiently for this bad boy, and after we give it a bit of time to cool off in the Beta period (again, the Beta is only available through Steam), we’ll be pushing it live with the rest of the 1.1 goodness. From that point forward, it will receive updates on the same schedule as the Windows and OSX versions.