Hard West

The wild west has always been one of those underplayed genres for me. I've recently gotten a few awesome tastes of that ye-olde adventure with a couple of video games like Secret Ponchos and now Hard West. Since the game I'm trying to make (Hostargo) also has a "western" base to it - especially when it comes to combat scenarios - I wanted to dig into some of the mechanics of Hard West, which is a tactical, turn-based RPG.

First and foremost, the game is heavily cover based, much like other tactics games where firearms (ranged weapons of any kind) are the main weapon of choice.

God created men. The six-shooter made them equal.

But unlike other tactics games, where sometimes you just have to fight cover-to-cover and hope for the best, Hard West always gives you a few tricks to work with. First, the wild west setting always provides a variety of unique building types: from crumbling shacks to the smooth stone walls of a fortified mansion. Second, there are plenty of environmental props, such as wells, wagons, stalls, cargo boxes, and animals. But lastly, it was a real pleasure to find that you could interact with objects in the environment to create, destroy, or re-enforce cover. You can flip tables, pull up cellar doors, and stack boxes - all things that I would normally want to do in a tabletop!

Movement and positioning are key in Hard West. It's unfortunately largely unrealistic, but the action point system lends itself well to tactical movement. First, you have two action points (AP). For one AP, you can move. For one AP, you can shoot. For two AP, you can usually do some sort of special shot. The big kicker though, is that any shot will immediately end your turn, even if you haven't yet used all of your AP. This means that there's no "shoot and hide" strategy. Instead, it forces you to think of not only where you need to be to shoot, but also where you need to end up so you don't get flanked yourself on the next turn. I quite like it, despite it's sometimes frustrating lack of flexability.

The RPG elements aren't huge, but they hit the spot. The use of poker cards to build characters gives it that wild-west feel while still rocking a fully customizable system. Different cards give your characters different powers, and then different poker hands give different bonuses on top of that. Throw in jokers as wild, and you've got yourself a fully fledged RPG team building experience!

Overall, I highly recommend this to both fans of tactics games, and to fans of the weird west genre. It has it's quirks, but even it's overland exploration will have you feeling like a true pioneer. 7.5/10

The Backlog

Like many designers who are constantly coming up with more ideas than they have time for, I have many projects I'd really like to see get off the backlog and onto the front burners. I've taken a slightly break from Hostargo (in no small amount due to getting re-addicted to Heroes of Newerth), and have instead focused on rejiggering one of my previous projects, Lords & Lackies. I even missed a week of blogging - blah!

I basically had L&L done, complete, and out-the-door. I had a small, silly game I thought, and that was that. But then some people actually played it - and I got a few bits of feedback from the odd corners of the web (a huge shout out to those guys who have tried it!). The main issue with the game, it seems, was that it played too much like a card game, and not enough like an RPG. While one of my design goals was to create a competitive RPG that was "balanced", I completely missed the target when it came to why we love RPGs in the first place.

So I went back to the drawing board, and have a new-found focus for this weird little game. I've scrapped the main card play mechanics in favor of a round-based initiative system that focuses the decision making of the game on what your character needs to do in-fiction, not just which cards played will get you the win. This new style lets players gamble on when to act in a round, and whether to step up to heroics or allow their loyal lackies to die.

That's the idea anyway. Unfortunately, good things rarely come easily. The first iteration of L&L I pumped out in a weekend. This one has already eaten away at more time than that...

Providing Player Styles with Classes

In Hostargo, I am really excited about the line-up of core "callings" (a.k.a. class / special ability) that I have created. However, being excited about it myself isn't going to sell my game to others. Instead, I'm aiming to provide a wide variety of players options so that people can explore the game in their favorite style.

Especially considering we know that each player has unique styles of fun, I wanted to try mapping each calling I have; not directly to these styles, but rather to just the general "feel" of what the calling is set out to accomplish. This has helped me visualize the "big picture" for each calling, and how to structure their upgrades and abilities.

After reading these, I have some questions at the end of this post. I'm looking for feedback, so please let me know what you think! Thank you!

Roll Result	Calling	Description
1	Animancer	Recommended for players that like to have a wide array of options at their disposal; Animancers are masters of mysterious arcane magic, powered by the very essence of humanity: memory.
2	Biomancer	Recommended for players that like to have creative solutions to their problems; Biomancers can grow and mutate any living material just by touching it.  Imagination is their only true limit.
3	Leader	Recommended for players that like to take charge, make decisions, and coordinate their team’s actions; Leaders’ voices cut through chaos to inspire their allies and outmaneuver their foes.
4	Magnomancer	Recommended for players that like to have raw power; Magnomancers can remotely control metallic objects, pushing or pulling as they see fit. Using their manipulative abilities over magnetic fields, magnomancers also wield dangerous electric currents.
5	Raw Talent	Recommended for players that don’t care about complex abilities, preferring instead to focus on their character’s skills and training.
6	Tech Adept	Recommended for players that like to dive deep into customizing their character; Tech Adepts are capable of augmenting their bodies with fully mechanized parts. Others find that Tech Adepts often ride that fine line between human and machine.

Which calling would you choose, and why?

Which one sounds the most interesting, other than your main choice?

Do you find a style that is potentially not covered?

Any other suggestions?

Thank you!

The Building of Hostargo

This past week I've been busy working with my artists, and I'm very pleased to announce that the main showcase painting of the City of Hostargo is complete! For fun, I've made a .gif showing the progress of changes that we made over the course of the painting's life. This is a huge shoutout to Frank Attmannspacher for doing this commission!