Week 10 Release!

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Week 10 Release

After some final polish, the game is finished and fully playable! So, what does it feature? Let’s go on a train journey through its design and features.

What kind of game is this?It is a two versus two, top-down, twin-stick, cowboy, heist, shooter. But what does that really mean? Four friends get to sit down next to each other, each holding their own controller. Using one joystick to move their cowboy around a train and the other stick to aim their gun around. As both teams are usually playing on two different trains with some space in between them, this allows them to shoot at each other whilst dodging incoming shots. Either by running out of the way of the incoming bullets, or by hiding behind cover. Speaking of cover…

Destructible EnvironmentThat’s right, everything aside from the floor you are walking on is destructible. Is your opponent using the windows in their wagon for cover? Blow the wall off. Did they move to get cover behind some barrels? Shoot the barrel to smithereens. This keeps the game dynamic, as you won’t be able to stand still in one spot for too long. But what if the entire wagon is shot to bits?

Making your way through the trainYou and your friend started the game out by jumping on the last wagon of a train. By shooting at the other cowboys on the opposite train, you can score yourself some gold! This happens through destroying their wagon and the interior in it. And of course, good aim is rewarded, killing your adversaries grants a good amount of gold too! This gold can be spend to open up the door that leads to the next wagon. The end goal here is to reach the locomotive, where a big shiny chest awaits you. Every wagon conveniently has a vault, in which your acquired gold will be stored. But beware, as it is not entirely bullet-proof. If your vault gets hit, it will leak some of your gold, which will drop right next to it. Cowboys from either team can pick this up and claim it for their own, so you better grab it back early, before they get the chance to snatch it away!

Passing trainsThe trains you decided to heist are not the only trains in the desert. This is evident by the occasional train that will pass through in between both teams. Opportunistic players can jump on and use it to cross over to the other train. Where they will of course be trying to loot the vault. But that is not all, as this passing train comes with its own set of goodies up for grabs. Ammunition, med-kits and, naturally, piles of gold! Creating the perfect environment to get up close and personal with your opponents. And yes, quite literally, as there are also melee weapons! Each cowboy has their own personal preference and has thus brought its own favorite close quarters tool. Ranging from a crowbar or baseball bat, to a machete or even a spikey mace!

The arsenalSpeaking of weapons, what is there available to perforate your opponents with? For starters, a revolver. Your most basic of weapons, doesn’t shoot too fast, but is pretty accurate. And in true cowboy fashion, you will never run out of bullets with this one. Making it the perfect weapon to fall back to when you run out of ammo for your fancier tools of destruction, which conveniently all share the same ammo. These include:

A shotgun, which shoots off a big spread of bullets
A tommy gun, which quickly fires a lot of bullets in a smaller spread.
And a shootable load of dynamite, which, as you’d expect, explodes, dealing damage to everything in its surrounding.

Train stationsAs expected with trains, every now and then, after pulling their brakes, they’ll stop at a train station. The camera temporarily changes its usual top-down perspective, to a true 90 percent top-down angle. Offering the players a good overview of their new pillage destination. That’s right, this place is packed with loot! Follow the nearby exit signs and loot away. Although it must be mentioned that you might want to be specific with what you are grabbing. As when the train sounds its whistle, it will be leaving the station again.

ControlsAll good and dandy, but now you want to get into to it and see whether train heisting could your future career path. Here’s a rundown of how to do so:

Left joystick – movement
Right joystick – aiming
Pressing leftjoystick – toggles aim mode, walk slower, shoot more accurate.
Left lower trigger – interacting / buying
Right lower trigger – shooting / melee
Left upper trigger – switching weapons
Options button - pausing
x, y, a, b – menu interaction

Development processThis was the first time we, a team of 3 programmers and 2 artists, worked together to deliver something. The project started off rather rough, with time estimations of individual parts and pieces being doubled or tripled. As working with the Unreal engine was new for our programmers and working assets through the entire pipeline from being modeled to actually implementation was not something the artist were used to do in one go.

Every project can be separated into multiple pieces and those pieces in even smaller crumbles. In the case of ours, we had a lot of different mechanics that could be tested individually, but had to fit that puzzle together. The first third of the project was spend on exactly that, building the separate pieces. (Movement, aiming, asset destruction, shooting, wagon movement, ...) After a couple of weeks, this led up to a proud moment, when the pieces fell together. And although it was cool to see it all working in conjunction with each other, that didn’t necessarily mean that it was fun or balanced yet.

As we continued the project, unreal became more familiar and the pipeline got smoothed out. We got a lot better at estimating how long tasks would take. On top of this, we also started to function more as a group, working closer together as artists and programmers. We met up an additional time each week to go over what we made, on the spot implementation or adjustments to things we made with multiple people behind the same computer screen. As well as playtesting, adjusting balance or collectively writing down feedback for directions we could take.

During the third part of the project we separately took part of a game jam. During which we quickly discovered that starting a new project for the second time around went a lot smoother. Coming back together after, also provided us new insights which were directly implemented in this game.

From that point onward we polished our game, working mostly on player feedback and visibility, leading up to what is downloadable and playable on here.

FootnoteBehind the intense crunching there was also place for fun to be had, leading up to a couple hilarious moments between features becoming bugs and bugs becoming features. We hope you too can get some laughs in, couching down with a couple of friends as you shoot and loot your way down these trains, western style.