Dan Palamountain

title: Dragon of the West

created: 2017

development time: 3 months

team size: 7

engine: Unity

​

The Dragon of the West was completed as our Major Project at the end of 2017.  It's about a Samurai who travels to the Old West to seek revenge on the evil men who destroyed his friends and family back home.  It sounds dark but really it's a spaghetti western at heart and doesn't take itself too seriously. 

You play as the Dragon and travel from town to town taking out the boss of each level as you make your way across the map to take out the head honcho.  There are 12 unique levels as well as a quick tutorial town and the large Fort which serves as the end level.  Randomness was a large part of the design brief and is included in town names, boss names, order in which levels appear, weapon drops, ammo drops, health drops and more.

​

The game was my idea and it's two main influences were Hotline Miami and The Flame in the Flood.  It was originally supposed to include currency elements in which you acquired gold to purchase new weapons, ammo, health and a group of posse members required to reach the final level.  However, about six weeks from the end we realised we weren't going to get there at the level we wanted and decided to focus on the fast paced gameplay and make it as fun as we could while giving it a reasonable amount of polish.

​

As the vision holder of the project I really enjoyed working closely with the artists and programmers to bring the game I envisioned to life.  I think we were able to capture the Hotline Miami vibe well and people really seem to enjoy playing it.  It's fast, frantic, can be punishing at times but is ultimately rewarding.  Kind of like the project production itself...