The idea of creating a game reproducing the stress of a cowboy duel has been in my mind for a long time.
When we decided to redirect Emedion, our interactive motion comics business, towards video games, we decided to create a quick prototype with Flex framework to test the gameplay. This demo didn't have any graphics, only gauges and text.
Tests on the first players weren't totally convincing, because they hardly understood the actions without any visual representation. However some people got caught up in the game and we could have some fun with this minimalist prototype, seeing then a fun potential in it.
JR with whom we've already worked, author of the interactive motion comic Maestria's Flower, joined us for the art direction. We used int13 engine (this engine has already been used for AR Defender 1&2 and Shotgun on iOS and Android) because it's one of the few current engine enabling us to make realtime wifi network between mobiles on different OS.
Now that the foundations are laid and the prototype looks fun for the ones who understand the rules, we have to choose an art direction and gameplay representation.
Illustrating this news, the first concept arts and design for an overall idea of the artistic direction we're going to. The game will be fully in 2D and we'll use the animation engine used for the digital comics by Emedion. I'll post soon an animation test for a better idea.
I like it :)