Hello everyone Rich here, i'm dropping an update on the development of Gunsmith! We've got some super exciting stuff in the works that we are really happy with. The progress is going well and next week or very soon after i'm sure we will have something tangible to show to the community!
I'll drop a video below that I made a few weeks back but i've been so busy i've not put it on the official Steam channel so here it is. I will also write some stuff below to explain in text form where we are at with Gunsmith.
So we took an annual break over the September period and I took 2 weeks to actually build a dev studio in my back yard ( more to come on this ). However apart from that, I've been playing a tonne of games ( that are not mine / ours ).
I've been studying on the value that games create for both their players and their games. I have seen upon coming back to design that Gunsmith has lacked a huge amount of potential for both us as a studio/creators and also value for players.
Our main goal for the last 2 years has been content, content,
CONTENT.
However when I take a deeper look at this I essentially just see now a giant buffet of food with no real direction. All our scenarios are essentially a sandbox leaving the player to ultimately quit the game because they are bored.
I don't see that as the worse thing ever, the fact someone has sunk so much time into the game they exhaust it is actually a massive compliment, however I would like players to quit their play session on a high rather than a low. I digress slightly.
Being extremely critical of our own work means that when we see how we pick scenarios, countries etc to play. Really what is the point. There is no real difference. So therefore this is something I now consider a major part of the game that needs improvement as a matter of urgency.
I think the best way I have started to look at certain things with our games is the fact that I am also a huge fan and player of multiple games and genres of game. I have to ask myself "would I be happy if i was playing this and it wasn't my game" and the response to myself is, absolutely not I would think XYZ is super under performing.
So we have been quietly taking a look at all these issues over the last few weeks and even some days spending nothing but 2 hours straight breaking down exactly what happens in Gunsmith, how we start a game, how the user interacts, what we think is lacklustre and what needs major improvement.
We have identified huge portions of User Experience we think we can massively improve upon.
Next week or soon after I shall drop another update with more to show and tell but we are very excited.
I think we will be breathing new life into the game with the next major update that is coming soon.
So overall, it's been a nice break to go and come back with a fresh look on how to design games better, how to make the experience better for the players and really make the most of what we have also put into the game. I'm hoping this will really improve many aspects of game play.
Thank you all for your continued support during this games Early Access journey!
We continue!!!
Take Care
Best
Rich