Hello!
Welcome to the first devlog of Undead West, developed by Deathless Games and published by Retrovibe. [I’m koschei, lead developer and artist.]
Undead West is a rootin’ tootin’ shootin’ roguelite bullet hell set in the wild wild west, where you play a cowboy who has been brought back from the dead to seek revenge. Utilizing an array of guns & whiskey, shoot and dodge roll your way out of the grave and into the west.
So, without further ado, let's learn more about the project!
💀 INTRODUCING DEATHLESS GAMES
We are a New Zealand based indie studio with a passion for making lovingly crafted pixel-art games.
Our team won the Student Slice award at the NZ Pav awards for ‘Petal to the Metal’, a twin-stick bullet hell developed over 6 months, in Unity, during tertiary edu. We started the development of Undead West in December 2022.
Our lead developer & artist has been making pixel-art for 7 years.
💀 UNDEAD WEST X RETROVIBE
This year we started cooperation with Retrovibe, a game publisher from Warsaw, Poland! The aim of our publisher is to unlock next levels of fun by delivering new indie titles with a retro heart.
The vision for Undead West happened to fit perfectly into Retrovibe’s style so we naturally started working together to bring you the official game reveal during Realms Deep 2023 showcase!
💀 INSPIRATIONS FOR UNDEAD WEST
Undead West is inspired by roguelites such as Enter the Gungeon, Nuclear Throne, and Hades. The ability to craft your own builds mixed with the rng of buffs given to you for successful progress in these roguelites was always a ton of fun, plus the high-paced adrenaline-inducing rush of dodge rolling through waves of bullets barely avoiding getting hit to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
This kind of gameplay is what we also want to provide to you, through several western themed stages, and unique boss battles.
While there are so many beautiful pixel-art games to be inspired by like Hyper Light Drifter, and Rain World, we’ve gone for a simpler monochrome style akin to games like Minit and Gato Roboto.
💀 GAME CONCEPT
The core gameplay of roguelites is the concept of completing the game in one go, dying and trying again if you fail. We love a good story, and having a lore reason for this death & resurrection mechanic which is how I came up with the idea of a gunslinger who lost a duel, and is revived by Death themself for the chance to get revenge, collecting souls of adversaries defeated along the way to pay back his debt to Death.
The Wild West has some excellent locations & settings, guns to play around with, and our other main gameplay aspect - whiskey. In Undead West, you have the ability to unlock various whiskeys to build your playstyle around. Consuming the whiskey in combat gives you a temporary effect such as an unlimited chamber for your gun, fiery bullets, shrugging off damage and much more.
💀 DEVELOPMENT STORIES
Undead West has been in development for close to a year now, and we’re excitedly looking forward to a 2024 release.
Over the last couple of years I’ve prototyped a few twin-stick shooters, bullet hells and other game ideas. Most of my projects involved top-down gunplay, and with this I landed on developing a roguelite in a black and white art style; [otherwise asset creation could take me forever!]
When I found the music of Voltz Supreme, everything fell into place and created this epic Western feeling game.
TILL NEXT TIME!
Thank you for reading the first devlog of Undead West, and we look forward to sharing more updates with you!
-koschei, lead developer and artist
