Researching Westerns

    So I have decided that the theme for my game is going to be a western. Westerns are a classic genre in film, but I believe that they are under served for games, apart from the obvious classic of Red Dead Redemption. This is one of the reasons I chose the genre, because I feel there is a gap in the market, but also I chose a western theme because they are oozing with style. From the classics such as Unforgiven, to more modern takes like Django Unchained, all western films have a distinct style that lends itself perfectly to an action game. In my analysis of Hotline Miami, I talked about how the developers took massive inspiration from movies and the culture that their game was based around, and they fully rolled with all the cliches and tropes that comes along with them. This is what I aim to mimic, but with a western style.

Django Unchained is a pulp-western film with unquestionable style

    I wanted to come up with a story that was faithful to the genre. To do this, I watched a western film and looked online for analysis of western films, books and games. The film I watched was Django Unchained, a Quentin Tarantino film. Whilst Tarantino definitely puts his stamp on this film, with blood, gore and racial slurs aplenty, he has stayed true western films in story and in some elements of the style of the film. Themes of revenge run through the main plot, whilst the common western trope of 'The Stranger' perfectly describes Django, the protagonist. I think this is a great example of someone taking the guidelines of the western genre, but giving it their own twist and elevating the product. I learnt a lot from this film about how to build around the central plot line, with plenty of small stories beginning and wrapping up throughout the film, adding more depth to both the characters and the film as a whole.

    When looking online I found plenty of great resources that detailed what a western was made up of, what defined a film as such. I took a couple of pages of notes and found some great stuff that gave me new ideas about some of the things I need to include in the story of the game.

Western film research notes

    I found plenty of resources that detailed different stories and tales from westerns, but my game isn't going to have a conventionally told story. I want to set up a rich world, with plenty of depth to the characters, however the story of these is going to be told through collectable objects that are found in the game. These collectables could be newspaper articles, wanted posters, diaries, little pieces of backstory and lore that will be found throughout the world. I won't need to be writing lengthy scripts or three act structures, but rather the time I allot to story will be devoted to coming up with these collectables. All this research has given me some great ideas about the backstory and lore I could put in to this game, and I think that this is a great way to tell the story in my game.