PAX West 2019: Colt Canyon Introduces Roguelike Gameplay To The Wild West

Travelling through the gulch of the Wild West, you and your partner out of nowhere are ransacked by a neighboring gang of bandits: left with no other alternative, you must fight your way through the hazardous gorge filled to the brim with antagonizing foes in attempt to rescue your partner from their captors. This is the brief synopsis of Retrific’s Colt Canyon, a top-down roguelike western which offers players the chance to truly experience the barebones experience of a cowboy.

However, that is not truly the basis for the game as players will be offered to play a diverse cast of playable characters to choose from when progressing through the upcoming title. Speaking with Dieter Schoeller who represented the game through publisher Headup Games, he explains that player progression will differ based on the character you decide to play as when entering the Wild West. While only given the advertised cowpoke when beginning the game, others will be discovered along the way to take the spotlight if chosen.

Deciding to swap the protagonist not only provides a new look, but also introduces new traits that defines the character from the others.

“The selection of characters that are available in the game will offer different traits that make one standout from the rest,” Shoeller explains to me during my demo. “Let’s say you decide to pick the young girl that is in the game – she will be more nimble and quicker compared to the beefier man that is tougher, but is a lot slower also.”

Going into the gameplay aspect of the title a little more, it was revealed early in with my hands-on demo that the game is a permadeath scenario and results with me backtracking to the beginning of my journey each time I fall from an enemy’s bullet. Each time passing a life will also generate a new world different from the last. While I do get stripped of the majority of loot I discovered from my latest venture, one neat feature that seemed to bounce me back a bit is that I keep the weapon I had when dying in my hands.

There is a varying range of weapons that you quickly discover when playing deeper into the demo. During my time playing, I ran across a small arsenal listing from your starting revolver to a bow & arrow, and a musket. Schoeller shares that only touches the surface as there are other weaponry that is in the base game like double-barrel shotguns, TNT, tomahawks, and more. While even going gung-ho is the main combat element that is implemented into the game, some segments could be done through stealth if the enemy is not keeping an eye out.

Simply rushing a bandit or Indian when they are looking another way gives you the perfect window of opportunity to go and flank them before someone notices. However, this will not always be an option and keeping your firearm sturdy is the most preferable way to continue your journey onwards. And even then, this is set during a time when resources ran scarce as society was in the process of pushing to the west coast, so ammo will not always be there when you need it most.

This is where the game introduces its open-world looting system: especially for a pixilated roguelike game, looting is one thing that usually doesn’t make it to the development checklist. Running across different settlements and other hidden outposts, the areas are littered with different barrels & containers that hold things like ammunition and health tonics. In occasion to regularly breaking said items, a weapon does tend to pop out which is helpful if looking to alter your current load out.

During your expedition through the dusty chasm, the juncture in your travels will eventually lead you to saving a missing partner who was taken from the adjacent hostiles. Once successfully rescuing them, this opens new opportunities to your character as they will now be offered new jobs to pursue or decide on a skill to put an upgrade towards.

The more evident trait that makes this game standout though is the choice of colors used to paint the environment and characters. Asking Schoeller what was used for the main color palette, he reveals that it is a varying color scheme of sepia which is a reddish-brown color to give off a reduced effect when implemented properly as you can see. He continues on by explaining that Jonathan Mannshoven, the lead designer for Colt Canyon, initially used pixel art for the entire canvas of the game’s backgrounds, but moved towards a “drawing style” to create the world we see now.

Though the title’s visuals do stand at being unique, it does raise some questions about how everything would play out. Reading some comments on the game’s announcement trailer, interested fans did think that the choice to color both the protagonist and every other character the same color would lead to confusing who your really are controlling. However, Schoeller when confronting him about the claim is confident that this will not be the case when getting their hands on the game themselves.

The character is in the middle of the screen when you play. Typically, when playing they are isolated from the other characters – so this will keep the player from being confused.

Referencing other details for the game, Schoeller does share that the game is also said to include a local co-op option that would allow you and a friend to take on the roughs of the west. However, he elaborates that depending on the current status of the game’s development, this might not be fully implemented when the game finally arrives. Schoeller announces that the main goal for the project is for players to continue returning to the game with an exciting new experience each time.

Colt Canyon is scheduled to release sometime this Fall in Q3 2019 for PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. You can go here to add the title to your Steam wishlist if you’re eager to play when the game launches.