Mårten Stormdal the lead designer on Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West took some time out to tell us about the new Western themed shooter coming to PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
GamesRelay: Why the Western-setting?
Mårten Stormdal: Well, the Western setting is rather unexplored as a setting for games, if you compare it to the sheer number of Western titles on the movie side. Or at least it has been until just the latest year or so. In addition to that it has a built in aptitude for team conflict, there's always two gangs fighting over something in the movies, may it be gold, the power over a town or a railroad line. There's also the thing with the atmosphere and ambiance. A lot of the classic Western environments work very well as small scale multiplayer levels, like the town, the mine, the fort etc.
GamesRelay: What is Lead and Gold? Would you please briefly explain the game?
Mårten Stormdal: If you want to staple labels Lead and Gold is a team based multiplayer, 3rd person shooter set in a classic Wild West environment. The players choose a character amongst a number of different typical western archetypes, such as the Gunslinger or the Trapper. Each one of these character classes have a set of unique traits, weapons and roles to fill in the team.
The core idea of Lead and Gold has from the beginning been team play and competitive cooperation. All our decisions have been weighed against this. For example the objective based game modes was all about creating a common incentive for the players to strive towards rather than just running besides each other killing randomly.
This can off course be loads of fun as well and I'm sure we'll see a lot of that in our game but we wanted the players that there are more aspects to develop among themselves than eye hand coordination.
People having fun together, communicating and coordinating themselves towards a common goal, and on the way a very fast paced and deadly action shooter. Lead and Gold is also about being easy to access for the console audience but in the same time be able to meet the specific demands of the PC gamers.
GamesRelay: Please describe some key elements, such as classes, objectives and team interaction.
Mårten Stormdal: All the professions have their own role in the team, since they have their own range bracket and different maps and game modes encourages different combinations of the four. A trapper might not be the optimal choice in the when defending the twisting and turning tunnels and close quarters of a gold mine, and the blaster might have difficulties if he is alone on the open plains of the prairie. But if you team up with someone of a different profession the table might turn. And since the professions in addition to the different ranged main weapon they radiate what we call a synergy effect, this is basically an area buff which affects such parameters as accuracy, damage etc. All team mates which are within the area are affected by the bonus.
GamesRelay: What sort of weapons and abilities can you use?
Mårten Stormdal: Each class has one main weapon and a secondary weapon. In addition to this there are stationary Gatling guns in some of the levels. Each class also has a special trait that he can use which include, traps, fanning, marking and throwing dynamite. When the player gains levels he also gain improved synergy effects that improves the characters and your teammates in various ways.
GamesRelay: Is there a character upgrade system?
Mårten Stormdal: In each scenario your actions toward the common goal are rewarded with experience points, they will eventually give your character better synergy and healing power.
GamesRelay: What sort of game modes do you have?
Mårten Stormdal: We have five competitive game modes in the game right now; Greed, Powder keg, Robbery, Conquest and Shootout . The objective in Greed is to carry as many gold sacks to your team drop off zone as possible. A gold sack is spawned on the map and both teams struggle to bring the sack to their respective drop off zone. In Claim both teams are battling for one or several control zones. The zones start out neutral and are up for grabs to both teams. A team in control of a zone will continuously gain points until the zone is lost to the other team. To capture a zone, clear the zone of enemy presence for a specific amount of time. The team that first reaches a score of 1000 wins the round.
