Quicksilver Labs Developer Log

My name is Louis, and I am an avid video game enthusiast and now a Software Developer Intern for Quicksilver Labs. My primary job here is to help develop great games that are fun for you (and us!) to play. My first project will be a first person on-rails shooter for Android called Showdown. For inspiration this week, I’ve been playing some very fun games like the one we want to develop. This blog entry I’ll talk a little about those games and my initial thoughts on the project.

Here’s an initial blurb from Raheel about Showdown’s concept:

Play as a dead outlaw in the wild west who is resurrected in an indian graveyard.

He can’t remember who he is, but he wants answers.

Showdown takes heavy inspiration from old-school arcade games such as Blood Bros and Sunset Riders. It is planned to have a deep storyline, fast-paced shooting action set in the Wild West with Cowboys and Indians, and also a shop system to buy weaponry upgrades in-between levels. Another big inspiration is the plethora of on-rails first person shooters out there, as that’s the kind of game we’ll be making. Game series such as House of the Dead and Time Crisis come to mind there. Check these games out if you like fast paced shooting games that reward you for your quick trigger—then come back and play ours once it’s released!

My ideal for Showdown is to encapsulate the action intense experience on the phone. Of this, proper control is vital for a mobile game. Showdown will be a tap-based shooting game; see a bad guy, tap him to deal damage and defeat him. Now to add interest and difficulty, our initial design has some rules in place. There will be a reload for how often you can tap and shoot enemies. Enemies will shoot bullets that appear on screen and move toward the player while getting bigger, which the player must tap to destroy or take damage. There may also be a duck and cover system similar to many on-rails shooters (such as Time Crisis). There will be extra, one-time collectibles each level that are tricky to get but you’ll really want to do it because you’ll be well rewarded. Showdown will also offer some variety of weaponry, weapons that will be upgradeable in the shop in-between levels. The difficulty will scale exponentially—it will be very approachable for beginners, but builds rather quick into a nice challenge. You should be able to see the old-school arcade influence in this project when it’s complete.

I think the end experience, done well, will be a fun game for people to enjoy. I will be doing the levels programming, so the idea is that all the inspiration I pull from the games I mentioned earlier (and more) will translate to a fun mobile experience.