''Bang! Howdy'' is an online

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

, hybrid

turn based Timekeeping is relevant to many types of games, including video games, tabletop role-playing games, board games, and sports. The passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. In many games, this is done u ...

and

real time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to pl ...

game created by American company

Three Rings Design Three Rings Design, Inc. was an American video game developer based in San Francisco. It was founded on March 30, 2001, by Daniel James (game developer), Daniel James and Michael Bayne. The company was named in honor of the Three Rings of the El ...

. It was originally released on December 1, 2006 after public

beta testing Software testing is the act of checking whether software satisfies expectations. Software testing can provide objective, independent information about the quality of software and the risk of its failure to a user or sponsor. Software test ...

by Grey Havens, a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

founded by several former employees of Three Rings. In 2008, the game reached a milestone of 500,000 players as reported on Three Rings' website. The game mixes different elements from a variety of related genres, namely

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and Applied arts, aesthetics inspired by, but not limited to, 19th-century Industrial Revolution, industrial steam engine, steam-powered machinery. Steampun ...

, and Native American mythology. This is evident in the game's different locales and various gameplay elements. At the 2006

Game Developer's Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutor ...

, Three Rings described Bang! Howdy's gameplay formula as "

Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

+ ''

Mario Kart is a series of kart racing games based on the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise developed and published by Nintendo. Players compete in go-kart races while using various power-up item (game terminology), items. It features Characters in ...

'' + Real Time/

Turn-Based Timekeeping is relevant to many types of games, including video games, tabletop role-playing games, board games, and sports. The passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. In many games, this is don ...

Steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and Applied arts, aesthetics inspired by, but not limited to, 19th-century Industrial Revolution, industrial steam engine, steam-powered machinery. Steampun ...

s + Secret Sauce".Slashdot coverage of ''Bang! Howdy''
at the 2006

Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards and ...

Setting

Bang! Howdy incorporates many elements from the

and

genres, as well as Native American mythology. This is evident in the game's different "towns", player lobbies which also act as the different main settings of the game, outside of in-game instances. Frontier Town is the game's starting town. It is modelled after the archetypal "Western" town found in most depictions of the genre, complete with a saloon,

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

, and

sheriff's office A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is commonly ...

. Indian Trading Post, the second town, is host to a variety of Native American-themed locales, shops, and non-player characters. In addition to these, there are also the planned but still-unreleased towns of Boom Town, Ghost Town, and City of Gold. Aside from taking inspiration from and expanding on all the aforementioned genres, these last three towns would have also incorporated elements of Latin American folklore The game also features a host of controllable units which are in-line with the game's established unique setting. For example, several of the players' available units are entirely mechanical, including autonomous

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

units, steam powered

dirigible An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat ( lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding ...

s, and a "steam gunman"

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

. These can be played alongside the more conventional units such as

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

and gunslingers. A third assortment of Native American-themed units can also be unlocked as players progress past the starting town, such as mystics with supernatural abilities and a unit inspired by the Thunderbird, a legendary creature in Native American mythology.

Development

Initially conceived as an insect-themed game, the primary mechanic of ''Bang! Howdy'' is designed to get around the problems of both real-time and turn-based strategy. Michael Bayne, project leader of ''Bang! Howdy'', described RTS as "overly complex and too fast-paced", and described turn-based strategy as "no fun when it's not your turn." Bayne described the development approach as episodic, with the plan of getting the core game released quickly and working on new towns in turn. The

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

version, which was released in July 2017, is maintained by Affliction Networks.

Reception

''Bang! Howdy'' won the Technical Excellence award from the 2007

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

, and was a finalist for the

Seumas McNally Grand Prize The Seumas McNally Grand Prize is the main award given at the Independent Games Festival (IGF), an annual event that takes place during the Game Developers Conference, one of the largest gatherings of the indie video game industry. It was first aw ...

. The editors of ''

Computer Games Magazine ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' presented ''Bang! Howdy'' with their 2006 "Best MMO Debut" award. In game websites reviews it was received positively.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Video games 2006 video games Browser games Free-to-play video games Independent Games Festival winners Java platform games Linux games MacOS games Multiplayer online games Real-time strategy video games Science fiction Westerns Steampunk video games Three Rings Design Turn-based tactics video games Video games developed in the United States Western (genre) video games Windows games