This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they underwent to make the best bits of their games. This time, Quadrilateral Cowboy [official site].
Quadrilateral Cowboy is a firstperson puzzle game about a group of hacker friends who stage heists across a set of increasingly challenging missions. Together they tell a surprising and affecting story of professionalism, friendship and rising threat through Blendo Games distinctive tight cutting between interactive scenes, flipping the action from a hoverbike chase to the gang s return to their hideout. It s clever, pacy, and rich in detail and nuance. Pretty much, in other words, what you d expect from Blendo Games.
But it s not what Blendo Games – which is to say, Brendon Chung – expected to make. Quadrilateral Cowboy s entire structure and form is completely different to what he originally envisaged. The way in which his game changed over the course of its development is a model for how a game is shaped by the realities of production, and how ideas can be far too big for their own good. (more…)