A popular IP like Warhammer 40K getting into the indie shooter space was pretty much unprecedented when it was first announced, and strangely feels unlikely to be repeated, as much as we’d like to see something like Aliens, Jurassic Park or The Punisher make the same move. Boltgun seems like such an anomaly in fact, that it makes us curious as to how the pitch to the brand owners at Games Workshop came about, and whether the manufacturer of miniature wargames was immediately on board. “We have a lot of huge Warhammer fans at the
studio and two of them, Aaron Ashbrooke (creative director) and Sam Chester (principle programmer), came up with the idea for Boltgun,” explains Toby Draper, a producer on Boltgun. “Aaron pitched the game and Games Workshop liked it. Then they took it to Focus, who decided they wanted to fund and publish the title. “Games Workshop saw the potential in the pitch
and liked the idea. I was not involved in the pitch, but I worked closely with Games Workshop and the rest of the dev team, to help get every single asset approved and signed off. I can’t make the call to say that they were immediately on board, I don’t think they needed much convincing.”
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN OF WAR With its key cards and maze-like levels, Boltgun
quite obviously stands on the shoulders of giants, and wears its influences on its sleeves - although some of those giants were released more recently than you might think. “We were mostly inspired by timeless classics
from the ‘boomer’ shooter genre like Quake and Doom, as well as more recent but retro shooters like Dusk, and Ion Fury,” explains Draper. “The retro style meant we leaned into games
from the 90’s when searching for inspiration, although it has to be said, we also spent a lot of time playing and researching Warhammer 40K and its many games.” It is no surprise then, that when it came to design, one of the first things to get right was making sure that the player character and his experiences really felt like they were part of the expanded Warhammer universe, right there alongside those other games. “We took extreme care when designing weapons, enemies, levels and even the player character to ensure that we were up to the Games Workshop’s standards, and to ensure that we were strictly correct to the 40K lore.
August 2023 MCV DEVELOP A t 2023 V/DEVELOP | 51 “The blood and gore was also super important to
us. We wanted it to be dynamic, exciting and fun, so a lot of hours went into making sure it was good. Another important thing to consider was the ‘feel’ of the space marine player character – things like the character’s weight, movement and abilities.” While generally regarded as a ‘retro’ shooter by
the average gamer, Boltgun also incorporates a lot of elements of modern shooter design to smooth out some of the rougher edges of the retro experience. It’s actually not dissimilar to other indie modern
classics like Shovel Knight or Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon in that way. Warhammer 40K: Boltgun feels like one of those nostalgic shooters, without ever feeling needlessly restrained by the design and technical limitations of nearly 30 years ago, and that’s by design. “We went for a retro aesthetic with a modern feel –
we felt like it should look like you’re in the 1990’s, but feel like you’re playing in the 2020’s,” explains Draper “A lot of retro shooters have quite restrictive
movement, so you can only turn 90 degrees at a time. They also have a pretty basic weapon pool, mainly due to the tools available to the developers at the time.
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