Today we are happy to announce the release of version 1.1 of Wicked West which sees a complete redesign of the game systems based on the feedback we have received, as well as augmenting the game with new bosses, more enemy types and additional player upgrades, below is the full breakdown of updates...

New Bosses, Enemy Types & Waves

Previously Wicked West was an infinite arena shooter, whereby as you killed enemies more spawned until the main boss 'Ruffalo' spawned, after defeating him more enemies would spawn even faster until you were eventually overwhelmed. The game was very difficult even before the boss 'Ruffalo' appeared.



With this update the game is now broken down into levels, each level includes six waves of enemies, each wave does not begin until all enemies of the previous wave have been killed. At the end of the six waves of enemies a boss will appear.



The game now includes four levels, each with their own boss, each boss also unlocks a new enemy type, once it has been defeated, which adds increased difficulty into future waves, making each level increase in the amount of enemies that spawn and the types of enemies, with the game now including riflemen, dynamite throwers and indians with bows alongside the enemies already included. At the end of the final round you will have to fight the ultimate boss the Revenant that created the outlaws!

Scoring, Abilities & Endgame

With the change to the main gameplay we have also adjusted the way the game is scored and the abilities that you unlock and how, previously you unlocked abilities by completing your experience bar with each kill, which got more difficult with each upgrade, now upgrades are unlocked every three waves and after defeating each boss.



The first level being the exception where abilities are unlocked faster giving you a better gun, special ability and more before you fight the first boss, to give you more of an advantage at this early stage. With this change scoring has also been altered. You still gain experience per kill, but now when the bar fills you get a score multiplier, similarly you will get extra multipliers when you defeat bosses too.

With more abilities now being available new upgrades for your character have been added to the game to give more variety, plus the upgrades themselves have been polished to include new icons for the different items to more easily tell them apart in repeat playthroughs.



The game now also has a definitive ending, when you defeat the revenant boss the game will end and give you a final score. Assuming you last that long of course. The game still gets brutally difficult in the final rounds and so many enemies spawn at certain points that we had to stagger their spawns to prevent performance issues, so later waves will be much longer before the final boss.

Updated Artwork and Polishing

This update also includes a variety of bug fixes that have been reported to us as well as updated artwork, the original boss and all new bosses now have character illustrations included in the info poster before you fight them, each boss has their own character sprite within the game and new enemies each look different. As already mentions the upgrades now all include new icons as well.



A final change to the game is that enemy bodies now also remain on the screen when fighting, as well as the blood from being shot. These bodies create additional impediments to your movement, so be careful of them, bodies and blood will gradually and randomly de-spawn as the game progresses to prevent the battlefield becoming too cluttered and also to improve game performance.

Further Plans...

With this first major update completed we still have plans for further improvements to the game. Below are some of the ideas we have in mind for future updates:

• Add more enemy types.
  
• Random Wave Spawns.
  
• Permanent upgrades to unlock between games.
  
• New levels with new bosses.
  
• More upgrades, weapons, and special abilities.
  
• Enemies dropping collectibles.
  
• Collectible bonus items on the level.
  
• More gun effects.
  
• Better sound and music.
  
• Alternate game modes: FPS Mode & Endless War
  (FPS Mode - Play the game in first person)
  (Endless War Mode - Have infinite lives as long as you kill an enemy every second)
  

In addition future updates will continue to fix known bugs and improve performance and stability as well as continue to balance the enemy spawning to keep the game challenging and less brutal.

Finally we welcome suggestions on the steam community hub for things to implement in the future, be it new upgrade ideas, enemy types or something else you would like to see.