The Aiming System That Broke Weird West

Weird West is a game built on giving the player as much control as possible, and a lot of that is thanks to its innovative aiming system. An aiming system that also derailed the game's development.
Weird West is a game about giving the player full control over how they tackle any situation so they can craft their own story. That also means giving the player the freedom to shoot absolutely everything. For the game's director Raphaël Colantonio (co-director of Dishonored and director of Prey), freedom and control are the core principles of designing an immersive sim. However, one year into the game's development, developer WolfEye Studios realized that the aiming system they had intended for the game contradicted Raphaël's design philosophy. What was meant to be a few weeks of development, turned into a six-month nightmare.
This is the story of the aiming system that broke Weird West, and how it eventually led to a shift in 3D twin-stick-shooters.
#WeirdWest

[@ShiningEyeBrigade]

A great example of why cross-functional teams are powerful innovators and problem solvers.

[@Colonelmj]

this was such a cool and interesting breakthrough. more props to the team!

[@potatosordfighter666]

Interestingly, the original DOOM had enemies at elevation, and you could always hit them, because the game was not 3D, it was 2D. Elevation does not truly exist in DOOMs game engine. Very similar to this. If you were pointing the vertical centerline of the screen at your enemy, you would hit it, even if it was above or below you. The game effectively works the same way as Weird West, but they did it out of the physical limitations of the programming and hardware.

[@mappybc6097]

Many advances in game development were the result of working within and around hardware and physical limitations. Tomohiro Nishikado, the lone developer of Taito's legendary 1978 arcade hit Space Invaders, wanted the screen filled with six rows of descending aliens. The problem was that the hardware could not handle that many sprites without the game slowing down to a crawl. Instead of giving up and reducing the alien count, he figured out that the more aliens the player eliminated from the screen, the less slowdown would occur, and in fact he could make the remaining aliens move faster. Nishikado made the player's ship the fastest thing in the game at the start of each level, to compensate for the slowdown. Then, he gradually reduced that speed as the slowdown disappeared until it reached a set value and made the aliens faster than the player. Welcome to dynamic difficulty.

[@dunkelregen8157]

That's the first thing that popped into my head, when I heard Raf say what the solution was. The old ways aren't necessarily the best, but there are tricks that can be learned from some of the games from back then.

[@thomasj0330]

Please make more videos like this! Love to see how features like this get iterated on, especially with veteran dev teams

[@JainaSoloB312]

Great video! Props to you and Raphael both for talking about this development struggle, very interesting stuff!

[@shrineguard2778]

Have to say, this was an amazing video. Not only because it had the trademark Remember When editing and graphics but also because as the video went along, I could find myself figuring out exactly how the problem described was resolved (the animations helped immensely as well). Very interesting to get these little insights into the development process. Keep it up!

[@mattsmokes2505]

Dude I love this content so much you don’t know how interesting I find this please make more stuff like this

[@brassattacks2411]

Great editing. You took what was probably a lot of footage and boiled it down to his essential narrative, with just the right amount of your own narrative. also I want to say - I am a designer and I would not have thought of the straight line solution right off the bat either. but it's such a simple obvious solution in hindsight. Lol

[@Jounzey]

This was a pretty cool little documentary. Greatly entertaining and informative on something I didn't think much about. Thanks!

[@ShiningEyeBrigade]

Great video, including the narration/host! Hope to see more like these please, with the snippets of interview showing the dev’s exact perspective, and the narrator framing the larger picture and context. Love it!

[@KurtIndovina]

Jason! Really glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully there's a chance to make more of these in the future!

[@blaine8216]

Interesting video, I always like sneak peaks into game development

[@rotoristworkshop6530]

Haha this is also how I coded the aiming system for controllers in Tunguska: The Visitation at first. Later I scrapped it because it was really difficult when there are a lot of enemies clustered together. I ended up gaving player a cursor controlled by right stick that selects the closest enemy to the cursor.

[@PLAYER_42069]

Great video, Kurt. I guess the more things change (Weird West), the more they stay the same (original Doom's aiming system was the solution)? On a related note, The Ascent, was originally developed as an over the shoulder third person shooter, but the devs decided to do change it to an isometric, twin stick shooter late in development. They claim the game is fully playable in third person, so I hope they release a 3D mode that lets players experience the game in a different way in the future, hopefully.

[@jake.klusewitz]

Fascinating! I loved Dishonored and immersive sims, so I’ll definitely be looking into this game

[@CesarIsaacPerez]

Playing it for the first time felt so weird but it is awesome after it clicks in a few minutes of using it!

[@fire_tower]

When I played WW I didn't even think about the system behind aiming. That's a good thing.

[@red-merlin]

This was a pretty cool story. You tell that one dev beats himself up about it not occurring to him how a 2D shooting system could work in a 3D world, but that's most likely everyone here who didn't even realize this clash of 2 worlds. The game is actually a lot of fun. It's not really my kind of game but I'm glad i chose to try something new cuz it's a great garne for how simple it looks

[@user-lk1zz6sc1n]

Thanks for the detailed explanation! And then I play and I can’t understand what kind of .... with shooting. But it turns out, you just need to choose a direction.

[@mauricio7797]

Their breakthrough was basically doom with visual feedback 😂

[@PakistaniSenpai]

So excited to try it on PS PLUS.

[@leouxdesign]

Someday people will create a documentary series about this great game well as they did with Dishonored and Prey.

[@pallavrajpatra7227]

Not be paralyzed by the knowledge of math. I think that's a great quote.

[@Shizalanski]

"The aiming system that nearly broke Weird West" fixed it for you

[@Deadforge]

Pretty insightful video

[@darynm5728]

Really enjoyed the video

[@user-vi4xy1jw7e]

Always love to see a new GameSpot video from Ben Schwartz.

[@KurtIndovina]

Go see my new movie Sonic 2

[@didyoubot]

I don’t find WW’s aiming annoying, I mean it’s just the same as you would aim a gun on a 3rd person only on top down. I’m having a blast playing this gem.

[@John-gy3lj]

This video has a misleading title. It implies the game is broken.

[@88Opportunist]

to some, it is

[@JainaSoloB312]

Well, it implies that the game was broken at some point. It's definitely easy to misinterpret but I wouldn't say it's misleading, it's true that the game was broken, but it's not anymore

[@raka1996]

well, it is in past tense and it WAS broken

[@madpax5000]

Absolutely agree, if I had moved on by just looking at the title, would not have bought the game thinking of this title

[@vrfob4620]

Yea maybe make a better title. Thought it was bad

[@adamnorman1267]

I'm only on the second chapter and I've put 30 hours in this game and absolutely love it.

[@EPKKC]

I really dig it too, a year later.

[@adamnorman1267]

@@EPKKC yeah. Still awesome

[@OkieOrganix]

This is one of the coolest original games I’ve played in awhile. Loving it, good work team. 😍

[@thepurehealer1279]

Very interesting, im glad they got to realize their vision!

[@danmilpan]

Don't think I am hating or thinking too much about myself but when I heard the problem in the video, my first idea was the thing that they done at the end

[@nemanjaveljic7463]

There is twin stick shooter with great shooting mechanics and elevated lvls of aiming_The Ascent

[@brookrichardson1373]

This is an excellent example of why it is important to prototype key systems before you commit to a larger project.

[@noirczar5280]

Great video Kurt! Quality content as always bro

[@bencampbell198]

I see Kurt - I watch the video. Man is consistently putting out excellent videos.

[@KurtIndovina]

And Ben, knowing you show up to watch is consistently amazing.

[@GhostRolly]

Thinking outside the box

[@snakeplissken111]

Raf Colantonio = Gaming's True Last Action Hero.

[@sathancat]

I'm finally getting around to playing this amazing game and it's so much fun, very unique

[@timmo7800]

Very cool!

[@danieljordan420]

This game would be that much better with multiplayer

[@user-uc8xb8lm5h]

The aiming and shooting it's fine in the game I'm using the experimental aiming and it's very good

[@Batz130]

Another game that pulled this off is The Ascent. I'm a sucker for isometric games.💚💯

[@neilclarkwork]

Weird West is so good.

[@aaronbennett3966]

You know weird west started as a rpg book like D&D, Vampire The Masquerade, or Cyberpunk.

[@superpatoreviews8167]

I think Synthetik made me instantly like Weird West, idk why.

[@ricktherockandroller]

I hate the controls. Glad this was free, still kinda feel robbed.

[@ambesa1]

came across this game by mistake, best mistake ever. love this game

[@gOhTiX]

more player control and lest games lets go?!

[@belwa42]

Kinda wish the actual Weird West music was the same as this video's outro music. (WW has kinda bare bones music I think)

[@loosegoose2466]

The aiming system is awful on ps5. Love the story and many aspects, its keeping me going. I try and stealth as much as i can.

[@JafoTHEgreat]

Tbh.The controls are still whack even after they "did their job". The controls are still not where they should be.

[@I0-_-0I]

Game is good, but man that aiming system makes game impossible to play.

[@goa5373]

such a good game

[@AintPopular]

Just play it

[@dskillzhtown]

Great video. Really well done. But this game has some of the worst controls out of any game released in 2022.I gave up after about 3 hours of struggling.

[@macdallanzero2145]

The control system is horrible. I hate it. I may be refunding the game because it's so bad. I love the concept of the game, but it feels nearly unplayable because it's so clunky.

[@cavincarlson3840]

First here

[@putzybaby4305]

🥱🥱🤫🤫

[@Palozon]

Do people actually play nuclear throne with a controller? Are they masochists?

[@henryrothert6160]

I’ve done it for coop before, it’s not that bad once you get used to it

[@PhillipAmthor]

I really like the video because of the technic they used to make this game. however i dont need this overly dramatic guy that tells me something the developer already does. sure his hair is fancy but it annoys me that he stretches the video.

[@KurtIndovina]

Appreciate the feedback. My hair appreciates it too.

[@belwa42]

@@KurtIndovina For what it's worth, I thoroughly enjoy your videos and presentation. Wouldn't change a thing.

[@raphaelcolantonio3368]

Same

[@mick9707]

I genuinely don’t understand what’s so impressive or revolutionary about the aiming system. It seems like the very first aiming system I would have attempted. Make the weapon shoot in line with what you’re aiming at… It’s just the aiming system of the original Doom.

[@melocomanTV]

The dev literally says it’s not impressive or revolutionary. It’s just the first fully 3D rendered twin stick shooter with that aiming scheme.

[@aaronbennett3966]

So it's Original Doom aiming. genious

[@ELPRES1DENTE45]

I could've saved them several months of frustration.

[@bloedekuh]

The aiming in this game is still horrible. Seeing you talking as if the problems were fixed is so laughable.

[@HugeGeronimo]

Meh, mountain of out of a mole hill.

[@LiLkato69]

Surprised they didn't find away to blame Sony for any faults in the game.

[@gethprime6549]

What? This game isn't even an exclusive.