A Different Kind of Training with Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Words of Vengeance
/We’ve worked closed with Games Workshop for over 10 years, but our relationship goes beyond the games we’ve made together.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun was a culmination of our previous game dev experience and our love for Warhammer 40,000. Many members of the Herd paint their own miniatures and play tabletop games together, and we poured all of that passion into creating a game that really showcased our love of Warhammer and the Warhammer universe.
After the success of Boltgun, we really wanted to do something more with the game and give back to the community that supported us. So we created Warhammer 40,000 Boltgun – Words of Vengeance.
“From the beginning, Words of Vengeance was a great project; the initial idea was genius, and the prototyping showed us that instantly.”
Marketed as a creative spin on our retro FPS Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance is a first-person typing game that was released for free as part of the Warhammer Skulls Showcase.
Initially designed as a fun and free gift to give back to the Boltgun fans and community, this free-to-play Warhammer typing game has exceeded all our expectations and become one of our most played games.
But with nearly one million players adding the game to their library and 200,000 downloads, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance has become so much more than that. It has also helped to raise awareness for Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2, which was announced at the same time.
However, this was a new kind of project for us, which makes its success that much more rewarding.
Screenshot from Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance
What Makes it Different?
John Kennedy, Producer on Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Words of Vengeance said, this game is unlike anything Auroch Digital had made before and there are several reasons for this:
Words of Vengeance was created by a tiny team, consisting of just 2 coders, a QA tester, and a producer compared to our usual team sizes, which can range anywhere from 5-30 people depending on the project and where it is in development. Plus, it was developed in only a month of dev time, and the project lead was the most junior member of the team.
“I got to lead the team as a less experienced programmer, and it was an amazing opportunity which I’m really grateful for. I learned an array of valuable leadership skills and also some really cool programming tips.”
In the game industry, it’s uncommon for juniors to have the opportunity to lead projects. But this was a perfect project for us to let someone less experienced take the helm. Through this process, our associate programmer Molly was given the opportunity to lead a team of experienced developers, who she could lean on for support and expertise as she tested the leadership waters.
This allowed Molly to develop key skills like risk management, problem-solving, and delegation, as well as getting leadership experience.
In Molly’s own words, it was an amazing experience, and she felt like she learned a great deal from it.
“I’m most proud of the level design! I have little to no skill in that area, but I think it turned out well and a lot of players have commented on it. It was nice to expand into different skill sets that weren’t just programming.”
This was also an opportunity for the developers to understand the roles of different disciplines and try wearing their hats. Without a fully-fledged team to support them, Molly and Daniela were able to try their hands at other roles in a small, flexible project.
While these skills aren’t often required in their role at Auroch Digital, it does better prepare them for future roles in the industry and expand their understanding of game development in general.
“When a team is small, you end up wearing many hats and supporting each other. In a way, it’s a callback to Auroch Digital’s roots and is very much akin to indie developers working in their bedrooms.”
Screenshot from Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance
Why did Auroch Digital do this?
One of Auroch Digital's core objectives is to ‘Make Games in the Right Way’ and a big part of that is empowering and training our team.
While not the way we would conventionally run a project, there were several factors that we considered when choosing to develop the game in this way:
1. Short Development Time
We typically work on longer titles, like our current in-development games Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 and Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life, while Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Words of Vengeance was developed in only a month.
The short development time was also effective for challenging the team to solve problems quickly and efficiently, as well as encouraging them to work together and adapt to perform other roles when needed. Plus it taught them about prioritisation and why time tracking is so important!
2. Pre-Existing Code Base
A big factor in their ability to do this was that the team already had a solid foundation of the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun code to build from. Using an established code base lent itself to the shorter dev time and it was beneficial for this smaller, junior team, as many of the components they needed were already created and in-engine.
“It’s not easy to bend a finished game into a totally different one.”
However, essentially rewriting the code to function for the new game brought with it its own challenges. While the code was already working, parts of the game needed to be removed or rewritten to fit this new genre.
Enemies needed to stop for players to eliminate them, words needed to appear above their heads, and new bosses needed to be created to suit the new playstyle.
3. Free to Play
As this game was a free "thank you" to our wonderful community and a celebration of the original Boltgun, there was less pressure for the team working on Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Words of Vengeance compared to our larger premium games.
The lower risk associated with this game meant they could take this opportunity to train their team further and refine their skills.
Screenshot from Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance
The Outcome
While there were definitely ups and downs during the development of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Words of Vengeance, the game has been an unequivocal success.
One particularly memorable moment of the development was the entire Auroch Digital team competing to organically achieve the 100WPM achievement. At Moocon (our yearly company meet-up) everyone took turns to try their hand at the game with only one person achieving over 100WPM with a score of 107WPM on their first go! It looks like the entire Auroch Digital team needs to brush up on their typing skills and play more Words of Vengeance…
When asked about what they’re most proud of on this project, the dev team highlighted their newfound level design skills, their coding capabilities and the team itself.
“I think the team did an amazing job. It was really lovely to watch them shine.”
One benefit of this unconventional project was that the smaller team dynamics allowed strong connections to form and created a tight-knit team, facilitating easier collaboration and support.
“Sometimes it can be quite daunting asking for help when you don’t know a person so well, but once you’re more comfortable around them it feels less intense.”
Every members of the team have expressed an interest in doing more projects like this with Molly adding that this has been one of her favourite projects at Auroch Digital.
But how was the public reception?
After its release during Warhammer Skulls earlier this year, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Words of Vengeance quickly captured the attention of the Warhammer 40,000 community and is currently sitting on an 87% Very Positive rating on Steam.
It was also well received by the press with Oisin Kuhnke of Rock Paper Shotgun saying “Words of Vengeance looks silly as hell, and it's even completely free! Love that.” and Antonio G. Di Benedetto of The Verge adding: “The thought of going full boomer-shooter with my proper grammar and punctuation exercises just has me more stoked than ever.”
If you’re intrigued by Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun – Words of Vengeance, why not try it out yourself? After all, it is free!
Conclusion
It turns out that we aren’t alone in using small-scale projects to train junior team members before moving them onto a bigger project.
Bandai Namco releases several free games a year as part of their Employee Training Project. An example is messy puppy simulator DORONKO WANKO, which recently launched on Nintendo Switch.
As juniors are disproportionately affected by the current layoffs impacting the games industry and the current disparity between available entry-level jobs and higher-level positions, we’re prioritising the development of juniors and taking the initiative to train them further.