Hello all, if you're reading this thank you for taking an interest in my project! So where to begin.. I've been creating this game for just under 2 years now, I'm a one man band doing this outside of my full-time job, and to be honest I still find it hard to believe I have actually gotten this far.
By this far I mean an actual release date has been set (20th October) and just last Friday I launched the playable demo on Steam (it still feels weird seeing my game on Steam). Although the game isn't early access I would say that it is a way from completion.. don't get me wrong it's playable and bug free, I'm not releasing a half-finished product - but there's just so much more content that I want to add and will continue to add once the game is released, so expect updates!
So what is Walking Heavy and where did it come from? Well growing up I played a lot of games that are now considered retro - I played the original GTA and GTA2 on the playstation, and quite a lot of freeware and shareware MS-DOS PC Games, one of which stands out in my mind the most being Crime Fighter by Peter Steffen. If you've never played Crime Fighter it's is a pixel graphic, turn based RPG - and it is brilliant; player's take control of a little character on an open world map and walk around a German city committing various crimes to earn money and recruit gang members, it's darkly humourous and has been a huge influence on the games I choose to play now. As well as GTA and Crime Fighter I also love the isometric graphics of games like Age of Empires II, Rollercoaster Tycoon and the Commandos series - they have aged beautifully and their aesthetics are truly timeless.
So with these influences in mind I've always dreamt of this game which takes the adrenaline and action of GTA, combines it with the RPG elements of a game like Crime Fighter - and wraps it all up in a gorgeous isometric bow. And this is basically the ethos behind Walking Heavy - it is a stealth / shooter RPG which plays out in real-time through isometric graphics. Players move between procedurally generated towns and take out targets across a series of increasingly difficult levels to earn money and upgrade their skills / inventory.
Originally I set out to make something where the player would be able to burgle houses, shops and commit a huge range of crimes in real time, but I had to accept that I am only one man, so I made the best of what I had and what I've ended up with is something which I feel is a cross-over between real time strategy and arcade action - I hope you find it as addictive as I do!
So looking ahead - if you want to give the demo a play, that's on Steam now and I hope you do, and feel free to leave any feedback (negative or positive) it's always useful. Beyond that I am going to release the full version on Steam 20th October - so if you like the demo be sure to wishlist it so you don't miss the date! And after that I guess I will continue to add more content and provide regular updates, I have all sorts of ideas in my head and am open to suggestions - anything could be possible!
Thanks for reading, and thank you even more if you decide to give Walking Heavy a play.
