The following italicised writing was taken from my master Game Project Proposal document, and transcribes perfectly what has been written in my black sketchbook. All physical work on this topic can be found on pages 1 - 2 of the black sketchbook. The un-italicised writing, therefore, is the content I missed from the sketchbook.
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Sketchbook (pages 1 - 2)
'What I want to convey through Last Chance Saloon':
"I find that whenever I go back to developing my game idea after a lengthy period of time, I always get stuck when trying to properly portray my personal feelings of the American frontier through my game. This deeply irritates and frustrates me to no end, considering how much the genre and the era means to me.
My aim for this game design module and my game’s finished outcome is to convey exactly how I feel about the Western to my audience. This intention is similar to what Clint Eastwood’s were when he was directing Unforgiven: to exhibit exactly how he viewed the genre.
It’s always frustrating because I just cannot pin down exactly what I love about the time, because I love it all. This is why I have created the list below, to try and ‘tease’ out whether there are any prominent aspects which make the genre and time so dear to me.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Classic Western, 1969)
Dances with Wolves (Modern Western, 1990)
High Noon (Classic Western, 1952)
Knights of Cydonia (Music video, MUSE, 2006)
Rango (Modern Western, 2011)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Spaghetti Western, 1966)
The Hateful Eight (Modern Western, 2015)
The Magnificent Seven (Classic Western, 1960)
The Shootist (Classic Western, 1976)
True Grit (Classic Western, 1969)
Unforgiven (Modern Western, 1992)
Westworld (Space Western, 1973)
What I want to convey through ‘Last Chance Saloon’
However, upon some further, deeper deliberation, I have come up with the following potential reasons:
1. The general idea that a harsh environment breeds a harsh people.
Although I don’t quite understand why this idea interests me so much, it is true that this belief couldn’t have a better place than in the Western genre.
It’s an idea that’s true to the real time period of 1800s America, since people literally had to scrape together a living from nothing and, from this, started to build towns to increase their safety and chances of survival. Of course, towns weren’t the only things that needed developing and building: those who lived rurally had to construct ranches and cultivate decent farming land to provide food and livestock to hundreds of people. Without these farmers, the American frontier simply would not have flourished.
With towns came the establishment of law and order, as sheriffs and marshals were elected to keep the peace and fight crime. However, fighting crime was an exceptionally difficult task because there wasn’t the means, manpower or technology to effectively police counties.
The different types of people who lived during this difficult time had to adapt to the extremely harsh environment, which ultimately informed their attitude and outlook on life.
Perhaps it’s this idea of adaptation and lifestyle which interests me.
2. Simplicity of the era
As a person who dislikes cities, I considered the possibility that it might be the simplistic way of life that people lived that makes this genre so attractive to me. I do find American frontier towns very interesting, with their simple one-street layout and buildings on either side. There was a distinct lack of cities between 1800 and 1880, before industry forced its way in and killed the American frontier. People also didn’t own very much, so they maintained the few commodities and items they had, such as guns, working equipment and of course, horses. The lack of evidence and common knowledge meant that people had to go on somebody’s word, or word-of-mouth.
3. The revenge story
4. The violence of the time
5. The idea of triumphing through adversity, no matter the odds or struggle
Establishing the mettle of your character and the might of your fortitude, no matter how many people are against you.
6. The adventure the lifestyle afforded you
7. The freedom people had, despite not having much law and order, no red tape or bureaucracy
8. The theme of not blindly trusting authority
9. Cowardice vs. honour
10. General life not being boring
11. Morality and honour within characters and developing their personalities through storytelling.
Knights of Cydonia:
The title of MUSE’s 2006 smash-hit could confuse many at first, since the song itself is a quasi-operatic smorgasbord of whining synth and gritty electric guitar and the accompanying music video chronicles one lone cowboy’s journey to find love and defeat an oppressive sheriff. But when you analyse it, the title is very relevant and well thought-out.
‘Knights’:
Neither the music video nor the song makes any reference to these medieval warriors, but this is because the use of the word is in fact a metaphor for cowboys.
In some ways, both knights and cowboys have a lot in common. One prominent aspect of which is the code of honour both types of people lived by. Although cowboys didn’t have this guide their lives in the same way that it did knights, they did (romantically, at least) follow something called ‘the Code of the West’ – a series of courteous rules which made a cowboy a man of virtue and honour. This is the kind of image marshal William Kane has in High Noon.
‘Cydonia’:
Factually defined as the name given to a region on Mars, this part of the title is very clever because of two prominent reasons: one is the link from the song and music video to the Space-Western subgenre, which the music video certainly falls into, and the second referring to the terraformed and harsh environment similar to a desert that cowboys would often ride across."
I live my life following a similar code of honesty and purity of character. Perhaps this is another reason why I love the time period and the genre. Below are a few more potential reasons:
It is mainly masculine
There is a strong theme of cowardice VS honour
The theme of building something from nothing
Outlaws with moral compasses appeal to me because it shows their 'badassery' and their code of honour
Stacking up one gunfighter against another, showcasing their skill
Making morals grey within characters and developing their personalities
Not automatically trusting authority
Standing your ground
Post-Research Note (IMPORTANT):
Written 11/02/2020: Since this is a passion project and something I care very deeply about, the last two pages are about what I am trying to convey in my game. I spent the first one-and-a-half weeks asking myself:
Why do I love the Western so much?
This led me to go on a very long research 'trip' of sorts, of me digging deeply into my mind to find out why. In the end, I narrowed it down to the reasons above, but still couldn't think of any other reasons why.
Circa early February 2020 Post-research note written 11/02/2020