Well, virtually that is. Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to broaden the types of video games that I play to learn more about gaming overall, and I stumbled upon Bang! Howdy, by the team over at Three Rings. All I can say is, wow.
In my About section, I list one of my favorite video games of all time as Oregon Trail. Think of Bang! Howdy as the next version of Oregon Trail with incredible graphics and gameplay. After it’s 5-1o minute install (download), I was up and playing and some of my colleagues in the office joined me through the interactive tutorials.
In March of 2007, CEO of Three Rings, Daniel James gave an interview with GigaGamez talking about the growth of the company. By July 2006, Three Rings was doing about $300k per month of revenue, combining subscription and in-game items/currency. They forecast a 100% increase for 2007 which would put this independent developer on a nice trajectory.
I can see why so many people love these games… they are fairly easy to learn (not master) and addictive!
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August 7th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Bang! Howdy is a very well done game - especially for Java. It almost singlehandedly put Java on my radar as being viable for _good_ game development. One issue I have with Bang! Howdy though is the lack of a truly persistent world in which I can do more than just fight. Maybe I need to go back and play it, but the last time I tried it, it seemed as though it was an instanced MP battle game with persistent armies. I.e. there was nowhere I could just roam around, show off my character(s) and meet people.
That element of showing off your character in as many ways as possible is what drives a lot of virtual item sales. IMO, Bang! Howdy comes up short in this regard.