Howdy cowboys!

Blood will be Spilled is the product of almost 5 years of very hard work
and our lifelong desire to make our own video game. During our professional
careers, we always worked on someone else’s projects as graphic designers
and animators, and we craved to work on something we could call our own,
something we could create on our own terms. We wanted to make a game that
we would like to play ourselves and put into it elements of everything we love,
be it ideas from movies, comic books or other games. There were things we
wanted to try out and learn to do, but we also wanted to use our own skills and
knowledge to create something we could be proud of. It was the first time we
have ever worked on a video game and we hope it wasn’t the last.

It all started sometime in 2014 when my brother (Martin) and I (Ivan) finally
decided that there probably wasn’t going to be a better time to try and make our
first game than now. With the help of two other friends, we started working on
the initial prototypes. The first playable version of the game to ever see the light
of day was created in January 2015 and until the game’s release in May 2019, it
went through multiple changes and iterations. In the end, it was much larger and
more ambitious than we’ve ever expected it to be, especially since it was made by
quite an inexperienced team of no more than four people.

In this book we want to share with you all of the initial ideas, thought
processes and various concepts that we have created during the development
of the game. Here you will find all the characters, locations and objects from
the world of Blood will be Spilled and read a little more about the stories behind

them. You will learn about the origins of the idea of combining insects with
cowboys, about all the references and easter eggs. However, be warned, as this is
a collection of pretty much everything that’s in the game, so there will surely be
some spoilers here and there.

Last but not least, we would like to thank you. Since

you are reading this, you are in some way an important
part of this journey, whether as a fan, a collaborator or
a friend. Thank you for supporting a crazy project of
some guys who dreamt of making their own video game.
 VISUAL STYLE
The lines were supposed to look natural,
organic and slightly distorted. We consciously
Since our original profession is in visual and graphic avoided long straight lines, as they would
design, our main goal was to create a game that would be appear artificial in the visual language of the
visually striking and interesting to look at. game. It was important for us to keep the
The visual style went through multiple iterations during weight of the lines of approximately the same
the development until we finally codified our final visual thickness, so everything has been drawn in
language. Everything is hand-drawn so that it would appear more or less the same scale.
more organic and even in cases when things were drawn
digitally, brushes imitating drawing by hand were used.
The used color palette is quite limited, almost completely The quite limited color palette allowed us to
excluding bright colors, with red being the most dominant use pretty much every asset in any level as they
color since blood is a strong theme in the game. Also, a lot of fit together well and the visuals of the game
textures and materials were used for various assets, so that remain consistent. Objects that are made from
they would look more real and tangible. a particular material, like wood or metal, used
Because our main protagonist has four legs, we had to the same base colors.
introduce some perspective into the visual style, so that his
walk would be more readable. This created a lot of problems
and creative challenges that we did not initially foresee,
especially with interactive elements and platforms that All of the shadows and highlights are a part
needed to be facing the player. In order to get around all of the particular assets or characters and the
the complications we created our own version of a “crooked game doesn’t use a global light source. The aim
perspective,” because when everything looks weird, it almost was to create a three-dimensional cartoony
appears normal. We also wanted to fill the player’s screen effect.
with a lot of details and objects they can look at. In our team,
we call this approach “visual maximalism.”

Limited color palette

For materials like wood, metal, dirt or

walls we also used realistic textures to show
the patterns in wooden surfaces or rust and
decay on metal surfaces. This allowed us
to create quite large surfaces made from
the same material without them looking
artificial.

4
 CUTSCENES
Motion comics cutscenes, inspired by iconic cinematics from
the game inFamous (2009), was something we were most looking
forward to when we started working on the project. However their
production proved to be quite complicated and time-consuming,
so we used them only when there was no other storytelling option
available. In the end, there were 17 cutscenes made for the game
and their production took about 3 months.
The cutscenes were supposed to be the most cinematic part of
the game. They used a different visual language from the rest of
the game with slightly simpler comic book stylization, even using
As with almost all of the elements made for Once the sketch is finished, the lines are inked with comic book panels, speech bubbles and indirect speech. It took
the game, making of cutscenes also starts with a marker. It’s important that all the assets would have us a while until we found a style we were happy with, as it went
a pencil sketch on paper. During production, probably the same line weight, hence different markers through around 4 iterations. The final style that we settled on
multiple different types of paper were used, for from 0.1 to 0.5 mm are used. The game characters used a quite limited color palette, with dramatic contrasts, a lot
example, cutscenes were drawn on paper with were drawn in probably double the size compared to of fully dark shadows and a special monochromatic sepia palette
a different texture than the rest of the assets. the rest of the assets and were then scaled down during reserved for flashback sequences. Some of the scenes used shots
animation and importing into the engine. that were a direct reference to iconic shots from westerns or
other movies we liked.

Initially, we wanted to use strong dark inked Finally, coloring and post-production are done
shadows in the whole game. But it turned out digitally in the computer, as we used graphic elements
that everything would be way too dark then and like various effects, textures, halftone patterns and
in most cases, it wouldn’t fit the lighting of the multiple layers of artificial lights and particles that
particular scenes. So this style was then used would be hard to do any other way.
only for cutscenes and icons.
5
 JACK
“Time to spill some blood”

Blood will be Spilled is the story of Jack, the mosquito bounty hunter on his
quest for revenge. He’s our take on the silent anti-hero stereotype so well-known
from all the iconic spaghetti westerns. He’s the fusion of the characters of Clint
Eastwood, Charles Bronson and Franco Nero with some of our own added
ingredients.
Since the game is a story of revenge, it made sense for us to make the protagonist
want blood also in the literal sense. While sucking blood from your enemies seemed
like a cool gameplay mechanic, we needed to make a little alteration here, as in the
real world, it’s actually female mosquitoes who suck blood. Because the proboscis
looked slightly funny in the initial designs, we decided to hide it underneath
a stylized blood-red poncho. The ability to fly would create a few gameplay
and level design problems, so we made, true to the spaghetti western tradition,
the character lose his wings in a rather cruel fashion at some point in his personal
story. We later decided to use this incident as the thing that caused Jack to set out
on his quest for revenge.

Original
concept
of Jack

6
 Various concepts for Jack, based on some
of Clint Eastwood’s movie appearances.

In-game version

Dialogue portrait

7
 QUEEN OF HEARTS
“Don’t get me wrong - gangsters, crooks even some cold-blooded
killers are among some of our best customers. But kidnapping one
of my girls? That’s a declaration of war right there.”

Ever since the very early stages of the project, there has always been the idea
of Jack gaining a couple of allies along his journey. One of them was supposed
to be a queen honey bee, who runs a saloon in the town central to the game’s
story. This eventually became Queen - sarcastic, clever, independent and a rather
deadly woman, who would provide Jack with important information about his
targets. Her character was inspired by Jill (Claudia Cardinale) in “Once Upon a
Time in the West” (1968), Stella (Linda Hunt) in “Silverado” (1985) and Maeve
(Thandie Newton) from the “Westworld” series (2016).
The design was inspired by the classic western stereotype of a saloon
madame and also slightly influenced by the character of Red Queen from Alice in
Wonderland. As Queen is, from the gameplay perspective, mostly a supporting
character able to heal others, we used heart-shaped elements in her design and
clothing. And when there’s no need for healing, she
doesn’t shy away from using her trusty sawn-off
shotgun, called Sweetheart.

First concept
of Queen

8
 Concept arts

In-game version

Sweetheart - Queen’s signature “lupara” style break-

Dialogue portrait open custom made and engraved sawed-off shotgun.
9
 Sergeant ACE
“You really saved our asses back there, lad.
So I don’t really feel like letting you go on a suicide
run. Especially since our goals are the same.”

The second supporting character that we had in mind

as Jack’s acquaintance is Ace - a burly, loud and grumpy
cavalry sergeant with a big heart and an even bigger Gatling
gun. He’s a bumblebee, as they fit the description quite
well - they’re rather big, noisy and appear to be dangerous,
but aren’t actually aggressive unless threatened. His visual
design is quite clearly inspired by Lemmy Kilmister, the late
frontman of the band Motörhead.
Ace’s character is the complete opposite of Queen-
hot-tempered, quick to jump into battle headlong without
properly thinking it through. From the gameplay point of
view, he is supposed to be walking artillery able to deal great
amounts of damage, while also being able to withstand
a lot himself. Even though the character is mostly an
amalgamation of various stereotypes, he grew very close to
our hearts and has become one of our favorite characters
in the game.

First concept
of Ace

10
 THE SPADES
A cavalry unit of angry hornets named after the fort in The
South they were stationed at. When El General Ramírez started
his rampage in the region, they were sent to deal with him and
his mercenary army. The strength of the rogue army proved
to be far greater than they anticipated and the unit suffered
heavy losses. After almost all of the high-ranking commanding
officers were killed, it was up to Sgt. Ace to lead the unit.
The unit of Spades was inspired by the cavalry units of
Union soldiers that are quite a common element in westerns.
Their whole visual design was strongly inspired by the actual
uniforms and weapons of the US soldiers from that particular
time period. As we needed some variability in the soldier NPCs’
appearance in the game, we designed multiple versions of each
In-game version element (uniform parts and faces) separately and then put
them together to create different characters. Their fortress is
partly a hornet nest, so instead of using the historically accurate
frontier-like wooden architecture, we decided
to use bricks as they fitted the setting better.

Working sketches of the hornet soldier

Concept of the Fort Spades

Dialogue portrait

11
SNA-KE-EYES
“This old body has seen better days.”

The idea of Indi-ants came around quite early in the

development of the world and the story, as the way ants live in
the real world, with the clearly defined functions in the society
and the way they care for one another, is rather similar to the
way of life of the indigenous Indian tribes. Except for Sna-Ke,
who is said to be the last living Indi-ant, there are no other Indi-
ants to be seen during the story of the game, as we wanted to
show how the railroad construction and the development of
the modern society eventually spelled an end to this civilization.
Sna-Ke’s design is inspired by Sioux and Cherokee shamans.

Dialogue portrait
Shaman’s hut exterior and interior In-game version
 GRAVEDIGGER PADRE
“You kill ‘em, I’ll bury ‘em and everyone’s happy.” “I fear no evil, for the Great Weavers are with me.”

With the protagonist whose profession is to kill people, it made sense Padre started as a simple and obvious joke about praying mantis being a town
that a gravedigger would be among the biggest fans of his work. His priest. Later in development, he gradually turned into one of the most charming
character was also the narrator of the story, which is something we characters, who is kind of a moral compass for the main protagonist. In the real
wanted to somehow explain in the world, Mantises are quite well known
game at some point, but never really for their rather peculiar sex life. The
got to it. It was a funny character to character of Padre also had some
write for, as he has a dark sense of bad love experiences in his life, so he
humor and likes sarcastic jokes. He rather decided to become a priest. As
has a great antipathy for lawless a reminder of these life experiences
gangsters and always encouraged and a warning for the future, Padre
Jack to bring his targets in dead has his ex-lover’s name tattooed on
rather than alive. his wrist.

In-game version In-game version

Dialogue portrait Dialogue portrait

13
 LEEROY NPC’S
“In all my years, I never walked away from a job. Don’t plan The character of Red is a representative In westerns, farmers and villagers
on starting that now.” of “Queen’s girls” who were the employees are usually the ones that suffer the most
of the Saloon Hearts. There were supposed by the exploits of gangsters and villains.
The character of Leeroy is mostly to be more of them in the Saloon, however, To stay true to the genre, it’s not any dif-
inspired by Lee Van Cleef’s character mostly due to time reasons, there’s only Red. ferent in our game.
in “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) and
“Sabata” (1969). We thought it could be
interesting to create a character who’s
also a bounty hunter and would have
some history of professional rivalry with
the game’s protagonist Jack. We aimed
for a sarcastic and standoffish dynamic
between the characters who are
antagonistic to one another but still bear
some amount of respect for each other.
 Fireflies were the original owners of the Rusty Rock Quite a few characters for the game were designed visually, by their behavior or an association people
mines and they were the ones who found out that there is even before the development started. Those were have with a particular species. For example, villagers
actually an abundance of gold to be found there. They were mostly the main characters and also some of the in the game were mostly ants, as they are probably
initially created just as a little joke for our Steam Greenlight supporting characters like Gravedigger, Padre or the most common and well-known social species of
campaign (their butts emit green light). Later we incorpo- Sna-Ke-Eyes. But as the development and story insects, who are also highly organized and can lift up
rated them into the story and made them into miners. creation progressed, it became clear that if we want to 1000 times their own body weight, which is why
the world to feel believable and alive, we will need a they work as farmers, in the mines or on the railroad
greater amount of supporting characters. construction. In some cases, we tried to use the fact
Since there is no sheriff in Driftwood, we needed that insects have multiple appendages, but we have
someone else that would hand out rewards for utilized it much less than we initially wanted. So
the bounty hunts, so we created the character of apart from Ramírez, we also have a mariachi walking
a bounty office clerk. We also didn’t want the gun stick bug, who can play two guitars at the same time,
store to be just a game menu, but to feel like a real because of his two pairs of arms, or Leeroy, who can
shop with a proper shopkeeper. Most of the NPC draw a revolver even though he holds a shotgun in
designs are based on some well-known traditional his other two hands. As for easter eggs, there is
spaghetti western tropes and we also tried to add a character guarding the prison, who looks like the
another layer to them by including some easter legend of American westerns - John Wayne.
egg, simple joke or reference. Sometimes it was also Our goal was to create an interesting world inhabited
based on what kind of insect the character is, either by a wide range of various peculiar characters.

15
 SULLIVAN
“If you were a good boy, you could’ve ended up
rich like the rest of us. Might’ve had a gold mine
of your own.”

One of our goals while making the game was to

create an interesting and memorable cast of the
rogues’ gallery that Jack would have to face on his
journey. One of the first villains we created (even
before the story’s arch-enemy) was Sullivan - our take
on the archetype of a not very bright henchman with
his own selfish agenda. He’s a crude and fat gangster
with a very high opinion of himself, who loves gold
and money more than anything else. However,
our goal was to create a character that wouldn’t
necessarily come off as evil, but rather as a greedy
bastard with little regard for anyone else’s wellbeing.
And since Sullivan is basically just an opportunistic
parasite, him being a flea seems to fit quite nicely.

First sketches Young Sullivan

of Sullivan

16
Sullivan can be captured alive... or dead. Bounty poster
In-game version

Dialogue portrait

17
 EL GENERAL RAMÍREZ
“Haven’t you noticed my army here? You might find
yourself to be quite outgunned, amigo.”

It’s safe to say that Ramírez is one of our favorite characters

in the game. We thought that at least one character who would
take full advantage of having all the extra appendages they had
and wield a gun in each of them. Ramírez is a short-tempered,
fast-talking, proud, arrogant and trigger-happy self-proclaimed
general of a mercenary army. Since he’s probably our only truly
evil character, making him a beewolf made sense, as these insects
are highly aggressive predators that hunt down bees and wasps.
His character was very slightly inspired by the Joker from
“Batman” comic books or Col. Allende from the first “Red Dead
Redemption” (2010) game. He speaks quite eloquently and
frequently uses Spanish words here and there, as a homage
to how Mexican revolutionary generals are usually depicted in
spaghetti westerns.

Young Ramírez Dead Ramírez

First sketch
of Ramírez

18
 Cutscene versions

Concept art
Dialogue portrait

In-game version
19
 MARSHALL
“What does it matter if lives of hundreds are lost, if
it benefits thousands.”

Marshall is the main antagonist and the arch-villain of the

story, the ultimate target of Jack’s revenge quest. He is the leader
of the Calaveras, the gang that Ramírez, Sullivan, and Vanessa
are all part of. His character was inspired by the likes of Frank
(Henry Fonda) from “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968).
When creating his character, the goal was to create a villain that
would be sympathetic, with calm and cultivated demeanor and
machiavellian methods, rather than someone who would be
overly violent or cruel. The basic idea was that he was a corrupt
lawman, who used to be just but his ambition had driven him to
do bad things.
As an insect, Marshall is a death’s-head hawkmoth, a moth
species known for the skull-shaped marking on their backs. That
is where the gang’s name— Calaveras (Spanish for “Skulls”) —
comes from.

First sketches of Marshall

Young Marshall

20
 Marshal’s “transformation”

Concept art
Dialogue portrait

In-game version
“Boss” version

21
 VANESSA
“You’re bleeding all over my beautiful ship. Do you
know how many people I had to kill to get it?”

Vanessa fills a lot of roles for us even though she was created
rather late in the development of the story. We wanted to have
at least one female villain and also thought it would be cool if
the character used knives instead of guns. It was the idea of our
designer Alex that she could be a Red Admiral Butterfly, whose
Latin name is Vanessa Atalanta, hence her name. Since the
major theme of the story is revenge, we thought up a backstory
that connected her with another major character - Queen, and
the two of them having a major grudge. She is also Marshall’s
lover, which adds a little more depth to his character, who would
otherwise appear to be only thinking about his own interests. But
as Vanessa has a history of marrying wealthy and powerful men,
who then mysteriously turn up dead, it is not clear if the feelings
are mutual. Since she wasn’t a part of the original Calaveras
gang and therefore doesn’t have much of a history with Jack, her
“Boss” version
character isn’t as developed as we would like it to be. In-game version

First sketches
of Vanessa
22
 SHORTY
“Jack?! What the hell? I thought
you were dead, man!”

As our main protagonist Jack is

a bounty hunter, we wanted the game to
start with him being on a job. His target
would be Shorty, a character inspired
by a minor character from “Good, Bad
and Ugly.” He was also supposed to be
the bearer of the inciting incident of
the story - hence, he was always more
Dialogue portrait First sketches
of Shorty
of a plot device, rather than a complete
character. But we still wanted him to
have some personal history and role
in the game’s world. So he became the
unreliable, usually very drunk low rank-
ing member of the Calaveras gang, who
never amounted to much as a gangster.

In-game version
Young Shorty Dialogue portrait

23
 ENEMIES
There’s something inherently silly about bugs with guns. The goal was that each of the enemy
designs would be interesting even on their own and should have an easily recognizable silhouette
and distinctive color palette. Their designs are inspired by various henchmen, gangsters and crooks
from all the movies like “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) or “The Magnificent Seven“ (1960).

Bandit enemy type

Gunslinger enemy type

We tried a few versions

of the “Sombrero” hat.

24
 The design of combat encounters required to have some enemies that would be also able to
pose danger even over larger distances. The aim of Sharpshooters (pun slightly intended) was
to prevent the player from standing in one place for too long. Even though it takes them a while
to line a good shot, once they do, they are quite dangerous.
As it was sometimes hard to create multi-level “battle arenas,” we needed an enemy that
could hover in the air. As it turns out, dragonflies can do that.

Sharpshooter enemy type

Dragonfly enemy type

25
 MORE ENEMIES
To create enough variety among the enemy designs, there was
also a need for a stronger enemy type that would try to engage Jack
in melee combat. For this purpose, we designed brawlers - burly
cockroaches inspired by the men you would typically find anywhere
where a good bar fight, with chairs flying and bottles shattering, is
going down.
The demolishers were meant to be able to force the player out of
a cover by well-thrown dynamite. Their “weevil” silhouette was also
supposed to evoke a round bomb. Since a guy throwing dynamite
around didn’t exactly fit into every combat encounter (either due
to ludonarrative reasons or because of the layout of a particular
“arena”), they are probably our most underused enemy type.
In many action games, there’s also the archetype of a rather
strong, hard to kill enemy, advancing towards the player, usually
shooting from a shotgun or some other weapon that is able to
deal great amounts of damage. We settled on calling this enemy
type “Tank.” Because they turned out to be even stronger than we
expected, they were used only here and there and usually as a kind Brawler enemy type
of a mini-boss. Demolisher enemy type

Sketches
of demolishers

26
 Tanks were supposed to be our toughest
basic enemy type, who couldn’t even be killed by
a headshot, as they have a horn that prevents that.

Sketches of tank

Tank enemy type

Mites Since all of the characters in the

game are some species of insects, it
was quite hard to come up with our
version of some feral animals that we
could use as enemies in the game. After
some research, we settled on using
mites. They are small, aggressive and
usually attack in packs. At some point,
and as a kind of a joke, Dyna-mites were
created, as a small play on words. Later,
we turned them into a proper enemy
type - a mite with dynamite strapped to
its back, which is even more dangerous
than regular mites for obvious reasons.

27
 MR. KING
Initially, the plan was for Mr. King to be the main
villain of the story - the wealthy industrialist with
some mysterious and nefarious agenda and Marshall
was created as the corrupt lawman that would be his
henchmen. The reason for a spider being the ultimate
villain was quite simple - almost all known species of
spiders are predators and they are mostly preying
on insects. In the game world, there is also certain
mythology revolving around spiders, which makes him
even more mysterious character, mostly lurking in the
shadows. At some point, the game’s finale should take
place in Mr. King’s lair, which was supposed to be a very
dark, almost surreal place with lots of webs and dead
insects. But it was later cut out from the game, as it
didn’t seem appropriate for the theme and also would
diminish the importance of the central conflict between
Jack and Marshall.
Mr. King’s look is loosely inspired by Baron Samedi,
a voodoo spirit of the dead. It’s partly because it looks
quite dark and menacing and also to make him look like
he almost comes from a completely different world.

First concept
of Mr. King

28
 SPIDERS
In the lore of the game, there is a legend of The Great In the world of Blood will be Spilled, the insect society is divided into certain tiers, mostly based on
Weavers that forms the foundation of the world’s main physiological aspects of various species living there. Insects without wings, unable to fly, are usually
religion that we actually never got around to having a name part of the lower class, mostly workers or farmers. Winged insects form the middle and upper class
for. The legend says that there are two spirits eternally mostly own businesses or land and can easily travel over longer distances due to their ability of flight.
standing in opposition to one another - The Spirit of The railroad built by Mr. King is supposed to make these differences go away since everyone would
Creation and The Spirit of Destruction. The idea is that even be able to travel much easier. Though in reality, his plans aren’t altruistic at all, as it will be him who
though they are stuck in an eternal conflict one cannot exist will be in control of the whole thing and no one knows what his ultimate goals really are. Spiders, who
without the other. It is also alluded that the Indi-ant culture are thought to be just myths by most people, are at the absolute top of the food chain. Almost no one
has similar “legend” as the base of their religion. currently alive ever seen one in the flesh and they are mostly revered as gods. We also thought of them
in an almost “cosmic evil” sense that they have plans other people aren’t even able to comprehend.

29
SIERRA HORMIGUERO
Before we have decided to add a prologue level, this was
supposed to be the very first level of the game. The aim was
to create something visually interesting, memorable and a
kind of eye candy. It is supposed to look like a place where
a great civilization of Indi-ants (our version of Indians)
used to live once but has been long abandoned. From a
visual standpoint, it is an amalgamation of multiple visual
elements of Native American tribes, mainly Ojibwe, Sioux,
Iroquois, and Navajo. The use of totems and murals was
inspired by northern tribes and the overall architecture of
nests and houses made of clay, akin to pueblo architecture,
was inspired by the ones of Zuni and Hopi tribes. We
were particularly careful not to create any kind of parody,
simplification or cliché, but rather to find visually striking
elements that would fit together with our insect theme and
would best represent the diversity of the indigenous people.
As Sna-Ke-Eyes is said to be the last of the civilization, we
tried to communicate it in the environment as well, with its
slightly eerie and mystical atmosphere.
Background art by F. Guderna

Anthills and termite mounds

were the main inspiration
for Indi-ant settlements.
Dreamcatchers, also called spider
web charms, support our “Great
weavers” mythology nicely.

31
RUSTY ROCKS
This was one of the oldest environments in the game and
also one that went through the biggest amount of changes.
The first version of Rusty Rocks appeared in our very first
gameplay prototype and then in the first demo. However,
until we got to the final version that appears in the game,
almost all of the elements were redone multiple times, as it
was also the level where we were searching for the definitive
visual language of the level environments.
The idea behind the level was quite simple - in almost
every game with a Wild West setting, there is a level taking
place in the mines of some sort. There are multiple visual
elements that are immediately associable with the setting
and the western theme, being it either the mining equipment
or the iconic architecture, or the rocky environment of
canyons similar to those found in Arizona, Nevada or Utah.
In the game’s story, Rusty Rocks used to be iron mines and
their red color is caused by the presence of iron oxides in the
sandstone, hence the name.

Background art by F. Guderna

 Various tents and guard
towers in the mining camp
settlement.

Part of the level design concept There are no limits to Sullivan’s vanity and to properly demonstrate it, Alex
of the Rusty Rocks Mines. came up with the idea of a giant statue right in the middle of the mines. It is
positioned so that Sullivan is always able to see it from the windows of his villa.
Rusty Rocks Mines in our early One of the combat encounters in the level takes place around the monument, as
prototype version of the game. we wanted the player to have enough time to properly look at it.

33
 MINES
The buildings in the level are inspired by actual
structures built in the style of the western frontier mining
town, mostly consisting of makeshift shacks, cabins and
actual mining buildings like the stamp mill. There is also
the Sullivan’s “villa” that was supposed to stand out with
its fake impression of opulence, while still being rather
poorly built, which fits Sullivan’s character.

Concepts of the stamp mill exterior based on existing mining structures.

34
 In the first demo of the game, the interior of the mines was just a part of the whole
level that takes place in the Rusty Rocks. In the following level designs, it grew in scale
a lot so we turned it into a standalone level. We used many props and elements that
you would expect in mines, such as mine carts or explosives or various environmental
hazards. We also wanted to visually differentiate between the old section of the mines,
where everything is falling apart and the newer mines that appear much more stable and
sturdy. A part of the level takes place in a cave system the mines are connected to, where a
very old and slightly deranged spider resides.

Background art by F. Guderna

SOUTH
In quite a few classic spaghetti westerns, the story usually
takes place in an unspecified location visually similar to the
south of the United States, particularly Arizona, Texas or the
borders of Mexico. The reason is that most of those movies
were shot in Almeria in Spain that has a similar climate. All
of this inspired us to create a setting taking place on the
southern border of our fictional country that we called
simply “The South.” As the story of the level is actually
about the good guys - the Spades unit, losing in their fight
against Ramírez, we thought the weather should reinforce
this atmosphere accordingly. So instead of the typical sunny
weather that you know from the movies, we decided to go
for dark and rainy weather.
Thematically, the visual design of the level is inspired
by the American Civil War and the Texas Revolution. The
buildings are inspired by Spanish colonial architecture, but
since the level is taking place on a literal battlefield, they are
mostly destroyed or repurposed for battle.

Background art by F. Guderna

Hornet’s nest barracks

 Some parts of the level take
place in the abandoned villages
ravaged by war since the battlefield
goes directly through some of the
original settlements. Buildings are
designed in a southwestern style,
but haphazardly reinforced with
planks and spikes or turned into
defensive structures.

There was an idea of a strange defensive

structure, a kind of a bunker, full of Gatling guns To reinforce the sense of
and bristling with sharp spikes that would be a battlefield, there was a lot
almost impenetrable. The only way to get through of military equipment all
would be by using the supply tunnels directly over the level that was mostly
underneath it and by setting up explosives below inspired by real objects from
the bunker, blowing it up. the Civil War period.

37
SAN AVISPÓN
This level is composed of two parts - the first one
is an enormous wooden bridge and it’s followed by
a village with a great fortress where Ramírez made his
headquarters. The crossing of the river was supposed to
be a narrative symbol for turning the tide of the battle - up
until now, Ramírez and his rogue army were winning, but
now, they’ve been pushed back and are on the defensive on
their own turf.
The great wooden railroad bridges are visually stunning
marvels of engineering. In many westerns, blowing them up
with explosives is a recurring story element. We wanted to
follow this strange tradition, but we chose a slightly different
approach with actually trying to prevent the explosion,
instead of causing it, since Jack and Ace’s army and supply
convoys need to cross the bridge. One of the biggest visual
challenges when making the level was, that it’s our only
level with a vertical background that also happens to include
an animated river. In the end, it turned out fine, but it took
us quite a while to get there.
Background art by F. Guderna

Various parts of the bridge construction.

 The fortress of San Avispón is our tribute to the
awesome designs of the Eagle’s Nest fortress from The first concept of the building from our “target visual
the game Desperados (2001), El Presidio fort from prototype” in 2014 and the final version from the game.
Red Dead Redemption (2010) and also the fort
of Alamo in Texas. It’s a monumental structure,
where the hornet army originally resided before it
has been overtaken by Ramírez. The barracks are
a great hornet’s nest and the most dominant feature
of the fortress is the great tower, where Ramírez
set up his office and it’s also where his boss battle
takes place. It is one of the largest structures in the
game and it needed to have two separate versions
- one for the platforming segment and one for
the boss battle, since they demanded a completely
different design approach. The whole fortress,
as well as the village around it, is designed in the
Spanish colonial architectural style, with its typical
contrast of quite simple and solid construction and
baroque ornamentation.

Concept of San Avispón settlement

EASTWOOD SWAMP
From the production and technical perspective, there
probably wasn’t a more challenging level to make than Chapter
6. The goal was to create an environment that would be vastly
different from the rest of the levels, that usually take place in
deserts, prairies or rocky terrains. It is also the most horizontal
level in the game, which also proved to be quite challenging
from the point of level design.
The level can be divided into three parts. The first one is the
marshes with wooden walkways and piers leading through an
abandoned ghost town of decaying wooden shacks. Then there
is the sawmill, that you mostly just run through, chasing Leeroy.
And lastly, there’s the River Queen Casino on the steamboat,
where we wanted to have a dramatic conclusion to the second
act of the story.
To solve the design challenges of this level, we had to come
up with various new mechanics and hazards that are not used
anywhere else in the game. For example, the floating gas bubbles
in the marshes are the closest that we got to levitating platforms
while still trying not to appear too cartoony.
Background art by F. Guderna

Houses from the ghost

town of Desperanza.
The Casino Vanessa’s cabin Engine room

As the environment of the swamps is so

different, there were a lot of assets made just
for this one level. Among those were around 60
custom pieces of vegetation (about half of them
are also animated) that were used to create
a sense of believable dense vegetation of the
swamps. We also tried to avoid bright shades
of green and rather went for shades of brown
and grey to make the environment appear dark,
rotting and unwelcoming.

41
HEIST
The idea of stealing a locomotive and using it to chase after
the train the villain is on was liked by everyone on the team even
during the early design discussions. Since the story events that
need to take place here are rather short and straightforward, it
initially wasn’t clear whether it will have its own level, or will be
a part of the finale.
The level takes place at night and before we added the
turn-based combat mechanics to the game, there were some
initial ideas of playing around with some elements of stealth.
Later, it became our shortest level with just one larger combat
encounter, where you get to combine the abilities of all three
of the characters - Queen, Ace, and Jack for the first time. In
early designs, there was an idea of a simple puzzle with a coal
dispenser that was later scrapped in order to maintain the
proper dramatic pacing of the finale.

Background art by F. Guderna

 TRAIN FINALE
Railroad and trains are a visual and narrative element that
is very strongly tied to the Wild West genre, appearing in
many movies or video games. Even from the very early story
discussions, we knew that we want to have a level taking place
on a train as well, but we weren’t really sure how to tie it into
the overall story. In the end, we chose it as a stage for our finale,
where Jack finally confronts his nemesis - Marshall. We also
wanted it to be a satisfying conclusion to the journey that Jack,
Queen, and Ace experienced during the game.
The railroad eventually became rather central to the game’s
story and was also an important element of the world-building.
On one hand, it was a marvel of modern engineering that would
allow everyone to travel great distances. But it was also the tool
that the Calaveras gang used for transporting the people they
abducted, delivering them straight to Mr. King.
Making a train level sounded much easier on paper than it was
in reality, as it brought with itself multiple design challenges. We
always aimed for the game to be more or less realistic and also tried
to avoid making only one-of mechanics, so we had quite limited
opportunities for creating interesting platforming segments.
Background art by F. Guderna
IRON CENTIPEDE
The railroad construction is a rather common theme
in westerns, usually used as a metaphor for the end of the
Wild West and the arrival of civilization.
In the concept phase for the locomotive, we approached
our friend, Daniel Mihálik, who is an incredibly skilled
artist with a keen eye especially for creating wonderful
technically complex machines. Our idea was that it should
Locomotive concept by D. Mihálik
look like a giant awesome machine resembling a strange
insect-like creature crawling through the country, but
that it would still look like a steam locomotive. With its 11
pairs of wheels, it was named the Iron Centipede, which
is a reference to the name Iron Horse, an iconic literary
term, allegedly used by the North American Indians when
they first saw a steam train. Figuring out how to properly
animate the whole thing was quite a challenge and needed
multiple iterations of the steam mechanism.
Apart from the locomotive, the train also consists
of various other types of train cars, such as multiple
classes of passenger cars, cargo cars, armored cars
for transporting money and a caboose. The cars were
inspired by real references and don’t have any insect-like
elements so that the train wouldn’t appear too alien.
 Train car concept by D. Mihálik

The train cars were made from various smaller elements so

that we could easily change the size and composition of the cars,
their exits and entrances, windows, roof doors and obstacles
inside them according to the needs of the level design.
 DRIFTWOOD
The town of Driftwood was inspired by the classic stereotypical western boomtowns, which were settlements formed close
to the railroad or natural resources. It is also quite common for classic westerns to revolve around one particular town that is
rattled by the arrival of a stranger, usually a mysterious gunman. The name of the town - Driftwood is a reference to a city of
Deadwood in South Dakota, that also served as an inspiration.
Driftwood is built next to two gigantic central rocks in the middle of the desert. It used to be a rather small mining town that
grew larger during the railroad construction as new settlers started to pour into the town. The new settlers brought with them
their particular ways of living, which is why a lot of different types of dwellings can be seen all around the town. In the game,
the town is mostly represented by the main street with all of the buildings having the iconic “false fronts” that were supposed
to make rather uninteresting and cheap wooden buildings look luxurious. On one side of the town, you can find a train station
that is a direct reference to the opening scene of Once Upon a Time in the West.
The town is the main hub level, where the player can talk to various characters in between levels and learn more about their Original concept of Driftwood
backstory or the game world. You can also see the impact of player’s actions, as new inhabitants like rescued miners or soldiers by D. Mihálik

relieved of duty gradually arrive to the town. It was our first 100% finished level that we then used as a benchmark for the
visual quality of the rest of the game.

46
 GUN STORE
One of the buildings that you’ll find on the Driftwood’s
main street is the gun store. In the shop’s window, the
true western fans will recognize some of the legendary
pieces known from classic movies. Running the store is
a guy named Sergio, whose likeness is inspired by the
Sergio greatest spaghetti western director to ever lived, mister
Sergio Leone.
As the player progresses in the game, they unlock new
revolvers available for purchase. To keep the experience
immersive, we decided to create an interface that looks
less like a menu and more like an actual shop. Here,
the player can look through all the different weapons
and their attributes. During each of your visits, Sergio
tells you one of the multiple lines about all the various
famous gunmen that shops in his store, for example
about John Ringo from the Beetles gang, who is without
a doubt a star.

Different types of dwellings can be seen all around the town,

even suspended from the rocks. Famous guns from movies
like Django (1966), The Great
Silence (1968) and Sabata (1969).

47
 HEARTS SALOON
You can’t really have a proper Wild West town without a saloon.
Anyone who has ever seen at least one western has some idea about
what to expect from it - like a second-story balcony, swinging doors,
a long bar right across the entrance, poker tables, podium with a piano,
guest rooms on the second floor, etc.
The Hearts Saloon is supposed to be the most remarkable building
in the whole town with its red paint and a great beehive embedded
into the building. While Driftwood was the first location we created,
the saloon was probably the very first building that we designed both
from the outside as well as its interior. The first version was about
half the size of the final design and had just one set of stairs. But as
the development progressed, it became one of the most important
buildings in Driftwood where a lot of characters hung around during
various stages of the story. The original plan was that some of the
Queen’s girls should also be there as NPCs, but due to the lack of time,
their characters never made it into the game.

First sketches of Hearts Saloon

48
 Even though Jack’s a drifter, it made sense for him to have a place
to stay in Driftwood, since he was spending so much time there.
As the player progresses through the story, every time you return to
the town, the room is a little prettier than before. The weapons and
mementos that Jack has acquired can be also found there.

Saloon Hearts is also partly

a beehive, so it made sense that some
of the visual elements like the iconic
hexagonal honeycombs would be
incorporated into the design. It can
be seen for example as a recurring
shape of the furniture, like tables,
or shelves for storing alcohol.
49
Church of the Great Weavers
Church is the only brick and mortar building in the whole
Driftwood. The original plan was to include a wooden church with
a central bell tower, which is much more typical for boomtowns,
but it just didn’t work. The church was supposed to appear as
a sturdy structure, that’s been standing there even before the
rest of the town has even been built, as to show that the worship
of spider deities has some history in the area.
The design is inspired by some of the elements of the Spanish
colonial architecture, in which churches were built as dominant
structures in the center of the town. The chosen color palette and
the overall decor is meant to make it look inviting and open. The
most remarkable element of the exterior is the great spiderweb
stained glass rose window placed above the entry portal.

The interior of the church is inspired by the classical architecture of

Christian churches with a holy water font at the door and an altar across
from the portal. There are two types of benches - the ones in the front,
with no back-rests, are meant for the flying insects while the other type
is for insects without wings. The most dominant feature of the interior
are the stained glass windows depicting the great weavers - the astral
beings of good and evil. The windows also create a nice
mosaic of colors with beams of light coming from all sides.
 UNDERTAKER BOUNTY OFFICE & JAIL
The undertaker’s “shop” is the only building on Driftwood’s main street that To properly show the lawlessness of the version of the Wild West depicted
you can’t enter. Since the gravedigger is usually spending most of his time at the in spaghetti westerns, towns only seldomly have proper sheriffs. Therefore we
graveyard that’s on the far end of the street, which is also where Jack has his created a building that would serve as the hub of the whole bounty business
conversations with him, we didn’t need to design the interior of his house. But - they inform about new targets, pay out rewards and there’s also a small jail
we still wanted him to have a place where he could live and work, so with a bit of where criminals are put if the hunters decide to bring them in warm.
cynicism and dark humor, he has a rather fancy building in the middle of town
that’s open 24/7 with a clocktower that shows that it’s high noon all the time.

Famous graves from movies Django (1966), The Good, the

Bad and the Ugly (1966) and My Name Is Nobody (1973).
GUNS, REVOLVERS, PISTOLS
Old six-shooters are probably one of the most significant symbols of the western genre. In our game we strongly focused on the gun handling part – quick-drawing, aiming,
shooting and reloading. That is also why we wanted our guns to be some kind of artifacts – based on the true guns of the Old West with an emphasis on the smallest technical
details, yet stylized with some added flavor, character or a reference.

Guns study sketches

 EL DORADO
“There’s a story about El Dorado, the Golden one.
Vicious warrior with two pistols made of solid gold.
Legendary weapons, able to destroy whole armies.
But he was betrayed by his own men. His guns
crushed and scattered all around the world so no one
could ever find them.”

While doing the research of various types of revolvers for

the game, probably one of the most remarkable weapons we
stumbled upon was the LeMat revolver. It has a very robust
yet still quite elegant design and apart from an ordinary six-
shooter, it can shoot 9 bullets. And as if that wasn’t enough,
it also features an unusual secondary 20 gauge smooth-
bore barrel capable of firing a buckshot. As it clearly was the
ultimate weapon with almost overpowered attributes, we
knew we couldn’t give it to the player too soon in the game, so
we made it into a kind of a collectible that rewards the player
for exploration. Since the game’s main antagonist also has
a LeMat revolver, we created a little legend to give the
In the game, single parts of El Dorado are stored in a box, where you can check the current progress. weapons some backstory.

The very first concept of the El Dorado revolver,

it was called The Punisher back then.

Disasembled parts In-game HUD Cylinder

53
SKILL CARDS
As we mentioned in the beginning, when we set out to make our very first game, we wanted to put in it elements of everything that
we love in the medium. And one of those things are RPG elements. The idea of having the skills divided into three categories - the good,
the bad and the ugly, came very early in development, as it seemed like a no brainer, considering the setting of the game. And since the
cards were already a prevailing theme in the game (characters named Jack, Queen, King and Ace) and they are also something that is
commonly associated with western, we decided to stylize the whole “skill tree” (it’s more like a branch, we settled on calling it “a path”)
as a set of cards. Skills of The Good revolves around Jack’s gun-handling abilities, inspired by the gunslinger archetype.

The Bad uses knives, poison or other tricks to overcome his enemies.
The Ugly was supposed to be the archetype of a guy, not playing by the rules, using anything at his disposal to win a fight.

Card artwork inked

and with colors

There is a slightly different card back for each path.

55
 MISSING IN ACTION
The concept for these characters was created quite early in development, but it was also the first to be cut out
and we’ll probably never get to make it a reality. The idea was to create a series of optional side missions in which
you would hunt down a gang of six ladybug siblings with bounties on their heads. Each of them would have different
abilities and the whole level was supposed to be built around it. The concept, however, proved to be too ambitious for
our small team with more than enough work with finishing the actual game.
The name Diceton brothers is a direct reference to the infamous gang of Dalton Brothers. Since they’re ladybugs,
each of them has a dot on the back representing his order in the gang, from 1 to 6, hence the dice reference.
Because we killed this concept quite early, only four of the six brothers were designed. The No. 1 is a sharpshooter
with a ridiculously large scoped rifle. Some of his attributes were later used for the sharpshooter enemy type and
the character of Leeroy. No. 3 is a big burly brawler focused on hand to hand combat. He served as an inspiration
for our Brawler and Tank enemy types that we’ve created later. The gangster called Cuchillo (Spanish for “knife”) is
number No. 4. He is clearly inspired by Dany Trejo’s characters from Desperado (1995) and Machete (2010) - some of
the ideas for him live on in Vanessa’s character. And lastly
No. 5 - Niño (Spanish for “child”), an explosives expert -
inspiration for our Demolisher enemy type and Sullivan.

56
 Environmental storytelling is a narrative
element that we use quite frequently in the
game. We initially also wanted to have a way
to emphasize some of the more interesting or
important moments in the game using comics
panels. Those would be used for example
when the player arrives at some interesting
location or stumbles upon something we
wanted to drive attention to. It would also be
a kind of a cinematic element that would stand
somewhere between cutscenes and regular
gameplay. However, in the end, it proved to be
too complicated from a production standpoint
and also didn’t properly work with the overall
pace of the game.

57
 PROMOTIONAL ART

Twitter header

Key art by T. Olekšák Steam Greenlight promo art

58
Our very first promotional design for roll-up Final promotional design used for brochure and roll-up

59
T-shirt design for our team members, made for events and conferences
Event presentation “booth”
Classic badge for our fans and the special “sheriff’s” badge
Special thanks: Ivan Kozmon Martin Kozmon
project lead, writer, animator art director, lead artist, writer
game and level designer designer
Slovak Game Developers Association
Slovak Arts Council

Silvia Chasníková Michal Páleník Alexander Buzgó

lead programmer level designer, writer
Radovan Brlit’
Martina Beláková

... and all of our friends and families for Kristián Balaj František Guderna
constant support and immeasurable UI programmer background artist
patience.

Tomáš Olekšák Daniel Mihálik

Doublequote Studio 2019 key art locomotive designer,
auxiliary concept artist

61
www.bloodwillbespilled.com
@BLWBS /bloodwillbespilled
Doublequote Studio 2019