Where to get it

Steam

2006 · Indie · Real-time strategy

Bang! Howdy

Bang Howdy! is an online free-to-play strategy game. The setting mixes elements from a variety of related genres, such as steampunk or Native American myth. Several of the players' available units are entirely mechanical, including artillery and a "steam gunman", a robot boasting large wagon wheels for movement while wearing a cowboy hat. Other, more conventional units include cavalry and gunslingers.

Released: 1 December 2006
Platforms: Browser Java virtual machine Linux Windows macOS
Genres: Indie Real-time strategy Role-playing Strategy Turn-based strategy Western
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Modes: Co-op Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action
Engine: jMonkeyEngine
Country: United States
Languages: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal) and 3 more

About

Bang! Howdy is an online free-to-play, hybrid turn based and real time strategy game created by American company Three Rings Design. It was originally released on December 1, 2006 after public beta testing by Grey Havens, a non-profit organization founded by several former employees of Three Rings. In 2008, the game reached a milestone of 500,000 players as reported on Three Rings' website.

The game mixes different elements from a variety of related genres, namely Western, steampunk, and Native American mythology. This is evident in the game's different locales and various gameplay elements.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Story

Bang! Howdy incorporates many elements from the Western and steampunk genres, as well as Native American mythology. This is evident in the game's different "towns", player lobbies which also act as the different main settings of the game, outside of in-game instances.

Frontier Town is the game's starting town. It is modelled after the archetypal "Western" town found in most depictions of the genre, complete with a saloon, general store, and sheriff's office.

Development

Initially conceived as an insect-themed game, the primary mechanic of Bang! Howdy is designed to get around the problems of both real-time and turn-based strategy. Michael Bayne, project leader of Bang! Howdy, described RTS as "overly complex and too fast-paced", and described turn-based strategy as "no fun when it's not your turn."

Bayne described the development approach as episodic, with the plan of getting the core game released quickly and working on new towns in turn.

Reception

Bang! Howdy won the Technical Excellence award from the 2007 Independent Games Festival, and was a finalist for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. The editors of Computer Games Magazine presented Bang! Howdy with their 2006 "Best MMO Debut" award.

In game websites reviews it was received positively.