Prerelease:Dillon's Rolling Western
This page details prerelease information and/or media for Dillon's Rolling Western.
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Contents
Development Timeline
2010
- Originally the game was supposed to be a spinoff game based on the Goron characters from the Legend of Zelda franchise. It would focus on the Gorons' ability to curl into a ball and roll. The pitch was rejected to Nintendo and the Nintendo producers suggested Vanpool to use rolling mechanic with a original character instead.
- During the trip to Austin, Texas while helping the team for their Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong games, Kensuke Tanabe would do some research about Texas, and found out that the representative animals were armadillos, and thought about it being in a western setting. As such, the game was later repurposed to a Dillon title.
2011
- June 7, 2011: The game was shown in E3 2011 under the title "The Rolling Western"
2012
- February 22, 2012: The game is released worldwide.
Concept Art
Goron Legend Of Zelda Spinoff Game Pitch
"Since the origin of the feeling is ``rolling and defeating the opponent by operating the pachinko, the plan has never gone awry. Its origin is inspired by the "boss battle" of "Irozuki Tinkle" who fights with pachinko. However, other than that, the planning was relatively weak, and I had to be saved by Tanabe P many times."
"When I thought about the worldview of Tingle (Zelda), the character candidate was a Goron tribe who ``curls into a ball and rolls around. The director was so excited that he created a theme song, ``Song of the Mygorons, and included it in the proposal, but despite the showy performance, the only thing he was praised for was ``operability. However, this result laid the foundation for sticking to touch operations to the end without blurring."
Dillon's Rolling Western Pitch
Dillon
Dillon himself had 3 early designs
First Design: "Tanabe P encourages the development team, who slipped with Goron instead of Wild, to "aim for more majors." Taking this lip service to heart, we began working on the proposed armadillo design with the aim of creating an original character. However, the first armadillo was quite "mild"."
Second Design: "As the action became more complete as it became a western movie, the feel of the play became more ``cool/brave than I had expected, and the characters gradually developed. But he still looked like a breakfast cereal mascot. By the way, it's probably cocoa flavored."
A character model based off the third concept art can be found in The Last Ranger's files in res_maya28.vpl
On the right is a texture mockup for said model to match the concept art.
| Concept Art | Texture Mockup |
|---|---|
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Scrogs
The scrogs, were actually originally cactus people at one point, until Kensuke Tanabe was against it.
"“Saboten-kun” and “Kachiku” incorporate the element of strategically protecting a base (tower defense), and what the protagonist must protect became a hot topic. Tanabe P's first proposal was to create cactus humans that would multiply quickly even if they were eaten, but upon thinking about it, he thought it looked like human sacrifice and was frightened, so he advised against it. For a while, I used to call things that should be protected by both sides "kachiku," but now that I think about it, this keyword is the scariest."
"I'm not a cactus. This is a typical example of lack of communication within the development team. I wonder if it's okay for my partner to be eaten..."
Russ
Russ had a completely different design compared to the final.
He was originally a mole at one point.
"I'm not a mole, and even though Jiro was everywhere, there was a time when I wanted the persuasive power of ``moving underground so that my partner character could approach him without feeling out of place. However, ``Squirrel was strongly recommended as a partner, including Miyaji SV. I've learned that sometimes appearance trumps functional intent, but admittedly, this mole is a bit..."
Scrapped Mayors
"Alert No. 3: Various animals appear, but giraffes, elephants, and lions are extremely taboo. It wasn't because it didn't fit in with Western movies or anything like that, but the moment it appeared, the ``zoo feel was suddenly boosted, and it strangely became like an educational program."
Misc
During development of the game in 2011, the developers suffered from the Texas Power Crisis, which meant it was hard to get air conditioning for the hot and cold days.
Images
Also found on the website is a early screenshot of a prototype build of the game. Which showcases some notable differences.
- The textbox is more basic looking.
- It closely resembles the E3 2011 build, albeit with earlier assets.
Videos
Dillon's Rolling Western was shown off at E3 2011 under the title "The Rolling Western" with various differences.
- During gameplay, Dillon will usually stand still when not controlled. In the trailer, he is seen shifting back and forth.
- Scruffles and towers are less detailed.
- When Dillon starts a combo, 2-hits is usually displayed in blue and changes color the longer the combo is extended. In the trailer, 2-hits is displayed in yellow and red and remains the same color regardless of combo length.
- Only one color of rock is seen in the mines, which is the gray variant. In the actual game, a blue and gold variant are also encountered, as the colors hint at the rock's contents.
- Names are drastically different in the trailer: i.e. Scruffles are called Manju Grass.
- When a raid is started in the trailer, Grocks are instead referred to as "monsters" by Russ.
- The Grocks count is in the top-right corner of the screen instead of the bottom.
- Gatling Guns easily defeat Grocks within a few hits.
- Grocks on the plains are surrounded by a green ring and noted by a star. The reason for this is unknown, though the green ring will change colors from green to yellow and finally red when the grock is attacked by a tower before the grock is destroyed. Because of this, it is likely that the ring denotes the grock's health.
- Grocks are also seen with health meters in battle.
- Dillon's heart meter appears different.
- When Dillon charges up a roll attack, the shock wave is not seen when it strikes.
- Instead of letting off a bright blue beam, unvisited mines give off a wide green-colored beam.
- When battling a Veggrock in-game, the patch of grass that Dillon encountered the grock in is visible in battle. This patch of grass is absent during battle in the trailer.
- Though longer, the Arma-Mode meter is depleted more quickly.
- Dillon is seen using Arma-Mode without the Ancient buckle.
- A different symbol is seen on the doors of the Ancient Ruins.
- If one pays attention, the graphics are more "lighter and cel-shaded" than the final release.
- Dillon's pre-English name was shown to be his Japanese name, Jiro.
- Scruffles were originally called Manju Grass.
- Shards were originally called Kochin Stone.
- Stone was originally called Rock Piece.
- The grunts that the Grocks make sound different.
