Saloonery — Case Study

Overview

After years of leading a team on Kittens with Cannons, I wanted to prove I could take a game from nothing to a store page by myself. Saloonery is the result: a single-player campaign, a set of elimination contracts, and wave-based survival modes, all built around old-school run-and-gun combat with a modern trick or two.

Saloonery gameplay screenshot: a named horse, Mr. Hoss, standing outside a ranch building — Mr. Hoss, one of the game's named horses, out on the range.

From concept to release, solo

I founded Bow Tie Cat Studios LLC to run Saloonery as a real, released product rather than a portfolio piece. That meant owning every part of delivery myself: coding, level and encounter design, UI/UX, debugging, store page and marketing assets, and the release process itself, including Steam Cloud saves, Family Sharing, and 19 unlockable achievements.

Saloonery gameplay screenshot: an outlaw with hands raised in a canyon pass, marked with an exclamation icon — A tense encounter in the canyon pass, one of the hand-built moments I designed myself.

Gunplay built around bullet-time

The combat loop centers on 16 weapons across rifles, shotguns, and sidearms, with dual-wielding and a bullet-time mechanic for lining up precise shots under pressure, plus sprinting and dashing to stay mobile against groups of outlaws. Weapons unlock through play, and four difficulty levels let the pacing scale from a relaxed shootout to a genuine challenge run.

Saloonery gameplay screenshot: the screen edges flashed red from taking damage while facing down an armed outlaw — Taking fire mid-shootout, screen edges flashing red on hit.

Missions, contracts, and survival

The campaign is built from 9 main missions (roughly 1–1.5 hours of content) punctuated by two boss encounters, plus 7 shorter side missions for players who want quick, focused engagements. Wave-based survival modes round things out for players who just want to keep shooting.

Saloonery gameplay screenshot: the player approaching a bullet-riddled sign welcoming them to Boulder Bluff, with outlaws ahead — Riding into Boulder Bluff for a contract, guns already drawn.

Shipping and post-launch

Saloonery released on Steam on July 29, 2025, and has held a 97% positive rating. Post-launch, I kept iterating based directly on community feedback, the same ownership-heavy loop of coding, testing, and shipping updates that defined the whole project.

View on Steam ↗