How the West was fun: Have a look at West of Loathing's design doc

Asymmetric's Zack Johnson took to Twitter this week to share a copy of the design document created during the company's production of its 2017 RPG West of Loathing.

It's a well-written and cheeky example of something many devs sweat over, as well as perhaps the only example of a public design doc for a comedy RPG set in a Wild West populated entirely by stick figures.

Devs skimming through will find it lays out everything from the game's core conceits ("all fights should be avoidable") and principle interactions to how it might handle things like party members ("pardners will conspicuously NOT start a romantic relationship with the player in exchange for trinkets") and random encounters.

If you're at all curious about the game or Asymmetric's efforts to write and design a comedic game, the full doc is well worth a read.