Factsheet

Developer:
Asymmetric Games

Release Date:
August 10th, 2017

Platforms:
Nintendo Switch
PC / Mac / Linux:
Steam | GOG
Xbox for Windows

Website:
westofloathing.com

Regular Price:
$11

DLC Price:
$5

Description

West of Loathing is a single-player slapstick comedy adventure role-playing game set in the wild west of the Kingdom of Loathing universe. Its gameplay is a hybrid of point-and-click adventure and open-world RPG. The stick-figure characters advance through branching narratives and engage in tactical turn-based combat. Graphically, it transforms KoL's hand-drawn art style into a 3D diorama (think Paper Mario) replete with animation, sound, and music.

Leave your family farm and head West to find your fortune! Traverse snake-infested gulches, punch skeletons wearing cowboy hats, grapple with demon cows, and investigate a wide variety of disgusting spittoons. Charm your way out of trouble as a silver-tongued Snake Oiler, plumb the refried mysteries of the cosmos as a wise and subtle Beanslinger, or let your fists do the talking as a fierce Cow Puncher. Explore a vast open world and encounter a "colorful" cast of characters, some of whom are good, many of whom are bad, and a few of whom are ugly.

History

In 2003, Asymmetric released The Kingdom of Loathing, a browser-based MMORPG that quickly built up a dedicated community and slowly evolved into a cult classic with over a million players worldwide. KoL has been continually updated since release, and has remained popular and profitable for almost two decades.

While design started in late 2014, work on West of Loathing began in earnest in June of 2015. The first year was devoted primarily to building an extremely flexible, content-driven game engine. Using Unity as a framework, this custom engine provides the possibility of bringing WoL to many platforms and opens the door for a wide variety of future projects.

West of Loathing was officially announced in May of 2016 and was released via Steam on August 10th, 2017 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The Nintendo Switch version launched on May 31st, 2018. Kartridge followed in November of 2018, then Xbox for Windows in June 2019, and Google Stadia in July 2020.

The first DLC for West of Loathing, Reckonin' at Gun Manor, was released on Steam on February 8th, 2019, and then on the Nintendo Switch in January of 2020 and GOG the following month. Other console versions and potentially an iOS release of West of Loathing and the DLC will follow as the development team is able, and additional DLC is also in the works.

Features
  • A sprawling open world
  • Quests, puzzles, and mysteries galore
  • Dozens of NPCs and hundreds of enemies
  • Nearly 100 unique locations to explore
  • Thousands of jokes, gags, and goofs
  • Liberal use of the Oxford comma
  • Lush hand-drawn black and white graphics
  • Crunchy turn-based combat (but only if you want it)
  • Over 60 hats
  • Disreputable saloons
  • Several gulches
  • A drunken horse


Awards & Recognition

Selected Articles
  • "West of Loathing's goofy stick figures hide a genuinely deep and hilarious game; [The] humor is so warm and clever that it never gets old."
    - Noah Caldwell-Gervais Polygon 9/10

  • "I found it damn near impossible to play this game without a stupid grin glued to my face at all times."
    - Kevin Mersereau Destructoid 9/10

  • "West of Loathing is genuinely funny and absolutely brilliant."
    - Kim Snaith GameSpew 90/100

  • "West of Loathing is a wonderfully written RPG adventure, both fun and funny from its opening credits to whenever it is you decide you've probably read every last word in the game and realize, regretfully, that you've finished."
    - Christopher Livingston PC Gamer 88/100

  • "West of Loathing is a surreal role-playing game with an unapologetically silly sense of humor that would make Mel Brooks proud."
    - Stephanie Chan GamesBeat 88/100

  • "Diving into West of Loathing reveals fun gameplay and a cleverly written, and often hilarious, tale of the Wild West."
    - Kyle Orr Pixel Related 8.5/10

  • "This stick-figure Western is one of the funniest games in ages."
    - William Hughes The Onion A.V. Club

  • "The game's real charm comes from it's ability to be so incredibly weird in all of the right ways."
    - Liz Finnegan The Escapist

  • "It's clear that there is enough complexity there to please hardcore RPG fans and... players who were initially drawn in by the humour and unique aesthetic."
    - Jordan Forward PCGamesN

  • "I'd never seen anything like it and reveled in its off-the-wall humour and general weirdness."
    - Joe Donnelly Rock Paper Shotgun



Videos

West of Loathing on Nintendo Switch Announcement Trailer [Downloadable version here (30 MB)]



West of Loathing Launch Trailer [Downloadable version here (130 MB)]





West of Loathing Preview Trailer [Downloadable version here (80 MB)]





West of Loathing Teaser Trailer [Downloadable version here (100 MB)]





Images

[Download all images as a ZIP file here (7 MB)]


Logos & Art Resources

[Download all logos and art resources as a ZIP file here (1 MB) -- includes more than shown here]



   

   



About Asymmetric

Asymmetric Games LLC is a small indie studio of folks distributed around the US (though based primarily in San Francisco, CA). Asymmetric was founded by Zack Johnson in 2003. In addition to our Loathing games, we've released two others: Word Realms (an RPG where combat is based on making words from letter tiles), and MasterSwords (another RPG where combat is based on letter tiles, except this one is geared towards middle-school kids).


West of Loathing Credits

Zack Johnson
Design, Art, and Writing

Victor Thompson
Engine Programming

Riff Conner
Writing and Design

Wes Cleveland
Animation

Ryan Ike
Music and Sound

Chris Moyer
Tools Programming

Kevin Simmons
Production, Business, QA, and Design
Contact

Press Inquiries
press@westofloathing.com

Twitter
twitter.com/asym

Facebook
facebook.com/KingdomofLoathing

Web
westofloathing.com