Gun Jam is a rhythm-murder mashup from the developer of Q.U.B.E
Syncopated bloodshed
Even this early in development, Gun Jam looks ace. It's Thumper with guns. It's Doom Eternal played to the beat of its soundtrack. A metronome deathmatch. After a brief tease on Twitter lead to a collective response of "hell yeah!", Gun Jam has made the leap from concept to real, actual game - with devs Jaw Drop Games announcing their beat-blasting shooter earlier this week.
I covered (the game that would become) Gun Jam back in a Screenshot Saturday Sundays roundup two weeks back. How could I not? That weekend, I woke up to a twitter feed ablaze with heavy metal thumping and rhythmic blasting - the Quake meets Guitar Hero crossover nobody knew they wanted, but absolutely needed.
Sure, I could explain how this all works, but it's probably easier to let you see for yourself.
Those posts seem to have carried well enough that developers Jaw Drop Games - co-founded by Q.U.B.E creator Dan Da Rocha - reckon it's ready to push into full production, Steam listing and all. 'Course, Gun Jam is still in an early state. Screenshots still flaunt colour-tinted Unreal Engine placeholder characters charging haplessly towards the player.
What's there, though, has a promisingly strong look. Metal riffs that evoke Mick Gordon's hellish Doom soundtrack. Screenshots show a progression from old temples and snow-swept peaks through to clean dystopian cityscapes where music is forbidden. Key art suggests a future where Deadmaus takes on a new gig as one of Destiny 2's Guardians.
There's space still to define its own style, both in how it looks and how it sounds. But as I said back in ScreenSatSun, though, it's the potential of Gun Jam's rhythmic gunplay that I'm most excited by - how new weapons will kick against the soundscape, how foes could dodge and weave and react to their own tunes. There's so much promise for a proper brilliant wee shooter, here, and I'm pumped to see what happens next.
Rock Band controller support, unfortunately, has yet to be confirmed.