Fundamentals of Shooter Game Design

Shooter Fundamentals

Regardless of whether your game will be 2D or 3D, realistic or pure fantasy, frenetic or tactical, you must first consider certain fundamental aspects of projecting force at a distance. In this section, we’ll look at these basic questions.

The Elements of Shooting

Shooter games are about an interaction between an avatar (which may not be visible) and one or more distant targets. To design a shooter game, therefore, you must first define the following characteristics:

• The nature of the interaction. This is the why moment in the design process. What is the player actually trying to achieve, and why? Most, but by no means all, shooter games implement some kind of combat in which the avatar is in danger. In target shooting, ...