Practical Game Design

Shooting and reloading

We have two mechanics here:

• Shooting is the action of firing a weapon
• Reloading is the mechanic by which every now and then the player has to reload the gun to keep shooting

Early shooter games didn't have any reloading involved, but modern shooter games might have quite complex reloading mechanics, each with their own unique gameplay implications.

Imagine for example a classic FPS such as Call of Duty (CoD). Every weapon has a clip of ammunition that, once unloaded, has to be reloaded. This exposes the player to incoming attacks, creating a need for strategy for when to reload and a sense of danger in doing so: a fantastic game mechanic! See it in action as follows:

In Call of Duty, the player can press the reload ...