Level Up.pdf

State of the Art Bang Bang 263
• How quickly can the player reload their gun?
• Does the player need to reload with a button press or does it occur
automatically? You can create some great risk/reward gameplay around
reloading a gun, as the player is vulnerable during loading (such as in
Gears of War, where a properly executed manual reload is faster, but a
botched one is even slower and leaves the player defenseless for
longer).
• Is there a limit to the ammo? Does the player even need to reload the
gun at all?
• What is the gun ’ s rate of fire? A faster firing gun is going to use ammo
quicker than a single shot weapon. Can the weapon be fired one shot at
a time or in bursts?
• Does the firing bloom obscure the player ’ s view?
• Can a shot take out more than one target at a time?
Aiming is how the player sights a target. Aiming is a huge issue in games.
It can make or break a shooter. Early shooters relied on the player ’ s reflexes
and skill in positioning the cursor over the target and pulling the trigger at
the right time. Until Halo: Combat Evolved (Microsoft, 2001), most successful
fi rst- person shooters were played on PCs — partially because of the ease of
aiming with a mouse. To help players manage the tricky task of aiming with
the Xbox ’ s analog sticks, the game used aim assist.
No matter what type of aiming method you use (aim assist, auto - aim, free
aiming, and so on), you need to design and implement targeting mechanics
for the tastes of your target audience.
• How does the player aim? Is there a scope? How much of the player ’ s
view does the scope obstruct?
• How does depth of field affect aiming? An effective visual trick is to have
far- away objects that are blurry suddenly become clear when viewed
through a long - range sight.
• Is aiming manual? Does the gun have drift? Can the player steady their
shot? From how far away can a player make a shot?
• Is aiming automatic? Is there a quick- fire mode? Is there an auto - aiming/
lock on system?
• When you fire the gun, does it kick, throwing off the player ’ s aim? Does
it rise like a Thompson submachine gun?
• Are there systems to improve the player ’ s aiming such as laser pointers,
bullet time or heat- seeking ammo?
• Can the player move while aiming? Are there limitations to where the
player can aim, like diagonally or overhead?