This is my first serious attempt at making a playable game. SNIPES (1982) was one of the first games I remember playing in grade school, 3rd or 4th grade. It ran in DOS on the school lab computers. I remember it having a great flow where you had to slowly work your way forward against an ever multiplying tide of enemies that spawned from nests. Destroy all nests to win.

It was super simple, all ASCII looking characters and enemies. My version, also simple, had a top down camera but at a 45 degree angle to take advantage of the 3D shadows and reflections.

These are the three enemy types. The simple snipe, a bomber and a turret. The original game only had the simplest enemy type but I wanted to add a bit more variety and also just experiment learn a broader range of coding.

I started by modeling some simple characters. This is the player character, a conical shape holding a gun with an implied backpack (so he could carry plenty of ammo).

I tried to preserve the maze like elements of the original to an extent. Bouncing shots off the walls to kill enemies was crucial for success. I also added a kind of bullet time which made became pretty essential for lining up shots. The slo mo may have been a bit of a crutch but I've been a sucker for it ever since the original Max Payne in 2001.

I still find that there is some fun to be had here, bouncing bullets around, using slow-mo to aim and avoid enemy fire. I'd like to think I'll come back to this someday with some fresh idea and an aesthetic that's a bit more fleshed out.

I made the enemy spawners a simple red sphere, keeping to the minimalist theme. I've spent most of my career studying anatomy/design/composition and I didn't want to get bogged down in all that. I was really focused on getting the basics of a playable game.

Bullets were able to ricochet and destroy some objects. Mouse moved camera and player movement and rotation is tied to WASD which is a bit unconventional but it slowed things down a bit and made for a more thoughtful experience. Looking back, this is one element that I'd like to experiment with more. The difficulty needs a serious balance pass and controls would be a good place to start.

The original with a zoomed out view not actually seen in the game.

The player character was ultimately fairly simple. There were very few mechanics and no upgrades for the character. When I first started blueprinting in unreal it was completely overwhelming but piece by piece it all started to make logical sense.

This is the second hive/area to battle through. I though the round surfaces would make bouncing rounds off the walls more interesting and chaotic. Unfortunately, there are so many gaps for enemies to come out through, and the camera is so zoomed in, that bouncing rounds in a productive way never really materialized the way I imaged it. Again, if I came back to this it would be a lot of fun to try and solve some of these problems.