Bounty Hunter

I am trying to make a game… again. But this one I intend to finish unlike my first attempt.

I am going to start talking about the game now anyway, so that I can track the progress of my game and get feedback on my ideas. I am going to be developing the game in Unity instead of GameMaker. This is because I felt constricted with 2D, which I believe led to me not finishing my last attempt.

The game is about a person who will eliminate targets in simulated environments. The player will be able to choose contracts from several individuals on a level and then complete the contract. Contract objectives will either be eliminating a target or retrieving an object. The goal of the game will be to earn the reward by completing the contract in any manner, which most likely be in a criminal manner – hence the working title of the game is Bounty Hunter.

The goal for making this game is to include features that I wanted from other video games. The features I want to have in this game are:

Guns are not the primary weapons. I want to create a game where the main weapon in a game is the player’s creativity, not the different ranges of guns available. I want to create a game where using a gun will (usually) cause significant disadvantage to the player. This will be because a gun going of is loud, which causes NPCs nearby to hear the gunshot who will then alert a guard. The guard will come over, see the dead body, and then call in for reinforcements. The reinforcements will be on high alert until they catch the player. Now the player has to deal with more guards with less ammo. Now instead of shooting, the player can make an enemy come over by causing some noise by throwing an object (a vase?). While the enemy is investigating the noise, the player can either sneak around them or knock them out and hide the body.

Any level object can be used to player’s advantage (or disadvantage). I want the player to use any level object to their advantage. See an alarm system? Turn it off. Alternatively, the player could link it up to a turret that shoots. Then when the alarm is triggered, it will tell the turret to shoot. This could cause a guard to investigate the gunshot, leaving the chance for the player to sneak past him.

Objectives can be completed numerous different ways. I want to give the player a level where they have been given a goal. It will then be up to the player on how they want to achieve this goal. There will be no designated level path the player must follow to complete the objective. They will have the freedom of choice on how to complete the objective.

A little bit of realism. I want a little bit of realism in the game. By this, I mean I don’t want the player to be able to carry 20 different objects in their pocket. The player will have a very limited set pocket space. The player will also only be able to hide certain guns that they could be carrying. This means they cannot hide a shotgun in their pants. I will also have one-hit/one-shot kills. This includes one-hit/one-shot kills for players and NPCs. I know some people will find this difficult so to offset this I will make sure the game auto-saves frequently. This means if the player dies, then the player will not have to repeat more than lose more 30 seconds of gameplay. I also want the AI to have some intelligence. By this, I mean if a guard sees a dead body, I don’t want them to search for two minutes and then start acting like everything is normal. If someone sees a dead body, it will be a big deal. A very big deal.

So far, I have managed to create player movement and shooting ability (I know what I said about guns but shooting is a lot easier to create than throwing objects while I am prototyping my idea). I also managed to create some NPC that walk around randomly on a basic level. In the level, the player is given a random target NPC to kill and then get back to the center to complete the game. If you are into trying games before they are in a playable state, then you can download the Windows build from itch.io to see everything I just mentioned in action.

In the coming weeks I will be starting to write more about the progress I make on the game. This includes my game design decisions and my adventures on coding in 3D. I also have another big announcement that I will be publicizing in several weeks.