Cowboy Shooter

Context

A cover shooter cut into stages. Each stage is its own gunfight, and between stages the hero runs to the next piece of cover on his own. The player only aims and shoots.

Aiming is the whole game, so it runs on two cameras and one body

Aiming

With only aiming and shooting left to the player, the aim is the game, so it had to feel exact.

The perspective is tied to the weapon: the pistol fires over the shoulder in third person, the rifle fires down the sights in first. Switching between them means two camera treatments and two sets of animation that have to agree.

Getting the animation transitions and the inverse kinematics to line up in both perspectives was the long part — the hands have to hold the weapon correctly whichever camera the player is behind.

The enemies take cover, trade fire and relocate.

Worth calling out

I built this one end to end — gameplay, menus, progression, shop, skins, tutorial, ads and store builds. These are the parts worth naming.

The shooting

• Aim feel and the weapon-driven switch between third and first person.
• Animation transitions and inverse kinematics that hold up in both perspectives.

The level

• Enemy behaviour: taking cover, firing and relocating.
• Stage-to-stage traversal, with the hero moving between cover automatically.
• A movement system the game designer could tune.

More from the game

Project facts

Year

2024

Role

Unity Developer

Team

Three-person pod — game designer, artist, me

Scope

Solo developer, concept to release

Studio

Vira Games

Engine

Unity, C#

Platform

Android · Google Play and Amazon Appstore

Target device

Amazon Fire 7 · 1 GB RAM

Weapons

Two — a pistol fired in third person, a rifle down the sights in first

Movement

Hero and enemies move on a NavMesh between designer-placed cover points; the player only aims and shoots

Enemies

Take cover, fire and relocate between cover points

Where to see it

Amazon Appstore ↗ · listed as Cowboy Shooter

Tools & techniques