Hello forumers! I made this post so we can share our points of view over guns, talk about what you all think a good gun game needs and because I wanna get some experience for my actual project.
From my experience this is what a Good Gun System needs: Easy readability and modifiability, Good Anti-Cheat, Raycast Detection, Assets like Animations, Sounds and Effects.
You may think there’s NOTHING to talk about, but no, that’s not all. I’m expecting detailed answers.
Viewports are especially something a good gun game needs, as well as any game that’s in first-person. Viewports are mostly for cosmetic reasons, and they can make the guns have a better perspective for the player holding them, such as aiming right where their camera is facing.
A great example is a Rocket Launcher, which in the viewport looks really big, big enough to cover a good chunk to the right of your screen, and both of your character’s hands are carrying it. This example weapon looks fierce and has a sort of tank-classed presence.
Another example is a Pistol, which in this viewport looks rather small, and your character is holding it with one hand, maybe doing some cool tricks with it as a type of inspect event, or reload event. This example weapon looks less threatening, and has a self-defense presence from it’s small size and lack of firepower.
I actually made a hitscan weapon that is a rocket launcher, but instead of shooting projectiles, it shoots a beam which explodes at the end of the beam shortly after. It doesn’t have any viewports or anything fancy since this is for anyone to insert into their games for themselves, but I can definitely tell you that Raycasting is critical for shooting games, otherwise cheaters can shoot at anyone from any area from any distance, all without looking at anybody.
I think inaccuracy in the guns is also necessary, as you don’t want someone sniping with a revolver from far away. Inaccuracy also makes weapons like the Shotgun possible, which is infamous for being a random bullet spread weapon in many games.
Critical hits on headshot is a good kind of feature to implement, as it rewards accuracy. This is usually hard to do with most guns, which is why the Sniper rifle would be a decent gun to include for such mechanics.
A endless roaming based gun game is fine, but also including other objectives like a capture point will make it more fun for players. Something I haven’t seen in games before is having no defined end in gameplay, but instead a few objectives you can complete which don’t end the game, but instead provide passive buffs like extra cash for kills.
There are “stereotypes” for guns that most are familiar with. You got the snipers, the SMGs, pistols, etc. There’s gotta be a balance between them. Some games, I really hate I got a sniper because I’m slow and have to wait 5 seconds to reload or something. Some games, I love when I get a sniper because I can quick-scope or try trick shots or something.
Anti-cheat is a must, that’s a main reason why I haven’t made my own gun game. Gun games are a nightmare sometimes, I sometimes just don’t play game because I don’t want to take a chance of dealing with hackers/exploiters. Whatever you want to call them.
Example, I used to play Arsenal almost every day. I got into the content, the community. I loved the game, still do enjoy every now and again. Although it might be weird to say, it burnt me out and mentally wasn’t good for me to play. I’m older now, but player burn-out is real. Especially considering the age of some people on Roblox.
Make sure not to burn-out your players. Keep em coming, but don’t shove 100+ hour grind sessions for a weird rock that does basically nothing. (Looking at Roblox Islands, lol.) Islands isn’t a gun-game, but it is a game that helped me understand some parts of game design better.
I’ll leave you with another seemingly random thing. Roblox has this series called “level-up” where they go into game design and other stuff, I think it’d be helpful:
(Might need to do some scrolling.)