Every job has its tools, and weapons are a “shooter’s” tools. Let’s find out the way weapons evolved, and how the weapon concept stretched though time, to cover with exotic devices like whirling blades or gadgets to shift time.

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You sure you know how it works?

One domain where a lot of effort have been put to evolve the 3D shooters genre is the arsenal at player’s disposition.

The evolution of weapons in shooters is an interesting phenomenon, for it developed, and still does, along two separate directions: on one side we have the increasing overall number of weapons that the game offers, on the other side we have the reduction in the number of weapons in the character’s inventory.

10 years ago the overall number of weapons implemented in a shooter was equal to the number of weapons carried by the character. But as long as the number of weapons grew, the fact that the character had all of them in his inventory was less and less plausible.

At some point, from Halo on (again, and there’s still someone who doesn’t think it is a great game…), the number of weapons that the character could carry started decreasing, so that it’s uncommon, in today’s shooters, that the character has more than 2\3 at a time. Nothing to do with the 8 to 12 pieces standard of the 90’s!

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The next chart shows the separate trends for these 2 features: while the overall number of weapons available in games has always been growing (dark curve), the number of weapons in the character’s inventory decreased, stabilizing itself across a low value (average 3 pieces, bright curve).

One of the games that aimed most at this aspect is Unreal. Not only in Unreal there are a lot of different weapons, but almost every weapon has a secondary fire mode, too. The alternative fire mode reveals the second nature of a weapon, thus increasing the variety of the arsenal at player’s disposition.

Let’s take the so called snot-gun as example. This weapon can shoot single green blob-like bullets that blow if they touch an enemy, OR they adhere to a surface and blow after a while, AND as a secondary fire mode the gun can shoot a single bullet, the size depending on how much time the player holds the fire button before releasing it, that blows when it touches something, releasing several smaller blobs that explode too, like a cluster bomb.

Another example is the Laptop Gun in Perfect Dark, a sort of assault rifle that the player can deploy on a wall, making it an automatic defense turret.

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The following image represents the increase of the gameplay extension field on the ARSENAL axis between Doom (dark polygon) and Unreal (bright polygon). As you can see, the improved versatility of the arsenal at player’s disposition in Unreal promotes an improvement on the KILLING OPTIONS axis, too.

Another feature that is worth to mention, since it is almost an ever-present, is the relation between the character’s movements and the goodness of his aim. In other words, if the character stands still the aim is good, and even better if he crouches, but it gets worse if he shoots while running or jumping. This feature adds some plausibility to the game actions, and it rewards cold-blooded players that take their time to aim, maybe from a vantage point they gained, compared to the rascals all running and bunny hopping.

I have several pleasant memories of players from all over the world kicking my ass on Battlefield 1942, until I learned how to shoot effectively.

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The interventions on weapons move on other directions, too. Some games allow the player to upgrade weapons. Upgrades can be found throughout the levels, or bought into shops at specific locations, and they usually grant more precision, recoil reduction, magazines with more bullets, more firepower, and so on.

For example, in Resident Evil 4 the main character Leon occasionally runs into a shady character that sells (at high prices!) weapons, equipment and upgrades.

IMAGE: This shady character sells weapons and upgrades to Leon in RE 4.

Another possibility that some games offer is to equip the same weapon with different ammo types, that goes along with the presence of enemies that are differently vulnerable to specific kind of bullets. This way the player not only has to choose the weapon to approach a shootout, but he chooses also the specific ammo type to employ.

System Shock 2 adopts this solution: the player has at his disposition bullets that are more effective against synthetics, and bullets that are more effective against organics.

In my opinion this features doesn’t have always a positive effect on the gameplay. Switching ammunition can easily become a boring procedure, and it may happen that a feature adopted to expand the possibilities for the player, actually makes him feel even more constrained (did anybody say Mass Effect?).

IMAGE: The interface to switch weapons ammunition in System Shock 2.

The last group of features in the ARSENAL domain that I will talk about includes some very original devices that offer alternative offensive ways to common weapons.

I refer to the glaive in Dark Sector, or to the time-slowing device in Timeshift, or to the demon arm in The Darkness. These features are distinctive elements of games that implement them and critical aspects around which entire gameplay sections are built.

IMAGE: The effects of the Dark Sector glaive on the enemies

Honorable mention

When you discuss 3D shooters weapons, you cannot omit the gravity gun from Half Life 2. Considered by many the best weapon ever (in games!), the gravity gun (and the powerful physics engine implemented in Half Life 2) made possible things that the players could just imagine before.

For this reason, many thanks to the Valve guys, and let’s go on!

IMAGE: Throwing explosive barrels against defensive turrets? In Half Life 2, you can.

CHAPTER 4 ENVIRONMENT

Usually a shooter environment is pretty much hostile, and overcrowded with enemies with an intention to kill the main character. Anyway, at some point game designers started to feel the need to give a more subtle and character-friendly role to the environment. Let’s see how this goal has been achieved.

Stay connected!

Disclaimer: all pictures belong to their rightful owners.

Claudio Scolastici is a skater-psycologist who's completely into videogames. He is a member of Noname Creative Team at Palzoun.

This week we share with you two new amazing characters: the fast gunman Lucky Duke and the skilled sniper Rose Doolan.

Il giorno 22 Gennaio 2010 presso l’Aula Polifunzionale di Palazzo Chigi alle ore 15:00, Palzoun Entertainment Srl parteciperà alla prensentazione del primo rapporto sull’Industria Italiana dei Videogiochi.
L’evento avrà come scopo quello di presentare alle istituzioni  l’industria Videoludica Italiana, e vedrà fra i relatori d’eccezione il Ministro della gioventù, l’On. Giorgia Meloni.

Palzoun, l’azienda italiana produttrice di videogames basata su  un business model di tipo cinematografico,  presenzierà in veste di ospite alla conferenza.

Attualmente Palzoun sta per lanciare sul mercato, in partnership con l’azienda campana SpinVector, due titoli multipiattaforma: BANG!, board-game edito da DaVinci Games, famoso in tutto il mondo per la sua inconfondibile ambientazione Spaghetti Western, di cui ha acquisito la licenza, e un gioco di corse futuristico per Iphone dal design unico e riconoscibile.

Per restare aggiornati consultate le news sul sito di Palzoun all’indirizzo: www.palzoun.com

First Report on the italian Videogames Industry

On 22 January 2010, Palzoun Entertainment Srl will take part in the presentation of the first report on the Italian Videogames Industry at Palazzo Chigi’s Aula Polifunzionale.

The aim of the event is to present the Italian videogames industry to the government institutions and will include a number of exceptional speakers, such as the Minster for Youth, the Hon. Giorgia Meloni.

Palzoun is an Italian videogames producer based on a cinematographic business model and has been invited to attend the conference as a guest.

Currently, Palzoun is about to launch two multiplatform games in partnership with the Campania-based company, SpinVector. The first is BANG!, a board-game by DaVinci Games famed throughout the world for its unique Spaghetti Western setting for which it holds a licence, while the second is a futuristic iPhone racing game with a highly striking, one-of-a-kind design.

To keep abreast of the latest news, please visit the Palzoun website: www.palzoun.com

Il party game western più venduto al mondo diventa un videogioco:
il pluripremiato classico all’italiana dall’inconfondibile design in anteprima a Lucca C&G 2009.

Lo spirito del grande Western all’italiana ha già da tempo conquistato oltre mezzo milione di giocatori in tutto il mondo: BANG! è uno dei giochi più amati e conosciuti anche al di fuori della nicchia raffinata dei board-gamers più accaniti.

Finalmente, BANG! sarà disponibile anche in forma di videogioco, mantenendo identità e design ma sfruttando la versione elettronica per aumentare ulteriormente giocabilità e divertimento, con regole ancora più semplici da imparare, ritmo di gioco incalzante ed estrema interazione multi-piattaforma.

Palzoun Entertainment, Producer del gioco e partner di daVinci Editrice, con la ferma convinzione che le capacità artistiche, creative e tecniche del nostro paese siano tra le migliori al mondo, ha affidato lo sviluppo a un’azienda tutta italiana: SpinVector, all’avanguardia per applicazioni innovative tra materiale e virtuale.

Palzoun Entartainment e daVinci Editrice scelgono Lucca Comics & Games 2009 per annunciare in anteprima lo sviluppo del prodotto.

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Palzoun & daVinci present BANG! The videogame
The best-selling western party game worldwide is now a video game: the multi-award winning classic Italian-style game with its unmistakable design is now available for viewing at C&G Lucca 2009.

The spirit of the Italian-style western has a well-established fan base of over half a million players worldwide: Bang! Is one of the most well-known and loved games even outside of the refined niche of avid board-game players.

Bang! Has finally become available in the form of a video game. The game’s identity and design will remain unchanged but the electronic version will facilitate play and make playing funner with simpler and easier to learn rules, and a fast pace and extreme multi-platform interaction.

Firm in the belief that our country’s artistic, creative and technical skills are among the best in the world, Palzoun Entertainment, Producer of the game and partner of daVinci Editrice have entrusted the game’s development to an all-Italian company: SpinVector, ahead of its time in terms of the innovative employment of material and virtual technologies.

Palzoun Entertainment and daVinci Editrice have chosen Lucca Comics & Games 2009 to publicly announce the development of the product before its official release.

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