# webshooter: an idea for a simple multiplayer first-person arena shooter

in @/shooter i've already talked about what shooter game i'd like to see. i kept revisiting that fantasy and was wondering if there was some core part i could extract and implement. i think i've found the part i could reasonably implement sometime later. so in this post i sketch the idea for my own future reference.

here are the key features:

• the game runs in a browser so it's cross platform.
• it's multiplayer only so i don't need to implement bots.
• up to 16 players can play simultaneously.
• communication is done through peer to peer webrtc without any central server.
• the arena is circular or rectangular with lava around it, whichever is simpler to implement.
• the arena contains no obstacles so i don't have geometry stuff to implement. devil daggers has a similar arena.
• the arena is slowly shrinking to ensure the game will definitely end within 5 minutes. this is similar to what happens in battle royale games but on a smaller scale.
• each player has 1 life. if someone gets shot or jumps into the lava, the game is over for them.
• the only gamemode is last man standing.
• there's only one projectile shooting gun. projectile mechanics mean i don't need to deal with the problems of accurate hitscan detection in a network game.
• each player is represented by a sphere so that the projectile-player collisions are easy to detect.
• spheres are also easy to render with a single quad + fancy fragment shader ... i think ... i never actually did the math.
• if i feel motivated enough, i might implement a player with 3 spheres. they will look like snowmen. shooting each sphere will mean different effect. hitting the bottom sphere disables running, middle sphere disables jumping, upper sphere kills the player.
• the guns have 5 charges and they recharge over time like in shootmania.
• the game starts with empty charges so that there's no shooting spree right after a match starts.
• the players can also jump to avoid incoming projectiles but that would make their trajectory more predictable for a moment.
• in the pre-game options allow the players set their color so if people want team matches then they can do so. but there would be no team-specific logic, people just need to avoid shooting their teammates.
• there would be no match-making system. the players are expected to find other players offline and then share a room link.

the key experience i want to recreate through this is the suspenseful dance in shootmania. suppose you are in a small arena with another player both with empty charges. now both of you have to wait until the guns charge. but when are you going to shoot?

do you wait until your first charge is ready and then shoot away? you really have to aim well because you won't have another chance for a while again. or do you keep waiting until your charges are full and then you spray-shoot the other for a high hit probability? but then you are exposed to the other player who might start shooting sooner and hit you.

it sounds very suspenseful! and that's the core gameplay i want to recreate with this small game.

each of the above features should be simple to implement on its own. i just need to find a free month or two to learn all this modern webgl stuff and work through the above feature list.

published on 2023-02-01

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