Walk, aim, shoot: the movement tests

Before thinking about enemies, I needed to enjoy just walking around with the character. It sounds like little, but it's what you do most in the whole game: walk, look around, aim and hope the shot lands where you wanted. So I built a shooting range just for that.

The range

A room with six wood and steel targets, from 5 to 30 meters, with the distance marked on the floor. Each target shows the damage of the last shot and the total. At the back there's a dark wall and a light one, so I can see the reticle against both. And there's a bench I open with the game running to tweak a weapon's stats without stopping shooting. Infinite ammo, of course.

Three cameras and no soles of feet

The camera sits on the shoulder, a meter and a half back. It used to be farther, until I played and complained it was way too far from the character. When aiming it moves in close to the hand, and on the sniper scope it goes to the eye, with a black blink to hide the cut. The rule I gave myself was simple: I don't need to see the top of his head or the soles of his feet. So the camera has limits up and down. Standing still, it orbits the character. Walking or aiming, he turns to where the camera looks.

The weight of every shot

You only shoot with the weapon raised. The reticle is honest: the ring shows where the shot can land, it opens when you walk, opens with every shot and closes as the weapon settles. I insisted on strong colors for it, because a dull reticle disappears into the scenery. Each weapon has six stats (damage, recoil, stability, fire rate, reload and magazine), and the recoil kicks the camera up and jolts the hand. An empty magazine reloads on its own if there's reserve ammo. Without it, just the click.

The missing centimeters

The first version had a problem I couldn't explain: the character seemed to float. Measuring it, that was exactly it. He walked 8 centimeters above the ground. Then came the sliding feet: the game's "walk" was almost the animation pack's "run", and the feet slid almost twice as much as they should. Now every animation plays at the speed it was made for. And there was the elbow rising above the shoulder when he crouched while aiming, the kind of thing you can't unsee.

What's still missing

Everything here is still placeholder: the numbers, the weapon sounds and even the character model. Still missing are vibration on the shot, the reload gesture, turning in place without sliding the feet and the melee attack. Animation is the part I find hardest, and I'll admit I'm having so much fun with the rest that it's still waiting its turn.