THIS GAME IS STILL IN DEVELOPMENT, if you would like to see the most recent updates you can find them here:

Game Overview

SHOOT TO KILL is a single player retro FPS inspired by the violence and pace of shooters of the past. Harkening back to the violence of F.E.A.R. and visceral gore systems of the Soldier of Fortune games, all taking place in a brutalist neo-futuristic setting.

Players eviscerate enemies in beautiful slow motion, using dismemberment to their advantage/to stay alive.

Take on hordes of soldiers and experiments created by an authoritarian military group in the dystopian future of 2140. A new World War is beginning to unfold. It is now up to you and your skills as a combat expert to eradicate the authoritarian ANKERKORP, and save everyone you love

Shoot to Kill is all about the adrenaline. Using retro styled blood pumping weapons, the player uses skill, and slo-mo to rip apart enemies, showcasing gory visual effects and systems, while also providing an addictive combat playground for players.

in place of traditional health packs and pickups, the player must use their arsenal to rip enemies limb from limb, providing them with small health drops upon each dismemberment or gibbing of an enemy.

GUNS

The player utilizes eight simple weapons:

• Desert Eagle - A deadly pistol that is basically a hand cannon, pumping rounds into flesh a decent rate of fire.

• Combat Rifle - Automatic and able to tear enemies apart with ease.

• Pump Shotty - A pump action boomstick that launches multiple pellets into enemies, able to dismember multiple areas per shot.

• Double Barrel Boomstick - An fps staple, can rip bodies clean in half

• Gatling Gun - A powerful automatic weapon, but be careful it needs to wind up

• Electro Beam - A shockingly devastating weapon that shoots in a thin line, able to remove limbs with precision

• Plasma Launcher - An AOE weapon with a lot of kick, but there is a charge delay due to the power needed to use it

• Railgun Repeater - a long range accurate semi auto rifle that can take off limbs easily at a high ammo cost

Each of these weapons offer a different feel, and have their own statistics, animations, particles, and effects. This variety allows players to explore combat scenarios in different ways when playing the game, using the dismemberment system to their advantage to meticulously dismember and maim their enemies.

Grenades

The player also had grenades they were able to use in combat. Players could then cook grenades using the diegetic timer on the grenade itself. Players could then shoot grenades in mid air or on the ground in order to set them off early in a violent spectacle.

DISMEMBERMENT

VISUALS

I wanted the gore in the game to be over the top and just like old action movies with big juicy blood squibs. This meant that I had to develop a gore system for the game, allowing players to dynamically take off limbs of the enemies. I do this using a few different methods.

• Ragdoll using a mesh that was cut at points of amputation.

• When a limb is destroyed, a stump is instantiated, and so is a wound decal around the stump.

• Blood pools form when a dead enemy is laying on the ground, distance from the ground is checked using raycasts.

• Force from each bullet is applied to the gory ragdoll when hit, different guns have different forces.

• Blood decals are spawned from the exit wound of a bullet.

• Skull fragments and particle instantiated on headshots

• gore gibs and particles spawned when limb is destroyed

• the enemy can explode into a shower of blood and gibs if enough damage is applied, just like old retro fps’

DISMEMBERING A BODY

HEADSHOT

SYSTEMS

Dismemberment is not only for show in Shoot to Kill, because of the lack of traditional health pickups in the game, the player must dismember to stay alive, this means choosing limbs to remove strategically, as once an enemy is dead it can no longer be used to regain health for the player.

When a limb/weakpoint is destroyed small health pickups drop out which can be sucked up into the player to regain health.

This then goes into how enemies are designed, with enemies having armor to protect certain weak/dismemberable points, or other enemies being invulnerable except for specific weak points on their body.

I even have an effect where the limb/weakpoint that is hit will glow red to show the player what exactly they hit/did damage to

TRAPS

The player can utilize traps like fans, spikes, red barrels, and acid to kill enemies.

For example: the player can shoot glass from underneath an enemy to plunge them unto a moving fan blade

Enemy Design

The enemies of the game needed to be able to reflect the dismemberment and combat systems in order to properly synergize with them. This was achieved through dismemberment based behaviors, and the use of weak points that vary from enemy to enemy.

For example: remove an enemies leg, and they will begin to crawl on the ground

Enemy Types

• Soldier - The basic grunt enemy, points of amputation on all limbs, head, and chest. Some may wear protective helmets.

• Armored Soldier - A highly armored version of the basic soldier, shoot off his armor to reveal his vulnerable flesh underneath.

• Heavy Gunner - An enemy with impenetrable armor, except for a flammable explosive tank on its back.

• HoverHund - a flying enemy that can be taken down by removing its propeller or guns.

• Puss Spider - a small low to the ground enemy with an exposed brain as a weak point, just dont shoot the pustules on its back, they will release homing projectiles on the player if they’re broken

• Bio-Mutant - A powerful melee unit that can only be killed by popping fleshy pustules on its body and back

Movement

The player can tap a direction (WASD) to dash towards said direction. This gives players an extra level of mobility that they can use to not only dodge enemy attacks, but also use for things like platforming and building speed/momentum in a level.