Project Bang
Project Bang, is an homage to light gun arcade games of the 90s, heavily influenced by classics like House of the Dead, Lethal Enforcers, and Area 51. This 2-button rail shooter puts the player in the shoes of a 1970s FBI Special Agent. Bang is being developed entirely solo as a warmup to refresh my skills as a developer and game designer.
Time
July 2025 (Ongoing WIP)
Role
Designer & Developer
Team
Solo
Tools
Unity 6, Figma, Blender, Visual Studio
The Idea: I wanted to make something that would let me very quickly get right into prototyping gameplay and user interfaces. I also wanted to scope-check myself as this would be my first game dev project in a long time. It had to be something that could be short and sweet, but also leave a lot of room for polish. I realized a rail-shooter would be perfect for this.
Remembering the games I played at sports arenas and arcade restaurants as a kid, I thought about how much they were able to do with so little and I figured that doing something similar would be a great way to get back into the type of thinking that goes into game design. I was both surprised and excited by how quickly the ideas and programmatic solutions started to flow. I wrote these ideas down in my notes under the title Project Bang.
Out of all of my influences, House of the Dead is my favorite.
The Process: To keep myself on track, I set up a Trello for my tasks and goals. Since this is a solo project, rather than a sprint-cycle sort of format, I have broken up the project into phases which I fill out when it comes time. This means I can change my plans as I go if I find a better path while I'm iterating. It also provides me with little checkpoints which keep me interested and allow me to check if things are shaping up the way I want them to.
Generally speaking, with a game like this, I like to start with very basic models and placeholder UI while I nail down the UX and gameplay. This way I can test the essentials of the game early and really get a feel for the lay of the land before I start implementing anything that will be hard to pivot from. My time is not infinite, and I need to be smart about my creative process.
Phase 1: The Shooting Gallery. I got started with Project Bang with a bang. That is to say, shooting was the first thing on the agenda. I had plans for all interactions in Project Bang to be done through the player's shooting. That means shooting would have to feel good to do. I needed to get a good idea of how clicking on enemies until they're dead would play before I did anything else.
Aiming with a crosshair based on a hitscan raycast from the camera.
Ammo counting with reloading and audio feedback for shots fired.
Ragdoll enemies that physically react based on where precisely they were hit.
I randomized the audio pitch of gunshots and reload sounds to make shooting feel less one-note and more authentic.
Phase 2: Progression, Movement, & Scene Transitioning. Now it's time to make the rail shooter feel like one. A key part of the genre is the fixed path player between scenes. Traditionally, the player gets moved from environment to environment, shooting enemies as they pop up based on context of the scene. When all of the scenes are cleared, the level is over. I would have to implement my own version of this.
Moving between scenes with rotation and smooth Lerped movement.
Enemies enter scenes based on a timer that begins when the player enters an area.
Main menu interaction to set up the beginnings of the user experience.
I needed to think a bit harder for this phase. I created a small flowchart of how the enemies would appear, die, and tally up to move the player forward.
Phase 3: Death & Enemies. The first introduction of actual gameplay. The goons that have been little more than target dummies up until this point would now be armed with placeholder weapons and effects to visually show their intent and ability to fire. By the end of Phase 3, they were able to shoot and kill the player in a simple test level environment created to emulate gameplay like a thin vertical slice.
Enemies must aim before firing, based on a range of float times I set for them.
Player takes damage whenever an enemy successfully aims and fires.
Basic Game Over and reset has been implmeneted and can be expanded later.
Guns are physics objects that fall from the enemies' grip when they are dispatched, because it's fun.
Phase 4: UI/UX First Pass. The User Interface follows the player anywhere they go throughout the experience. UI acts as a bridge between the player and the game world, facilitating clear interaction between the two. UI/UX is the first aspect of design that greets the player upon booting up a game, and often the last thing that waves them goodbye when they leave. It's good to start UI/UX early.
Meta UI Ammo is represented by the rounds remaining in six discrete revolver chambers.
Player Health is represented by placeholder crosses- each representing one hitpoint.
Pause and Quit functionality has been implmeneted allowing for better QoL.
These are all first-pass additions, but help me (and soon testers) get a better idea of how the game looks and feels before committing too much in any one direction.
Phase 5: The First Playtest. At this stage, Project Bang has gameplay and enough user interface to begin testing the core gameplay loop. For this phase, I will refine certain aspects of gameplay and make minor adjustments to the level design. Then I will issue copies of the game client to a small, curated test group in order to gain feedback on how I am doing so far. This effort could save me in the long run.