Game Concept
Thesis: {Just Shoot} is an experimental first-person shooter with no dialogue, no narrative, and no clear course for the player character’s actions … outside of shooting. Using the general aesthetic of a science fiction action experience on variable alien planets teeming with life’s wildernesses and strange civilizational activities, advanced architecture, and increasingly dangerous threats, the game’s answer to all of the unasked questions presented within the world is always the same: shoot, shoot, shoot.
Setting: Alien planets full of life ranging from animalistic and predatory, to highly advanced and strategic | Regions ~ mountains, forests, aquatic, ice, space, vessels among the stars. | Within every environment there are a variety of objects, plants, animals, and the doings of sentient beings to interact with – around every corner are things to shoot. Every environment is procedurally generated and so populated with enemies to battle with, of varying sizes and difficulty levels. | {Just Shoot} tries to capture its xeno-environments with an aura of heavy atmosphere in the form of sound effect, music, and the strange languages and weapon sounds of the inhabitants of each of these strange planets being unique.
Character & Story: The player – and up to 3 others – play as a nameless, voiceless, {and presumably emotionless} space soldiers dropped into alien environments. They wield only their space suit to protect them from extraterrestrial hazards, and their trusty AutoGun to eliminate any and all extraterrestrial threats they come across. There is no commander voicing orders into your ear, there is only a simplistic heads up display across the visor of your space suit telling you the cardinal directions, the status of your shield’s reserves, and the areas of the local map that you have traversed. In these worlds, your mission is yours to construct. However, it is true that you only have one way of interacting with the world, and your AutoGun is the tool of primacy. Every planet you will find yourself on features threats that will try to eat you, eviscerate you, avoid you, or shoot back. The methods you use in eliminating or escaping these adversaries are entirely up to you, as are your modes of exploration (on foot, behind the wheel of wacky vehicles, via instantaneous teleportation. etc). The core attribute of the worlds you arrive at is that there is action to be had, instantly and continuously.
Gameplay:
No narrative, no dialogue, pure discovery, pure mayhem – In each instance of the game, the player is dropped into a random alien environment lush with a topography of threats. There is no map marker and no direction upon your HUD outside of the compass – the player must carry themselves into combat consistently of their own volition.
Free-flowing movement – Every environment area features enemies to battle against. The fights occur continuously, and can bleed into each other as players traverse environments. Similar to the level design within games like Halo or Destiny, the movement between combat encounters is free-flowing and highly variable, unique to each instance of gameplay.
Encounters everywhere, without end – The only mouth you can speak with is with your gun and its bullets are the only language you know. Around every corner are monsters or enemy shooters to engage with. On some planets, enemies may be engaging one another in skirmishes already, or full blown wars. Fighting unto breach after breach, the player shoots their enemies down and moves on to the next battle, ad infinitum, until the whole party falls. Once the player dies, they awaken once more into a new suit of armor, on a different planet, as a different(?) person, and begins again. The shooting never ends (until the player turns off their system).
No items, no ammo, no menus – From the jump of the game’s intro, the AutoGun can morph into any kind of killing device that the player wills it to become. You may choose an automatic machine gun style, a shotgun, a rocket launcher, a sniper rifle – the AutoGun is designed to fulfill the need of any kind of soldier. Each style of weapon has infinite ammo amongst variable clips of ammunition. The game cannot be paused and there are no inventory screens to peruse.
Dangerous & otherworldly enemies – From across the multiverse. The player will be traveling across time, space and dimensions to continually shoot down his enemies. Intelligent insectoid creatures may be hunting alpha predators within a jungle for the thrill of it; tactical gorilla spies try to infiltrate a villa of a tribe of lavishly dressed spiritually minded, cat-people; alligator swordsman wage a last stand against the savage birdpeople. The players interrupt these engagements by blasting into them with bullets of their own, with or without regard for how they might’ve played out before they did so. The further one fights on a given planet, the more difficult and intelligent the enemies they face will become… until eventually, the player will begin to fight other players fighting in other games, in a style of a seamless stealth multiplayer mode … {Only the most advanced and skilled players will get to face off against similarly-styled players.}
Inspired by ~
Endgame: {Just Shoot} engenders an endless fight in the form of an inventive first-person shooter where nothing matters and everything is eventually shot down. The purpose of all the carnage is ultimately up to the player to dictate upon; do you fight and kill these alien enemies acting yourself as an external force of evolution, forcing your adversaries to prep themselves against their recurring spectre of death in the form of an AutoGun-wielding unreasoning and relentlessly murderous space soldier? Or do you fight, and shoot all this otherworldly meat down simply because it is fun? {Just Shoot} provides a canvas of blood to hash out these kinds of questions within the player character’s soul. ~
Thresholds of Transformation 