Okay, so I've been playing the game 8Bit Killer (it was made in 2008) for a little bit. What I find amazing is that the shooting is fun and challenging, despite the fact that the AI is incredibly basic. I mean, they're so basic that I managed to get someone of them to be stuck behind doors. Now this isn't me hating on the AI. Instead, I find myself being incredibly impressed with games that can get away with having simplistic AI. If anything, I feel like the game 8Bit Killer is telling me that I'm overthinking the AI for the enemies in my game. The game's AI managed to be even simpler than the old school shooter that inspired it, while also managed to be a good tribute to such games. Just like Wolfenstein 3d, it has this mechanic where all the guns drain from the same pool of ammo. Now in Wolfenstein 3d, that mechanic made more sense as SMGs and pistols do share the same ammo( while pistols and shotguns don't). However, what I like about the mechanic is that it proves that resource management in a shooter doesn't have to be complicated( though my game I'm working on will not have this mechanic)The game is for free and you can find it here for reference:
https://locomalito.com/8bit_killer.php
Another free singleplayer FPS that does interesting things with resource manage, where minimalism is concerned, is Spaghetti Armageddon. In the game, the player seems to only have one pistol and infinite ammo. However, the pistol requires reloading. They're moments in the game where enemies got to shot my character, because I went into the gun fight with not enough ammo in the pistol and had to reload. It's a reminder that the reloading mechanic does add challenge and depth to a shooter. Even though I want to make games inspired by older shooters, I always feel that fans of old school shooters could show the reloading mechanic some more love. Once I'm finish working on the shooter I'm trying to make now, perhaps I'll go back to making more stripped back shooting experiences and take influences from both of the games I've talked about here. Oh and here is Spaghetti Armageddon for reference:
https://alienbug.itch.io/spaghetti-armageddon
Still, I must admit these games are incredibly tough. As short as they are, I haven't beaten them yet.
