Practical Game Design

Shooter

A shooter is an enemy that keeps his distance from the player and targets her with some sort of ranged weapon. Shooters can shoot regardless of the player's presence (like in some old platform games) or can react to the player's presence. A shooter's behavior can be a subsequent state of a Guard or Patroller. A shooter might be positioned in a particular position, maybe behind a cover - in that case, we talk about a sniper. Snipers are interesting because they force the player to think. Usually shooting them back is very difficult and dangerous, so the player would need to move from his favorite spot and find a way to get around the sniper.