This idea was part of the 2025 game jam ideas project.
Bird Hunt
A duck hunt style browser game (no scene panning) where you are using a telephoto zoom lens to try to take photos of birds.
Use many layers of cartoon trees and foliage to obscure the scenes.
A bird flies in at a certain layer, you can see the movement. Use your mouse to move the lens, and the scroll wheel to zoom in and out to find the right layer.
The bird flies in view, sits on a branch for a few seconds then either flies to a new branch or flies off screen.
Left mouse button takes the photo.
If you miss, your friend to the left that looks oddly like a dog has unhelpful quips or bad advice for you. While he snickers at you. He should be annoying and is the penalty for missing.
Design pillar
Make a game out of the frustrations of using a telephoto lens while trying to photograph small song birds.
Game loop
- Your mouse is off to the left.
- You see a flash of color come from outside the scene and stop somewhere in the scene. It's blurry.
- You move your mouse onto the screen and a circle appears, everything inside the circle is in focus and zoomed in, everything outside is blurry
- Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the layers
- Use your mouse button to take a photo.
- If you succeed then you have another photo for your book,
- If you fail, your dog looking friend mocks you
Other notes
- Camera settings should be advanced features, iso, shutter, fstop
- Weight of the lens
- Multiple birds in frame, need to make a judgment call on what one to photo
- Different levels for different types of birds
- SNES Mario style level select map
- Some birds don't stop, just flying through the scene.
- Maybe have an unlockable lens
Examples of advice from your friend
- "You know, birds tend to sit still when you're not panicking."
- "Have you tried… aiming?"
- "That one was definitely a leaf."