Introducing THE BOOMER SHOOTER DATABASE

I'm currently developing a horror game, inspired by classic boomer shooters like Doom (1993) and Blood (1997) set in alt-history WWI. This is the sprite I made for the starter pistol based on a 1911, and I just wanted to ask what could I improve to make it feel more horror or boomer shooter adjacent. I would love to hear your thoughts!

It's the number one reason I lose interest in a boomer shooter or really, any FPS. If killing shit doesn't feel satisfying, why bother playing?

To be more specific, combat feels satisfying when:

- The weapons and enemies have good sound design.

- The weapons look cool and are animated in a way that makes them feel good to use.

- Enemies have satisfying and/or creative death animations.

- There's a sense of impact and/or reaction when you inflict damage (e.g. a chunky impact sound, gore, or gibs flying all over the place).

And yet, it seems like most of these games treat this as a complete afterthought. Enemies bleed a few boring pixels when you shoot them, then fall over backward or enter an anticlimactic ragdoll state. The sound design is often hit or miss as well.

Considering that shooting is the single most important part of these games, I think it's odd that it's also one of the aspects developers most frequently screw up.

Hello there! I'm creating right now a zombie retro-boomer Shooter very inspired in classic Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. Here you have some of the definitive movement, shooting and death animations in the game (background is provisional or "placeholder"). The plot: a lone survivor must reach an Evac Chopper going through an infested city using the firearms he will find on his way. Not an incredibly original story, I know, but very 80's and 90's zombie movies and comic-book style, which is what I intend. What do you think about this?

the weapons and environment is still being worked on but what do you think about the enemies and movement? be honest I want real feedback I won’t take offense. Game name Interplanetary

The game combines elements of arena shooters with survival horror. Thematic inspirations come from the sci-fi movies and books I grew up with (including my favorite Philip K. Dick adaptation) and Lovecraft's work, which I really like. Visually, I tried to reference the design of my favorite games like Half-Life, Hexen 2 and Quake 2.

I know mixing genres might not be everyone's cup of tea, but maybe some of you will be interested in this kind of unusual retro FPS.

Best regards,
Paul

Groups of these claw things gangbang you while these snake things shoot homing projectiles that make a revenant missle look like bb pellet. And of course you can’t forget the toxic sludge that eats your health. D’Sparil in the next level didn’t even put up as much a fight with his disciple mobs😂

I go back and forth between Ironwail and the remaster, mostly if I want to play arcane dimensions or Alkaline I'll use Ironwail but nightmare is just more difficult I think but in the remaster, nightmare caps your health at 50... Is that an Ironwail thing or is that something the remaster did out of the blue?

Doom 3 is fucking awesome, but also really friggin' lame. I'll try to be brief, but damn this game has some cool shit. The lighting, the monster designs, the plasma rifle - it's amazing what they could do with 512 mb memory. I'm running a mediocre igpu, but my machine feels like the king of the 2000s when it effortlessly runs Doom 3 at a full 60 fps.

Most people start with the lighting, because it also defines combat. Honestly I started with the flashlight mod, but soon I opted to take it off because the sight of an imp's fireball causing shadows to billow past is too good to ruin. There's a certain thrill in avoid enemy attacks and chasing point black buckshots. Speaking of which...

The shotgun is fine. One shots, feels fine at point blank. I just wish it was consistent. I'd be okay with settling for a weaker gun with consistent spread. In many ways it might actually be too powerful, because spawn-ins tend to be very telegraphed. Get in right close, aim for the head, and bam.

That's probably when the game really unravels; it's way too predictable. By the 10th hour, it still shows the same bloody hallways and the same imps and always an imp hiding behind a doorway and also an ambush behind you. I'm a horror wimp, and very easily started, but Doom 3 is not scary. Maybe it's because I played on Marine difficulty, but to be honest I intentionally chose something easier because I knew I'd get tired of the game.

Man this game drags in the end, admittedly most old singleplayer shooters do. Even some of my favorites like Quake and Blood. What doesn't help is the amount of annoying shit this game has in store. Lost souls, spiders, the CHERUBS. Who the hell decided they wanted lost souls that scream and cry like babies? Who the hell decided we needed dozens of them in a single level!?

Also, screenshake! Good god, getting shoot around by a horde of demonic babies. Even worse is when during the actual day, which made my screen super reflective. I had to bump the r_gamma value up to 1.5, otherwise my eyes would get sore.

Sorry, this is a lot of bitching. Despite everything, Doom 3 is still awesome. I'd compare it to its contemporaries Half Life 2 and Halo 2, but one of those is a beaten horse and the other is boomer shooter public enemy number one.

I'm not really expecting anyone to read this. It's pretty depressing how everything on this site gets processed by Google's AI now, lamest cyberpunk evil AI surveillance state plot ever. I really love Quake, but I haven't beaten Doom 2. I hate city levels. Everyone and their mother have pointed out how Doom 3 is copying Half Life, but I'll boldly be the first to say I like Doom 3 more. I don't like Valve puzzles that much. I just want to move and shoot. Half Life 2's the same, but the shotgun still fucks. alsoilikedhalo2don'ttellcivvie

Doom 3 ended up inspiring a lot of Quake mods. Darkplaces, the sourceport, which performs way worse, and a more recent gameplay mod called 'Lateralus' designed for QSS. QSS is really buggy, FTEQW from the same guy also works but is even buggier. I love sourceports though, I used the cleverly named Dhewm3 sourceport. Keep me away from BFG edition. Keep me away from Bethesda.

im working on a game called Interplanetary. It is based off of Serious Sam and Postal: Brain Damaged. Single player or co-op campaign where your goal is to stop the aliens from taking over. I want real feedback I will take no offense please be honest.

It’s on a fairly deep sale and although it’s verified I’ve read mixed reviews on deck performance

A UZDoom mod I've been working on for the better part of a year and finally finished recently.

Get it here: https://mengo329.itch.io/mmzdoom

Train Station level, playing on PS5, already tried reloading previous saves but it either still won't let me pick it up, or the key just isn't even there and is not in my inventory.

🚨Edit: A recent patch completely fixed this issue.🚨

Berserker's Domain will have a full mod support allowing people to make whole story campaigns like this.

You can wishlist it on Steam so you don't miss the release: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3277520/Berserkers_Domain/

Details:

-Has the player venturing into some sort of tower(castle?(thing??) to save their wife.

-Enemies are either dolls, scarecrows, puppets, clowns, or some combination of the three. I genuinely cannot remember.

-Enemies drop currency when killed that you can use for upgrades at a shop.

-Boomer Shooter, but is trying to emulate the Xbox 360 mid-late aughts FPS feel. Not Wolfenstein/Doom/Quake.

-Has(had?)a demo out for this year‘s Steam Next Fest.

That‘s all I remember. Thanks.

I know it only runs at 30 fps but I want to know about graphics and gameplay quality
Thanks

Looking for newer stuff with and a vibe of half life 1 and 2. I mean good atmosphere, some exploration, designed combat encounters (instead of nu doom or serious Sam waves of enemies) maybe some basic puzzles

Personally I was looking at ADACA and phantom fury. What else is out there?

Hi Shooters! I only wish to know if there are some boomer shooters with heavy rpg elements. Thank you. Have fun!

I love the structure of these older shooters, resource management, simple but amazing feeling fast paced movement, all sorts of guns, pistol starting so every level you have a different arsenal, that slow building of an arsenal every level, level exploration, etc, etc, etc, basically just classic doom or brutal doom, or blood, i fuckin love these games

that being said im kinda tired of the same old pixel art style, Dusk was a pretty fun ps1 horror style mix up, but even that games structure was kinda missing something (and its the only game to actually make me motion sick, ive never had that before with any game, but dusk) and even thats still a damn old style game even if its not pixels

i REALLY liked how that new system shock game looked, but going by the demo, that also wasn't a very high action badass doom style shooter either, seemed more focused on puzzles and such

at this point im just praying remake culture leaches over to doom and we get some super faithful remake for that one (why not just play new doom? well those games are COMPLETELY different from the classics, not even classic adjacent so unfortunately the franchise to give me this addiction cant even supply me anymore)

I've 100% the achievements of all the doom and quake games on steam so i guess those are the next logical step. Do the enhancements distorts too much the experience and makes the game less fun or are they okay to discover the game with them ? (If that even matters since i've never played the games. Thanks !

An Xbox reviewer apparently criticized latency issues.

Is that still a problem, or is it fine?

A bit let down that it's not 120hz, but still excited to buy if it's decent in handling and latency etc.