An idea that always captivated me, as early as when I started thinking about wanting to work with video games; is the Idea of a first-person shooter based around Nerf blasters. While this has been done in the past, these attempts were…bad. Like really bad. Bottom of the barrel shovelware bad. And it sucks because the concept would work so well, just imagine a Call of Duty styled game where you use nerf blasters and the settings could just be everyday locations, like someone’s backyard, an office building, just feeling like there is this small scale grounded areas, and just pure fun of playing with nerf blasters. What hurts the most is that people have been toying around with the idea for years. Speaking from experience as I am currently apart of various nerf groups that host nerf wars, people have been making “what if there was a nerf FPS” styled videos for nearly a decade at this point: https://youtu.be/DGlYMJRwevI?si=j_Sg2IVcHBp3Fg6Z 

First person POV content for IRL nerf wars (left) are already a popular niche on youtube, and as mentioned above, people have been creating content based around the idea of a nerf fps (right) for ages now

It sucks that this sort of thing hasn’t been attempted yet to its fullest potential, what baffles me the most is that there are already several nerf styled FPS games on Roblox, including one that was licensed by Hasbro, but they feel like they’re missing something and that’s what I wanted to do with this idea. Fill in the gaps made by these games and create a nerf FPS game I would play.  

Firstly, the game would be very grounded, I want it to be based in reality; I think this gives the idea some legs since most of the past entries mentioned go for a sci-fi feel, which is the opposite of what I want. There should be this DIY feel to each aspect, like off the top of my head, while you do have a flashbang, it’s just a disposable camera, or smoke bombs being balloons filled with flour; Armor can be just regular old sports equipment, even specialty stuff like magazine holders, holsters for blasters, I want to have this DIY feel to it, obvious 3d print lines, duct tape holding everything together, nothing looks professional. The South Park RPGS do a good job at illustrating this as most of your gear is cobbled together and the art direction itself was to “make it look crappy” (See clips under the photos linked as example) Additionally see this video: https://youtu.be/oj9YEI1R7iI?si=OV7qr0183fJ-sKAw by vice, they do a good job explaining the nerf hobby better than I can.

These are screenshots taken from Skirmish Paintball on YT’s trailer. I felt like these complement the style of the maps that the players would be partaking in well since I feel that while there should be some fantastical elements (see the giant fort in the 4th image) It should still feel like a place that you could realistically see existing in the real world.

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx8bCUih2-0WaVQToYP90pd_Eu43jePvhZ?si=shAXxAfGdACdzNyJ

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx-I4iCJYAGmn0lzyHAEuo2M76rUGv3t8g?si=OTjcHan4Aqxk5lSx

This applies to the gameplay as well, as all players can sprint, jump, slide, go prone, climb ledges and lean left and right while aiming down sights. No over the top omni-movement where you can dive in every direction, no crazy double jump, just pure boots on the ground movement.  

Breaking down what each section here means, you’d have a customizable character on the left you can dress however you see fit. The primary slot is your main weapons, think assault rifles, sniper rifles, miniguns, and riot shields (most games have riot shields go over the primary weapon slot for balance reasons) The secondary slot are your pistols, grenade launchers, etc. certain primaries would be able to be secondaries based on how they are built and pistols can be dual wielded for the primary slot. Melee is self-explanatory. Gadget is your throwables (Grenades, Flashbang, Smoke Bombs) or some other object (Turret, Drone, Medkit); and armor acts like a secondary health in battle, with heavier armors causing you to weigh down more. Weight class is the big thing here, as the heavier you are, the slower you are, and the lighter weapons and armor you carry, you’re slightly faster, so loadout building becomes this game of trying to balance out how much firepower you want vs. how fast you’ll be actually able to move. That diamond shape are perks and we’ll talk about those shortly

Lastly, I’d add a gunsmith system like COD, nerf already sells a bunch of attachment parts for each of their blasters, so this always felt like a natural fit to me, this also applies to the culture around modifying the blasters themselves. I really like the way the perk system works in Dead by Daylight and since most FPS games already have a perk system, I decided to mash the 2 together. The reason I’m putting so much emphasis on loadouts is because much like in a real life nerf war, you’re able to customize your loadout to however you see fit. Some people choose to use a more minimal loadout and like to run around, some people choose a heavier loadout and like to have big blasters with massive capacity, I want that freedom of expression in the game since I feel it’s a core part of the experience of going to really any nerf war in real life.

In the COD Series, the gunsmith(left) allows you to customize your weapon to your hearts content, adding scopes, larger or smaller magazines, barrel attachments, etc. Hasbro themselves has made an entire line of products around this concept called the modulus series (right). Hence why I feel this style of personalization would work in a game like this

For perks, Core perks (Left) can only be equipped once in every loadout and it determines a special ability you have, ranging from a passive boost to certain actions or items (Boosting players speed and health while in your radius, damage boost to a certain weapon category, or making you really good with a specific type of item) or gaining a special item (EX: Turrets, Juggernaut Armor, etc.) The standard perks (right) provide smaller boosts than core perks, but aren’t specific to anything, allowing you to mix and match to something that complements your playstyle, or to address weaknesses in the loadout

Better look at the moodboard