Westoon

🤠 Westoon: A Study in Tactical Positioning

Westoon distinguishes itself in the crowded browser shooter market by merging the aesthetics of the Wild West with the rigorous mechanics of a Cover-Based Tactical Shooter. Unlike run-and-gun arcade titles where movement is erratic, Westoon demands deliberation. The player controls a sheriff in a procedurally generating frontier town, tasked with cleansing sectors of bandits and mutated wildlife. The core gameplay loop is a rhythmic dance of "Peek, Shoot, Retreat," heavily inspired by arcade classics like Time Crisis but adapted for WASD controls.

🔫 The Mechanics of Cover and Line of Sight

The primary survival mechanism is Line of Sight (LOS) Management. The game map is littered with environmental geometry—barrels, crates, cacti, and saloon walls. Standing in the open is a fail state; the enemy AI has high accuracy and minimal projectile travel time (Hitscan). Survival depends on breaking the enemy's visual lock.

• Active Mitigation: There is no dedicated "crouch" button. Instead, the game uses "soft cover" logic. Standing behind a tall object creates a physical barrier. The skill lies in stepping out just enough to expose your gun barrel without exposing your hitbox.
• Reload Vulnerability: The reload animation is the player's moment of greatest weakness. The game utilizes a cylinder-based ammo system (visually represented). Managing your ammo count to ensure you are behind cover during the reload cycle is more important than raw aiming skill.

🐍 PVE Hazards: The Biological Threat

The game complicates the standard "Sheriff vs. Bandits" shootout by introducing a secondary threat layer: biological hazards. Mutated green snakes patrol the ground level. These enemies serve a specific design purpose: Vertical Aim Adjustment.

Bandits force the player to aim at head-height (horizontal axis). Snakes force the player to aim at the floor (vertical axis). Switching between these two planes requires rapid mouse adjustment and situational awareness. Ignoring a snake to focus on a bandit often leads to taking chip damage that ruins a run. This forces a cognitive load where the player must prioritize targets based on proximity rather than size.

💰 The Bounty Economy and Stat Scaling

Westoon features a robust RPG-lite progression system fueled by gold. Every enemy drops loot, but collecting it requires physical traversal, exposing the player to fire. This creates a Risk/Reward dynamic: do you rush out to grab the gold and risk taking damage, or play it safe and starve your economy?

Gold is spent on three core stats:

1. Damage: Reduces the "Time to Kill" (TTK). Essential for later waves where enemies act as "bullet sponges."
2. Health: Increases the error margin. Recommended for new players learning the cover patterns.
3. Speed: The high-level meta stat. Higher movement speed allows for faster "jiggle-peeking" (moving in and out of cover) and safer loot collection.

🧪 Technical Performance & Accessibility

Built on a lightweight HTML5 framework, the game utilizes vector-based assets for characters and pixel art for environments. This hybrid approach ensures that the game maintains a locked 60 FPS even when the screen is crowded with particle effects from explosions. The inputs are optimized for zero-latency, essential for the twitch reactions required in later levels.

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