Light-gun games fascinate me. Like Rock Band drums or DDR foot pads, they’re a giant leap closer to the real-world actions that most games only suggest. Plus, skills like drumming, dancing and marksmanship are really cool. For too long I admired light-gun games from afar, but in 2023 I resolved to get out and play them, get good at them, and answer my questions about them.

Well, I did that — and now I’m sharing what I found! This could be a long series of posts on many sub-topics, but we’ll see if it’s interesting to anyone, or if I even stick with it. For this post at least, I’m gonna answer the basic five questions I had coming into my 2023 light-gun journey.

1. These games are so obscure! Why would a game company make one?

Turns out arcade games are an entire industry! Wow! It’s obvious when you think about it… many companies exist for the sole purpose of making arcade machines, like Raw Thrills or UNIS. Other companies like Sega or Namco-Bandai develop all kinds of games including arcade, but also console too.

There’s lots of arcade companies and lots of arcade genres, and sometimes the companies decide to make light-gun shooters!

2. But still, not too many of these games get made nowadays, right?

Well, yes and no. In a given year, at least a couple new ones come out, sometimes more. But there’s a gulf between that truth, and the reality of many peoples’ situation.

Just because the games come out doesn’t mean they’re good. Even if they’re good, you won’t know they exist unless establishments buy them, which they don’t often do (at least where I am, Toronto — really big city, but the arcade scene doesn’t seem great in North America.) Even if you can play them, many aren’t “pure” light-gun games — many are VR experiences, or basic ticket redemption games, or mounted gun games (which I’ve begrudgingly accepted as a legitimate flavour of the genre.)

Even with all those hurdles, yes, they are coming out. For example, Elevator Action Invasion came out in 2021, and House of the Gundead just got a proper release this year (2023).

3. Really? So how do these games make money?

Honestly it seems to be as straightforward as: you make the game and the machine, and you convince people to buy them — usually people like arcade owners or bar owners from what I can tell. The machines themselves are super expensive. $10,000 is a VERY cheap light-gun game, some cost up to $40,000. I assume there’s some money to be made in parts and repair too.

4. So what’s the state of the light-gun shooter? How are they evolving?

These games seem to mimic other industries I’m passingly familiar with; namely Hollywood, console games, and book publishing.

From Hollywood, these machines are becoming like tentpole releases — so showy features like moving seats or VR get pushed very hard. They get the attention from arcade-goers, so they sell the most. Sequels or games based on existing IP are also very common, I imagine for this reason.

From console games, there’s a push towards accessibility — games with mounted guns, bottomless magazines and on-screen target reticles… elements that make them easier and more straightforward for anyone to pick up and play (the main goal of any arcade game, really.) That’s to say nothing of things like DLC. A growing trend is to release games with missing content that gets added over time — Tomb Raider Arcade and Time Crisis 5 are just a few examples of this. Sometimes the arcade owner even has to pay for the additional content. Crazy.

From book publishing, the hardcover / softcover release format — on release, a game is only available in the huge mega-expensive deluxe cabinet size… only after months or years do smaller and more affordable editions get produced, like the Halo “super deluxe” cabinet of 2018, followed by the mere “deluxe” cab of 2019.

5. Are there any gatherings of people who make these, or bodies of knowledge or conventional game dev wisdom for developing them?

I found one convention, at least! IAAPA seems to be an E3 equivalent and lots of big arcade players show up there. IAAPA isn’t just for arcade games though, as the expo is for the whole “attractions industry”, including amusement park rides and god knows what else.

In terms of game dev resources or bodies of knowledge… not really, none that I could find. Even interviews are hard to come by, let alone things like GDC talks or articles. If you do find any, most of it is marketing fluff or tangential articles about porting or gun design. It’s funny and scary to me how little recorded knowledge there seems to be about genres like light-gun shooters or racing games — genres that have been around for so long.

…so, that’s what I found out. I hope it was interesting! Regarding the last point, about of the lack of resources. Over 2023, I kind of took it upon myself to not just play these games, but to study them too, and develop my own body of knowledge of best practices and interesting solutions to common problems in this genre. Right now it’s just pages of jot notes in my phone, but if I have the time and energy, I plan to make infrequent posts on what I’ve found until I’ve got it out of my notes and onto the internet.

Until next time, wherever that is… happy holidays and be well in 2024!