Vogeljagd

About the game

Vogeljagd is German for "bird hunt", and that is the whole idea. You stand at the bottom of a green meadow with a shotgun, birds cross the sky, and you have sixty seconds to hit as many of them as possible. Every hit scores one, two or three points depending on the bird: the farther away it is, the smaller it looks and the more it is worth.

The gun holds five shells. Once they are all fired, you have to wait while the gun reloads, so shots are worth aiming. The best score is shown on the title screen and in the corner while you play, and the game keeps it in your browser.

Playing it here

Vogeljagd was made for TIC-80, a fantasy console: an imaginary 1980s-style computer with a 240 by 136 screen and 16 colours, for which independent developers write new games. Nalquas made it in 2017, and this is version 1.2.1. It runs here in the official TIC-80 web player. Click Play, then click once more on the title screen to start. The game needs a mouse to aim. Esc opens the TIC-80 menu.

Controls

A few things worth knowing

Lead your target. Birds keep flying while the shell travels, so aim a little ahead of where they are heading.

Far birds pay more. A small bird near the horizon is worth up to three points, a big one close by only one. If you have the shells to spare, go for the distant ones.

Do not waste the last shell. An empty gun means a pause with no shooting, and the clock keeps running while it reloads.

Credits and licence

Vogeljagd was made by Niklas Freund, known as Nalquas, who wrote the code and made the graphics, the music and the sound effects. It is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later. The cartridge served here is the one from version 1.2.1 on his GitHub, and it holds the game's complete, readable code and assets; his repository at that release is hosted alongside it. It runs here in the TIC-80 web player (MIT licence). The licence text and the source code are linked from this page.