Small Game Seasons

Wingshooting Simulator for PC:
The Journey from Concept to Prototype

Screenshot captured from in-game prototype (S.G.S).

The Quest

As an upland bird hunter, digital designer, and someone always eager to explore new technologies to bring my ideas to life, I’ve long envisioned a PC game—originally for my own use during the off-season—that could faithfully recreate the thrill and atmosphere of bird hunting. One that captures not just the challenge and skill, but also the authenticity and immersion of true-to-life wingshooting.

Small Game Seasons (S.G.S) is not my first adventure in programming a bird hunting game. In fact, during my final year of high school in 1992, a school friend and I developed a duck hunting PC game (for MS-DOS) in Turbo Pascal as our end-of-year computer class project. At the time, our teacher expected only simple, monochrome programs—perhaps a basic quiz or a math challenge controlled by keyboard input. He certainly didn’t anticipate such an ambitious undertaking—let alone a duck hunting game.

To bring our vision to life, we spent countless hours in the library—back in the days before the Internet—poring over programming books to learn what the class didn’t teach. We created a game with 256-color graphics, menus and settings, sprite animations, sound effects, and even mouse support. While I actively contributed to the programming, my focus was also on visuals, animation, user interface, and the overall look and feel of the game. Our hard work paid off when the game was showcased and earned recognition at a programming contest held between local schools.

Fast forward to the year 2000—just a couple of years after graduating from my university design program—I came across the Bird Hunter PC titles developed by Sunstorm Interactive. At the time, they were among the very few games dedicated entirely to bird hunting. For their era, these titles delivered a focused wingshooting experience while remaining accessible to a broad gaming audience. Their discontinuation left a gap that, to this day, no other PC hunting game has sought to fill by exploring bird hunting exclusively.

In the years since, I’ve played a number of comprehensive and richly detailed PC hunting games. Through these experiences, I’ve found that while big game hunting often delivers a convincing experience for its style, wingshooting tends to be designed for fun, adaptation, and accessibility to a broader gaming audience.

At the same time, I discovered several compelling virtual wingshooting simulators. Some were primarily designed for clay target practice, while a few others included bird hunting scenarios. These systems demonstrated impressive technical precision—accurately simulating shot patterns, leads, and shooting angles.

However, they often came with a steep price tag and were intended for shooting clubs, training facilities, or high-end personal setups. Many required specialized hardware such as projection screens, infrared-tracked firearms, or VR headsets, along with dedicated space for proper installation. While remarkable in their fidelity, they were beyond what I could reasonably afford.

Images shown are box art from the ‘Bird Hunter’ series (1998–2003),
© their respective copyright holders. Used here for historical and reference purposes.

Official videos from [SES/SimHunt and Marksman Training Systems] showcasing professional wingshooting
simulators requiring specialized hardware.

The Challenge

The challenge of developing my own PC wingshooting simulator grew increasingly appealing as game engines like Unreal and Unity became more accessible—supported by a growing wealth of dedicated online learning resources.

Indeed, and as I hinted earlier, I’ve played many high-quality PC hunting games currently on the market—and more are reportedly on the way, even as I write this. Most offer a wide variety of bird species, scenarios, and an impressive selection of gear. Understandably, these titles try to balance simulation with accessibility and broad appeal—and that’s entirely fair.

Yet as an upland bird hunter myself, I saw a meaningful opportunity to deliver a deeper level of authenticity in an accessible PC game dedicated entirely to the wingshooting experience—one designed for bird hunting enthusiasts seeking immersion and true-to-life simulation.

From the bird’s perspective, one of the most crucial elements I aimed to simulate is the flight pattern and speed—both essential to the true challenge of bird hunting. This is complemented by a more convincing approach to applying forward allowance, or lead, when tracking a flying target.

Additionally, bird reactions after being hit—particularly their fall—should respond naturally to weight, momentum, and physics. Birds that drop rigidly and mechanically would break immersion by lacking the fluid, unpredictable motion that defines authentic wingshooting.

By focusing on these key mechanics, I aimed to create an immersive and technically refined experience that enhances the lifelike nature of bird hunting and wingshooting in a PC game.

Realistic Modeling of Bird Flight Animations by Jia-chi Wu and Zoran Popovic´ (University of Washington).
This research, along with the hyper-realistic animations, captivated me and became a source of inspiration.

My vision is inspired by flight simulators I’ve long played and developed add-ons for. General flight sims coexist with niche combat simulators offering detailed fighter jet system simulation and operational depth for dedicated enthusiasts. If niche combat sims can succeed in delivering focused, specialized experiences alongside broader flight simulation titles, I believe a PC wingshooting simulator can do the same for passionate bird hunters.

The Project

During the 2023 holidays, I finally decided to experiment with building a bird hunting / wingshooting simulator myself—for my own enjoyment. Knowing exactly how I wanted the experience to feel, I dove into Unreal Engine 5 and spent the following months learning and programming my vision into reality.

My passion for Ruffed Grouse hunting, with all its challenges, drove the early experiments in Unreal Engine 5. My first steps in development were focused solely on experimenting with different techniques to simulate the behavior and flight of the Ruffed Grouse.

Knowing I could rely on plugins to simulate basic shotgun ballistics and use purchased or licensed library assets to build my environments and biomes, I focused my efforts on finding the right formula to recreate lifelike and convincing bird flight behavior and speed. My goal was to capture the raw thrill of flushing a Ruffed Grouse in dense cover—striving for the most faithful simulation my skills could achieve. The first version of the Grouse prototype was complete—and I was genuinely satisfied with the experience.

As I continued testing and refining the Ruffed Grouse prototype, I began to see its true potential—an opportunity to expand the project with additional species, hunting destinations, and varied scenarios, all while refining the mechanics to preserve a truly authentic wing-shooting experience.

One prototype iteration led to the next—each featuring game birds with varying degrees of challenge in wingshooting, inspired by species popular across different regions of the world. Eventually, I thought: why not include a sporting clays experience as well—a practice ground to complement and enhance all these bird-hunting scenarios?

What surprised me most was how rewarding it felt to play my bird hunting prototypes. In just a few months, I had built playable demos—including a sporting clays range—and found myself immersed in something I never imagined possible. Despite my limited experience in game development, and despite the prototype’s limited content and the many improvements I hope to add, the game looked, felt, and played exactly as I had envisioned.

Unreal Engine 5 was the natural choice for my project.

A Prototype Worth Showcasing

As I mentioned earlier, this began as a personal project—a series of wing-shooting prototypes created purely for my own enjoyment. But as the various bird hunting prototypes took shape, I realized the project deserved more than just being a hobby. It needed an identity, a brand, and the structure of a proper proof of concept—something that could be evaluated for potential adoption by a publisher or a game studio.

As a digital and communication designer, I aimed to give the project a clear creative direction—one that captured the spirit and elegance of classic upland bird hunting publications. At the same time, I drew inspiration from the minimalist, straightforward user experience of '90s PC games to shape the in-game interface. Beyond aesthetics, I focused on immersion—crafting fictional hunting destinations with their own characters, environmental details, and backstories, adding depth and a sense of place to each scenario.

In the field of User Experience, we are often tasked with designing for users whose needs we must research and interpret. In this case, though, I had a unique advantage: I am also the user. Having lived this experience every fall, I could act as both designer and end user—guiding the simulation from the inside out to create a lifelike, immersive, and intuitive bird hunting experience.

When we’re deeply passionate about something, we’re naturally driven to learn, adapt, and overcome technical limitations in creative ways. I believe what began as a personal project has grown into something with real potential—a convincing, simulation-driven experience shaped by someone who lives both the creative side of technology and the sporting world of upland bird hunting.

On this website, I showcase Small Game Seasons, my PC bird hunting game prototype. The goal of this prototype is to explore whether real life bird hunters, publishers, game studios, development teams, and industry partners—including potential brand collaborators—could be interested in adopting or supporting this concept.

S.G.S Playable Prototype – Main Screens

Small Game Seasons started as an idea, became an experiment, and evolved into a project I believe has real potential. I hope it resonates with others who, like me, have been waiting for a convincing simulation of wingshooting to come to life as a PC game.