8 "Simple" Video Game Features That Took YEARS To Perfect

2. Gloo Cannon - Prey

The developers at Arkane always knew that, while their sci-fi sim Prey would indeed feature plenty of guns, the game wouldn't be a shooter. To make sure players knew this, they came up with a bunch of unique weapons that had other purposes than simply pumping bullets into enemies, with the most diverse of all being the gloo cannon.

Doing exactly what it says on the tin, the weapon fired out a stream of glue, that would harden on impact, allowing you to freeze enemies in place and shatter their bodies into a million pieces with a follow-up shotgun blast. Its real use comes when players get imaginative though, as it pretty much allows you to get anywhere in the game's map - even places the devs didn't intend.

By shooting walls or connecting gloo across gaps, you can fashion some impressive walkways to different parts of the environment. However, while this is a dream for the player, it was a headache for the dev team. Allowing the player to get anywhere put a strain on the artists, because if the player could see everything, no corners or assets could be cut, while the level designers needed to make sure each space accommodated this freedom in a way that didn't impact pacing and progression.

Likewise, the team went back and forth on the gun's core attributes; its name, its look, the way it fired, which materials the gloo would bounce off. The cannon was around from the pre-production stages, but it wasn't finalised until production was well underway.