Hi! My name is Björn Vallgårda Öjlert and I’ve recently returned to work as a Principal Game Designer on theHunter: Call of the Wild. I have a long history of working with the franchise starting as a Game Designer on theHunter: Classic all the way back in 2010. I was also part of the team responsible for the initial release of theHunter: Call of the Wild in 2017.
As a game designer, my work primarily involves defining and tweaking the gameplay. For example, how weapons, ballistics, and damage work or how animals go about their daily need zone schedule. For the Salzwiesen Park my main contributions revolved around the clay shooting range and some improvements to the bird hunting gameplay.
A Bird Hunters Paradise
Salzwiesen Park is a more specialized experience compared to our previous maps with the main theme revolving around hunting birds and small game using shotguns. It’s smaller in size compared to the regular reserves and can be viewed as a sort of experiment where we’ve tried to really get into a specific type of hunting and make that as enjoyable as possible.
Of course, we could not make this happen without filling the park with a vast array of bird species including two brand new ducks - Gadwall Duck and Ferruginous Duck, and adding a powerful 10 GA U/O shotgun.
The Clay Shooting Range
Designing the clay shooting range for Salzwiesen Park was an interesting experience as I also designed the original clay shooting range for theHunter: Classic. Even though I had a basic understanding of clay shooting from field trips to a local range back in the Classic days, considerable time has passed since then. As a result, I had to begin this process with extensive research.
That’s when I came across clay shooting ranges that combine multiple modes such as Skeet & Trap and this became the basis for my new CotW design. Essentially, my aim was to create something that clearly improves upon theHunter Classic’s format. What better approach to accomplish this than by introducing a range with new types of clay shooting never seen before in theHunter?
The Salzwiesen Park clay shooting range can be found near the main lodge, which is also where you start your adventure on this map. Similar to previous CotW ranges, it is very much a sandbox type of experience that gives players a lot of freedom to use it any way they want. It’s a combination of a Skeet and Trap range, with all the platforms and trap machines that go along with that.
Skeet platforms are orange and Trap platforms are blue. To use the range, simply walk up to any of these platforms and press the button indicated on the screen to launch a target. Hits and misses are scored and can be viewed directly on the screen while on a platform.
At the back of each trap lane, there is a score reset button and you can also access a weapon cache there if you want to try out different weapons. This is also where you find one of the most interesting features of the range; a control tower that allows you to switch between several trap configurations.
Here you’ll find all the typical Trap and Skeet modes, including Single Trap, Double Trap, Single Skeet, and Double Skeet. But I also threw in some unconventional random modes to spice things up, including a “sporting” mode where targets can be launched from any machine on the range for maximum confusion and chaos.
The range can be enjoyed alone or with friends. There are no set rules so you’ll have to agree on that among yourselves. Follow real-life rules if you know them, or make up your own. I hope you’ll have as much fun on this range as we did when making it!
Bird Hunting Improvements
We've made several adjustments and improvements to the bird hunting experience based on community feedback. The most notable changes will be observed in the movements and behaviors of birds while taking off and landing. Beyond these visible changes, we've also subtly tweaked the birds' senses.
Sparked your interest? Great because, the latter is one of the things that I worked on, so let me elaborate. Essentially, all duck species now lack a sense of smell, but we've slightly heightened their other senses to balance this. This alteration mirrors real life, where ducks have a very poor sense of smell. Furthermore, in response to direct community feedback, I've reduced the distance at which ducks 'auto-spook' when flying near players. This change should make bird hunting less frustrating, particularly in situations where birds fly in close proximity to your hiding spot.
That’s it for me! I hope you will enjoy what Salzwiesen Park has to offer.
Happy hunting and clay shooting!