A retro puzzle shooter built around ricochets, where every shot counts.
Gunther is a 1950s family man. He is also a revolver.
Meet Gunther
The Aims family lives an almost perfect version of the American Dream. Then a terrible accident leaves Gunther trapped in the body of a revolver. His wife Bethany does everything she can to keep their life normal, and as perfect as possible.
Every shot counts
Each level is a puzzle solved with ricochets, triggers and the scenery, with a cylinder of six bullets. Actions resolve one at a time: you watch the full consequence of a shot before acting again.
Load your cylinder
Over the week, Gunther unlocks new types of bullets, such as Dash, Blow and Grab. Choose what goes in the cylinder before each scene: every bullet type opens new ways to interact with the scenery.
Two rules
Gunther cannot accept harming his family or other people to reach his vision of the American Dream: crossing that line makes his goal unreachable. Often, it is Bethany who steps in to remind him: you can't do that. And emptying the cylinder means failure. Every shot becomes a commitment: a solution to uncover, or a mistake to accept.
A week of the American Dream
Making breakfast, mowing the lawn, grocery shopping with Bethany, going back to work, playing with his son: over one week, everyday tasks become insurmountable, and every scene is a new puzzle.
Rivals
Along the way, Gunther meets rivals who embody the excesses of the American Dream: Theodore Thompson, "the terror", his rival at work, or Donatella Deus, a vain two-shot derringer who owns the mall. Facing them, he learns that any dream needs limits to bring happiness.
The cast
In short
- Ricochet-based puzzles focused on angles, timing and precision
- Short, replayable levels built around experimentation and consequence
- A non-violent puzzle language: bullets only interact with the environment
- Six bullets: every shot matters, and emptying the cylinder means failure
- Actions resolved one at a time
- New bullet types unlocked over a single week
- Stream-friendly, with clear cause and effect
- Free demo in the browser and on Steam
Play the demo
The free demo runs in your browser on itch.io, with mouse, gamepad or touch. It is also on Steam.
Press kit
Gunther Aims for the press
Fact sheet
- Title
- The American Dream of Gunther Aims
- Genre
- Ricochet puzzle, anti-shooter
- Developer
- Soppybase
- Publisher
- Soppybase
- Based in
- Normandy, France
- Team
- Yetired (development, game and narrative design) · Sébastien Sterling (art direction)
- Release
- 2027 (planned)
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS (Steam)
- Languages
- English, French
- Demo
- Free, in the browser (itch.io) and on Steam
- Made with
- GameMaker, Aseprite
- Origin
- Game jam entry, January 2025. Development continued after encouraging feedback from the GameMaker team
- Events
- Indie Game Lyon, Stunfest 2026 (Rennes, October 23 to 25)
About the game
The American Dream of Gunther Aims is a satirical, ricochet-based puzzle game where you play Gunther, a family man whose life takes a drastic turn when he becomes a revolver, in a distorted and absurd version of the 1950s American Dream inspired by sitcoms.
Instead of fast reflex shooting, the game focuses on angles, timing and experimentation through short, replayable levels, blending absurd humor with precise and readable mechanics.
The game turns shooting mechanics into a true puzzle language. Bullets interact only with the environment, through ricochets, triggers and physical reactions. Gunther's revolver holds only six bullets, and emptying the chamber results in failure. Over the course of a single week, he unlocks new types of bullets, each opening new ways to face the constraints of everyday life.
Beneath its absurd tone and sitcom-inspired structure, the game explores what happens after something has broken. Moving forward is not about becoming stronger, but about changing how you act and accepting that you cannot become exactly who you were before. A jazz-inspired soundtrack supports its offbeat, introspective tone.
Why it stands out
- An anti-shooter approach focused on restraint rather than violence
- Gameplay systems built around moral limits and responsibility rather than power
- An absurd, sitcom-inspired tone with meaningful underlying themes
- Immediately understandable, playable and watchable
- Well suited to digital showcases and creator-driven events
Downloads
Screenshots
The team
Yetired, the founder of Soppybase, is the main creator behind The American Dream of Gunther Aims. He handles development, game design, narrative design, and the integration and production of visual assets. After a stroke radically changed his life, he chose to explore themes of constraint, responsibility and adaptation through game design. The game translates that experience into mechanics rather than autobiography.
He works in close collaboration with Sébastien Sterling, the Art Director, a long-time friend who also helps design the game's more complex narrative elements: rival characters, advanced scenarios and dialogues. Coming from 3D modeling, Sébastien has worked on several animated feature films, including productions for Illumination. Gunther Aims is his first experience in video games and pixel art, and his cinematic background shapes the game's composition and staging.