Pigeon Hunt 3 Final Statistics
Who remembers my old game, Pigeon Hunt 3, or in Hungarian: "GalambVadászat 3"? The game just turned 16 years old last month!
The trailer I made in 2017 and never posted until now.
It was made using Adobe Flash, which makes it a bit complicated to play it these days, but it's not impossible. I have it hosted it on Newgrounds, where you can still play using the Newgrounds Player, which a browser plugin that basically wraps around the old Adobe Flash player. The high-score list is more or less working through the plugin.
I initially released the game on 29th of May 2009, and it was going strong for 8 years straight. This is probably the most-played game I have ever made. I even won an award with it on a Hungarian creative computing competition called "<19 Freestyle Computing" ("<19 Szabadfogású Számítógép").
Screenshots from the game.
This was my first game with an online high-score list, I had set up a PHP script here on my website that gets called from the game either to query the high-score list, or to post a new score. If I were to remake this game, there are some things I would have done differently.
At the end of each round, the game asks for a name, and once provided, it submits your score into the high-score list. Then I realized, many people would just close the game at this point, thus their score never gets submitted. The proper way would have been to ask for a name in the beginning, before the game starts, and then it would automatically submit your score the moment a round ends.
My other mistake to allow people to type in whatever they want as their name... Literally the first update I did after release was to implement a manual censorship option, so I can delete any entries from the high-score list that had inappropriate names.
In the future, I might revisit this series and make a new game, with improved graphics (probably hand-drawn by someone who can actually draw), and have more levels, more weapons, and some score system that lets you level up and purchase better gear.
Statistics
Let's see those statistics! This is an all-time summary of all the games played for the past 16 years.
| Total games played: | 10,338 |
| Number of unique players (estimate): | 851 |
| Players who played more than one round: | 44.9% |
| Total shots fired: | 1,276,258 |
| Pigeons shot / total pigeons appeared: | 1,092,959 / 2,322,224 (47%) |
| Seagulls shot (negative score): | 14,511 |
| Total headshots: | 32,904 |
| Total kills with the Big Bomb: | 34,785 |
Average of all played games.
| Acquired the Big Bomb: | 27.8% |
| ...and also used it: | 92.2% |
| Activated "Drunk Mode" by shooting 4 seagulls: | 8.7% |
| Got extra 15 seconds for 8x headshot combo: | 1.60% |
| Got extra 15 seconds for 5x Desert combo: | 2.65% |
Average Game
Average of each player's personal average.
| Score: | 1758 |
| Shots fired: | 113 |
| Accuracy: | 70% |
| Pigeons shot (out of total): | 40% |
| Seagulls shot: | 3.4 |
| Headshots: | 3.5 |
| Kills with the Big Bomb (among those who used it): | 13.2 |
High Score
Yes, that's me at the top. I was never able to go anywhere near that insane score again. I also removed my other 2 nicknames from this list, just to make it fair.
| # | Name | Score |
| 1. | Balage | 7151 |
| 2. | Beregszászi Zoltán | 6242 |
| 3. | sanci | 6190 |
| 4. | simi | 6188 |
| 5. | ENTER | 6179 |
| 6. | BUbbies | 6070 |
| 7. | dankó | 5514 |
| 8. | stu | 5364 |
| 9. | bajtai | 5112 |
| 10. | Kupay | 5022 |
Top 10 Sharpshooter
The percentage of total pigeons shot, out of the total that appeared on screen. This is the only one where I failed to beat the high score, although just barely. Congrats ENTER, whoever you are :D
| # | Name | Kills |
| 1. | ENTER | 85.7% |
| 2. | Balage | 85.3% |
| 3. | Beregszaszi Zoltan | 81.8% |
| 4. | simi | 79.1% |
| 5. | feki | 78.3% |
| 6. | sanci | 77.9% |
| 7. | xar | 76.5% |
| 8. | DANKÓ | 76.1% |
| 9. | b | 75.9% |
| 10. | WWEEEEEEEEEEEEEE | 75.7% |
Top 10 Head Hunter
Number of headshots achieved during a game.
| # | Name | Headshots |
| 1. | Balage | 94 |
| 2. | HaXXoR | 59 |
| 3. | niels | 46 |
| 4. | BUbbies | 44 |
| 5. | gffg | 43 |
| 6. | Laceee ZZ |
41 |
| 7. | Roltown | 40 |
| 8. | simi | 39 |
| 9. | Poon Chaser | 38 |
| 10. | dankó | 34 |
Top 10 Addict
This one's insane. These are the number of games played by the same user. I have heard some rumors that the extreme ones are not tied to actual people, but to computers in an IT classroom in some school. I am at 13th place with 108 plays.
| # | Name | Games |
| 1. | sipi | 1434 |
| 2. | gabi | 1285 |
| 3. | dankó | 1156 |
| 4. | BUbbies | 771 |
| 5. | Topper | 550 |
| 6. | samu | 501 |
| 7. | csaba | 228 |
| 8. | ida | 223 |
| 9. | sanci | 222 |
| 10. | dd | 208 |
How to Score Big
Still around? OK, if you have managed to get the game running, and thinking of getting on the high score list, I can share a few tips on how to make a good score. My general strategy is to make full use of the combos:
- First, try to do an 8x Headshot Combo, that is 8 headshots with the pistol using a single clip. This will give 15+ seconds. If you fail to get it in 2-3 tries, just move on, because it's a huge time sink if you continue trying.
- Then for the most part of the game, wait for pigeons to clutter so they are close to each other, and then go for a Desert Combo with a full magazine by shooting them as quickly as possible. I can consistently shoot 4, or in some rare cases even 6 within the 1.5 second time limit. This will also grant +15 seconds the first time you achieve a 5x combo.
- The Shotgun combo score is exponential, so if you manage to shoot 5 or more pigeons with one shot, you'd get a very big score.
- The SMG is fun, but totally useless if you're going for a high score, so just avoid it.
- Doing a 4x Desert combo for the first time will grant you the Big Bomb. Use it at the very last second to clear any remaining pigeons.