When spending my final hours at the PAX West event this year and getting ready to head back home, I came across a booth showcasing several games made by university students at the Lake Washington Institute of Technology. As I walked by at a distance, I caught a glimpse of someone picking up a Sinden light gun off a table and starting to shoot at a projector screen, so I instantly started walking in that direction to find out more.

After arriving at the table, I started a conversation with one of the people running the booth, who turned out to be an instructor at the school, and I started to learn about what everyone was shooting at. The game they were showcasing is called Sauce Slinger, made by a group of students in a recent class, and it looked quite fun, even at first glance.

I learned more about the story of how it came to be that young students in a university class ended up making a game in a largely-forgotten genre like light gun games. It was inspired by a game jam that happened within the last year, where a few game genres, styles, and themes were brainstormed by the organizers, then students would start working on whatever combination they were assigned from the brainstorm sessions. Light gun games happened to be one of those genres, and they got to building.

Though it went through many iterations during development, Sauce Slinger was built from the ground up to be used with PC light guns, and even built with a pedal mechanic in mind, similar to Time Crisis and many other genre classics. The theme ended up being related to fast food, and you shoot a gun that either fires ketchup or cake icing, depending on what kind of enemy you’re firing at, since each enemy type can only be damaged by one of the two ingredients. You can check out some gameplay in the video below.

They’ve currently completed most of the first level of the game, and they’ve released the current build on itch.io for all to try. They stated they’re looking to come back and at least finish the boss fight at the end of the level in the future, if not expand it further with more stages, but even as it stands today, this game is a lot of fun and is built for light guns.

It’s great to see younger generations of game developers trying their hands at light gun games and seeing the potential for unique and fun experiences within the genre, so go and check out the game at the page and give them some feedback to use as they work on completing their vision of the game.

PAX West 2026: Early Build Released for Fast Food Light Gun Game

PAX West 2026: New Immersive Light Gun Experience, “No I’m Not A Human IRL”