Viral Unreal Engine 5 squirrel shooter tech demo has gamers going nuts

A video showcasing Unreal Engine 5 gameplay features a hyper-realistic squirrel wielding a gun, and gamers are going nuts over it.

When Unreal Engine 5 was released in April 2022, gamers were only given a taste of what the next-gen engine was capable of. Met with the Matrix Awakens tech demo, players were already blown away.

Since then, we’ve seen some awe-inspiring projects come to life inside thanks to UE5. Most recently, artist Lorenzo Drago released a tech demo that was so realistic it left gamers craving more P.T. horror games.

Now, a new clip from a different game developer using UE5 has gone viral. The footage is of a very realistic squirrel holding a handgun way too big for its tiny paws to fire.

Dan Entremont (vimeo)

A squirrel holds a submachine gun in a viral Unreal Engine 5 tech demo

Unreal Engine 5 features Squirrel with a gun

Virtual artist and game developer Dan DeEntremont posted a near-minute-long clip of his latest project on Twitter. The first 20 seconds showed a rather impressive model of a squirrel scampering around an open area, but then the real fun began.

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At the 22-second mark, the footage cut to the squirrel gripping a pistol with both of its arms. Trotting around, he didn’t fire a shot until he set the handgun aside for a submachine gun. The kickback from the Uzi was enough to send the digital rodent flying.

Signified by the thousands of retweets, gamers are desperate to play the “squirrel-person shooter”. One reply to the tweet read, “That is the only game I am ever looking forward too!” Another put pressure on DeEntremont to release the project, “Okay, so like, this is an important game that needs to be made. You did your tests, they’re perfect, time to move on to making a game where I can be a squirrel with a handgun.”

According to DeEntremont, this isn’t just a one-off tech demo. Dan is working on an actual game where squirrels will wield guns just like in the footage above.

If you want to keep up with Dan DeEntremont’s progress, make sure to follow his Twitter @QuiteDan. For more game dev news, check out our hub for Unreal Engine 5.