Sniper Dan hands you a sniper rifle and tells you not to shoot any living creatures with it. So what’s the precision gun for, then? Clickbait journalism would say: You won’t believe what it’s actually for!

But since Mainstream Outside couldn’t care less about reach-chasing fluff, I’ll tell you right away: Sniper Dan is a 3D hidden-object game in a cartoon style. One where you solve problems with a sniper rifle.

An NPC’s private boat is stuck at the pier? Shoot through the stern line. A handyman can’t get a fountain to start bubbling? Help him by blasting open the valves on the water pipes.

The concept of Sniper Dan sounded so wonderfully unhinged that I just had to try the current free demo of the game. What I saw there, and how the overall quality of this comedic oddball stacks up, you’ll find out in the preview below.

Bureaucracy, but make it bullets

Even though Denki’s (Autonauts) innovative little thing is named after its main character, the demo doesn’t really tell you anything about Dan. The game also seems to do without a story entirely. I immediately liked that when dipping my toes in, because it meant I could jump in fast—after a short tutorial—and just let my inner gremlin play.

Wait, a tutorial? Yep, but relax. 😉 You watch Dan dash (okay, hop) into his office and quickly learn how to pick a level from the area map while sitting in your desk chair. You simply shoot the area you want on the map and then shoot the office door—et voilà, you’re on location.

The office acts as a kind of hub, and it’s also where you handle settings and furnishing. You can, for example, lay down patterned carpets, slap a wall clock onto the wall (“It’s Snipe O’ Clock”), and set up a big green fridge for trophies.

Yes, really: you display your hard-earned achievements on and IN a refrigerator. The stuff I just mentioned (and quite a bit more, like better guns) is bought with in-game dollars on the “Magic Market,” the game’s upgrade shop. It’s also accessible via the map in the office.

Not exactly kids’ stuff

By the way, did you spot the PEGI 3 rating for Sniper Dan in the title image? Because yeah, that’s kind of what the visuals look like too: like they were traced from a children’s picture book. But hold on—don’t jump to conclusions. In motion, it’s genuinely funny, and it’s definitely a good time scanning the busy level chaos for whatever detail the game is asking for.

Take Perky Park, the demo’s first level. Like in every level, Dan climbs up into a lookout perch so he can oversee the whole play area. And the park is packed with ridiculous little scenes: one guy rides a zebra backwards, another flees screaming from an adorable squirrel (sure, why not), some snot-nosed kid is stress-testing the centrifugal force of a kiddie carousel, and so on. Pictures? Right below this paragraph.

The art of sniper photography

Up in the lookout, you can immediately start your job as a benevolent sniper fairy—but you always have to complete exactly the task shown in the UI at the top right. One of the first tasks is to give a little girl on a swing a push. With your sniper ammo.

Meaning: you aim your gun at the left side of the swing, shoot, and the swing starts gently moving. Two more hits and it’s really going, sending the young lady flying off the map in a glorious arc. Sniper Dan lives off moments like this, and off the weird “accidents” that follow your “help.” So whether Sniper Dan is truly as non-violent as the description claims is… debatable. Either way, it’s very entertaining.

Sometimes you have to aim with absurd precision; even more so than with the swing. For example, there’s a park visitor with a tripod and camera who’s missing a friendly soul to press the shutter (the camera’s shutter, mind you). Naturally, you trigger it using your rifle’s trigger.

Specifically, you zoom in as close as possible with the scope and fire at the tiny shutter button. However, aiming itself isn’t the problem, because Dan apparently has alien-steady hands. The real challenge is that some people in need are well-camouflaged or just get lost in the general bustle.

At one point, I spent ages hunting for a particular gentleman with a bubble set. You can only recognize him by his bubble wand—which he doesn’t hold in front of his mouth, but slightly off to the side of his body. So Sniper Dan often gives you that classic Where’s Waldo vibe, but I didn’t run into any cheap hiding tricks. My biggest enemy was my own “blindness,” because honestly: I’m not good at this genre. Which is why hidden-object expert Anna Nitschke had to step in.

Sniper, ahoy!

In the next level, “Happy Habour,” it’s the same deal—with the difficulty nudged up a notch. Mainly because the scene is even busier than “Perky Park.” The problem-plagued NPCs (who, visually, really remind me of Lego figures) are harder to spot, and they do their NPC business less obviously.

Every time you “help” someone, you get credited a certain amount of dollars to spend in the upgrade shop. But if you’re clumsy—meaning you accidentally (or intentionally) hit one of the little NPC dudes with a projectile—your account gets trimmed.

As mentioned: this isn’t Call of Duty. A hit NPC just keels over and sees a bunch of colorful little stars. It’s a lot less funny when the NPC you flatten happens to be your “mission target,” because then you can’t finish the task—and the game immediately rolls on to the next one.

Still, Sniper Dan isn’t overly punishing. Mistakes mostly just delay your ability to buy upgrades, so this game is clearly about having a good time, about enjoying hidden-object puzzles. The trailer below shows a bunch of gameplay scenes:

Verdict: Funny as hell

Sniper Dan’s demo offers more than enough insight to make a purchase call, and my two-hour test session left me with a very positive overall impression. I was handed a whole bouquet of delightfully bonkers ideas that even worked on me, a genre noob.

Sure: the simple picture-book look with sparse (but cool) animations won’t be everyone’s thing. And since the demo blocks you from buying most extras, there’s no real impression of minigames (like tennis or air hockey) or weapon upgrades. But it’s obvious Denki has a game in the pipeline that doesn’t care about market trends and just wants to entertain. And it’ll probably pull that off.

To wrap up, here’s the kind of info we all hate: despite the demo being available, Sniper Dan currently has no exact release date. 🙄 Publisher PQube has only named “late 2026” as the window for the digital version; when physical console copies will be available is still up in the air. Same goes for the full version’s price, though given the relatively modest budget, it likely won’t be particularly steep.

Alex Nitschke

I’ve been into video games since 1982, spending 12 of those years in professional games journalism. I’ve also been developing games since the early ’90s, starting with a humble C64. Outside of code and keyboards, I’ve been a musician since 1989. Man, I have no idea how I can still be alive...

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