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Frenemy Frontier

About the game

This capstone project focuses on the design and implementation of a multiplayer game based on bounty hunting that incorporates both cooperative and competitive mechanics. The game features four players, with two playing as Bounty Hunters and the other two playing as Criminals. The objective of the game is to either capture or evade the opposing team while utilizing various game mechanics, such as combat and movement to ensure individual success. The game includes explicit collaboration and betrayal mechanics, where players can choose to reveal the location of their own teammate to the opposing team. These mechanics are designed to test the prisoner's dilemma and to evaluate the impact of non-uniform decision-making on player behavior. The project involves iterative design and testing to ensure a balance between cooperation and competition, providing an engaging and exciting gameplay experience for players. The game's success will be evaluated based on player feedback and gameplay metrics. Overall, the game is designed to provide a unique and memorable gaming experience that challenges players to balance individual success with the need for cooperation.

Game Mechanics

The game concept revolves around combat and capture of the criminal while the criminals attempt to collect treasure while communicating with teammates.

  • Movement and Jump:
    Players can traverse the map with a WASD movement and a jump. These are the basic controls used, but players can utilize the map to find ledges to maneuver above and around objects.
  • Ping:
    Players can use their middle mouse button to ping their environment to place a ping for their teammates. This ping system creates a vertical line and an icon for optimal visibility.
  • Combat:
    Players cannot attack without a weapon equipped and must use evasion and pickup weapons around the map. Players can use left mouse button to attack using the equipped weapon. Upon death, players respawn at one of the random respawn points.
  • Beam capture:
    Bounty hunters can use a short range beam to capture their opponents once their health is below a threshold amount. The tractor beam has a limited hold time within which bounty hunters must transport them to the jail. Failing to do so will free their opponents with a set health amount.
  • Treasure collection:
    Criminals must evade bounty hunters and approach a treasure chest visible in their mini map and can hold the 'E' key to begin treasure collection which takes a set amount of time. Once the treasure is collected, the treasure will be destroyed and a new treasure will spawn on the map. Collecting the treasure increases the criminals score while also increasing the bounty on the criminal that collected the treasure.

My Roles and Responsibilities

  • Created the overall game concept, level design and gameplay dynamics.
  • Implemented combat mechanics and treasure pickup mechanics.
  • Designed and implemented UI/UX for treasure collection, lobby, and end screen.
  • Built the ping system.
  • Conducted play tests for bugs, glitches, and gameplay issues, and improvements.

Tools and Technologies

  • Game Engine: Unity
  • Programming Languages: C#
  • Tools: Photon, Adobe Creative Cloud, Blender.
  • Project Management: GitHub, Trello, Miro, Discord, Google Docs.

Challenges and Solutions

  • Balancing the game mechanics for both Bounty Hunters and Criminals.
    The team created asymmetric mechanics that leveraged the strengths of each platform and balanced the gameplay so that both players had a meaningful role to play in solving puzzles and progressing through the game.
  • Creating cooperative dynamics that encouraged players to work together.
    The team analyzed successful cooperative games and used design patterns to create challenges that required players to communicate, collaborate, and learn from each other in order to succeed.
  • Multiplayer Setup and Bug testing.
    The team used a combination of physical devices and cloud testing platforms to ensure that the game worked seamlessly on multiple platforms and devices. The game supports a lobby system and upto 4 players and is hosted on the lobby creators system.

Links and Credits