What did I learn?
For this project I was assigned a group of 4 other students (3 artists & 1 programmer) to create a game in 1 semester. It had to be a couch co-op/pvp game. Throughout the making of this game I learned to properly communicate when working on a game in group for a longer stretch of time. This was also the first game I made for which we used the sprint-system, starting from a prototyping sprint of 2 weeks and finishing with a polish sprint which also lasted 2 weeks. I learned to work in a structured way by using Hack n Plan and by documenting all the things that I learned and our weekly meetings. This was the first time I used Unity’s new input system using Input Actions linked to specific players to bind to connected controllers. Lastly I learned to properly use Perforce for version control.
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Contributors
Programmers:
- Oliver Lambreghts
- Gianni Walraet
Artists:
- Sakibe van Soest
- Giulia de Medici
- Maxime Wouters
For our Game Projects course we were assigned a group of artists and programmers to create a couch co-op/PvP game.
Before we started working on our game we asked ourselves: What makes a good PvP couch multiplayer game? Our take on this is the ability to mess with your friends and being competitive but at the same giving everyone a fair chance at winning the game. That is exactly what we had in mind when creating Bumpsters.
GOAL
Bumpsters is a couch multiplayer racing game in which the goal is to be the first to reach the top of the level.
You use your grappling gun onto the environment AND other players to swing AND bounce your way up and out of the hamster cage.
VISION
We wanted to introduce a smooth and intuitive racing experience where you can go out of your way to mess with your friends. All of this while still maintaining fairness. How?
This leads me to our core mechanics.
FEATURES & MECHANICS
Grappling
The grappling gun allows you not only to move around, but also to mess with your fellow hamsters by grabbing them and pulling them back.
Bouncing
The bouncing mechanic makes for some very smooth movement by using your momentum to bounce from one room to the next.
Obstacles
Our obstacles add more difficulty and player interactivity by taking their logic into account and adapting your movement accordingly.
Respawn/Death
Obviously it wouldn’t be a fair game if we wouldn’t take new players into account. Our respawn mechanic makes it so that lower players can’t get too far behind before being respawned at the next valid checkpoint which gives them an equal chance at winning the game.
Mini-Map
This UI feature visualizes to the players how far they are from the end of the level.
What makes Bumpsters special?
So what makes Bumpsters special? It gives its players the ability to mess with each other in a competitive but fun way and at the same time it gives all players an equal and fair chance at winning the game.
