Item Hunter

Compete against other players by hiding objects and finding your opponents’ before they find yours!

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Inspiration

We were inspired by “Walkabout Mini Golf”; we wanted a social online multiplayer game that didn’t require complex networking and could be easily scaled.

What it does

Project Item Hunter is a 3D first-person video game featuring local single-player and local/online multiplayer modes for virtual reality, focused on social interaction, mental agility, and competition.

In Project Item Hunter, the player controls their avatar, who hides objects and searches for the objects hidden by other players or by the game itself.

The player explores and interacts with the environment to hide their own items and then searches for their opponents’ items before they find theirs.

How we built it

We started two and a half weeks before the deadline.

First, we did a brainstorming session, discarded ideas based on their effort/reward ratio, and settled on the concept of a hide-and-seek competition with objects.

Next, we wrote a design document and chose which mechanics and use cases we wanted and could implement within two weeks. We defined the structure and progression. For the art, we used third-party assets for which we have licenses, and we chose a low-poly aesthetic so we'd be able to create or modify assets if needed.

Then we wrote a technical design document to define the architecture and components required for the game developed in Unity3D. Based on that, we defined the tasks and divided them among the team.

Finally, we implemented all the features using Git to collaborate as a team. We performed constant testing and reported any bugs we found.

We began by developing the game flow and general rules. In parallel, a playground was created to develop and test the player mechanics. During the process, we discarded furniture interaction due to time constraints. In the last two days, we cleaned up the selected assets and built three levels.

Challenges we ran into

The online mode and the VR interactions involving physics.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The online mode.

What we learned

We learned how to work on online and VR projects.

What's next for Item Hunter

New modes

  • Sequential search with clues.
  • Cooperative multiplayer and team battle.

Mechanics

  • Interaction with drawers, doors, lids, and other elements.
  • Moving heavier objects such as furniture to change the level layout and confuse the opponent, or to use them as support to reach higher areas.
  • Player tools such as an item detector (hot/cold), traps for the opponent, a sticky substance to attach items to walls or ceilings and more tools.
  • Decoy items to mislead the opponent (detector), areas created by the player on the fly to scare opponents and other hazards.
  • Hand interactions without controllers.

New levels

  • The number of levels can expand the game infinitely.

Avatar customization

  • Add cosmetics, outfits, and colors so each player can customize their avatar.

Online system improvements

  • Full integration with Meta (friend invitations).
  • Matchmaking.
  • Improve the join system and allow players to rejoin or enter mid-game.
  • Spectator mode.

Others

  • Cover the streaming screen in local multiplayer during the hiding phase so that other players cannot see where you place your objects.
  • Add more languages.

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