Mob Hunt | Devpost

Mob Hunt

Inspiration

Mob Hunt is a fun hide and seek game for the horizon world. I was inspired by prop hunt, a popular online genre of hide and seek that can be played in different games like Fortnite, COD, Roblox.

What it does

The game begins by allowing the 'hiders' to go into the environment and disguise themselves as a prop in the environment. After which the seekers are allowed to explore the environment trying to identify which prop in the environment is a player hiding. After certain intervals, a whistle is blown at the current location of the hiders to give a hint to the seekers which area they are hiding. The hiders could re-disguise themselves as a different prop but risks getting caught during transformation :). The game can be played by multiple players where some are assigned hiders and others seekers. If there are no players to play as hiders, there will be NPCs that will become hiders for the seekers to find.

How we built it

Since this is a mobile first approach and with the technology available for mobile, I decided that only players that join in mobile can be hiders. Any player joining through VR will become seeker (hence the name Mob(ile) Hunt). If there are more mobile players, then the game will balance the hiders and seekers. I used player focused and camera api to attach the mobile player's view to a particular prop/item they choose during hiding. With that I was able to hide their player avatar out of view while they controlled the prop using Custom UI controls. I had to create my own physics mechanism for the prop movement, jumping and collision for deterministic and smooth game play

Challenges we ran into

I initially tried using the default physics of the system for the prop movement. I had issues with accurate positioning of the prop. I had to change to animated control and built my own movement and collision mechanism for precise control. I also had issues with using custom UI with the combination of focused screen swipe for movement control. Focusedview movement does not allow multiple touch which makes it difficult to implement moving and turning at the same time. I had to us alternative of adding a set of customUI buttons for turning which works. I then used the swipe for camera look.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I like the prop movement we implemented which uses a set of raycast to determine collisions and ground. Also the prop/avatar swap mechanism that allows the user turn into a prop or back to avatar player at anytime.

What we learned

I learnt a lot with the project which includes the proper communication between server and clients. Also how to use Gizmos like raycasts only when needed to not overload the device. Lastly how to optimize the game to prevent memory leak especially when the server runs for a long time.

What's next for Mob Hunt

I plan to create more fun environments and props. Add more mechanics like boogie ball which forces hider props to start dancing if the seeker throws the boogie ball close to where they are hiding :). Lots more to come!!