Mystere is a first-person 3D puzzle survival game that integrates detective elements, developed as a final bachelor thesis project. The game aims to blend multiple genres, including first-person shooter, detective, and puzzle elements, into a cohesive and engaging experience.
- Great graphics: this project was done via HDRP.
- Exploration: this is not a small map by any means, so you could take some time to explore it and feel it!
- Sound: this game has both UI, environment, enemy and player sounds, and more!
- Particle effects: this game features some particle systems, like vent smoke, weapon fire, or fog.
- Animations: both the player and zombies have animations, e.g., attacking, running, or reloading a weapon.
- Multiple Scenes: The game features a few scenes, from the main scene, to the main menu, pause menu, or game over menu.
- Round System: Mystere features a round system: every round you get a random number of zombies, and you must kill them to proceed to the next round.
- Shop System: You can buy various items, from ammo to utilities, that will help you survive!
- Zombie Stuck System: this prevents a zombie from being stuck right at his spawn point, so a player would not wander around looking for it or restart the game.
- Story:The game has implemented a storyline through the dialogue system.
- Multiple weapons: you can select from 6 different weapons, full with sounds and different characteristics: range, damage dealt, ammunition and etc.
- Enemy types: In total, there are 4 enemy types: zombie, dog, insectoid, monster-scavenger.
| Technology Stack | Description |
|---|---|
| C#/.NET | Interacting with Unity's Scripting API is done using the C# programming language. |
| Unity | The entire implementation is carried out with the widely-used game engine Unity, which facilitates the manipulation of code, 3D assets, sounds, animations, and particle effects. |
| A Pathfinding Project | In order to fully integrate the A* search algorithm, the A* Pathfinding library was used. |
| Unity Libraries | Multiple Unity assets were utilized. - FirstPersonCharacter: for controlling the player movement. - MonsterLove.StateMachine: to manage all the different states for the enemies. - Dialogue System: integrating dialogue sequences and searchable objects. |
| GitHub | Due to my extensive familiarity with the GitHub system, it was chosen for version control. |
| The High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) | For a better user experience, and to make the whole experience immersive, as well as to try a new approach to building Unity games, I’ve used HDRP for rendering graphics. |
| Direct X | To simulate physics, such as raycasts or friction, Direct X was chosen. |
| Local Registry | To store information across game sessions, I utilized the computer's local registry by accessing it through the PlayerPrefs mechanism in Unity. |
Enemies must have the ability to navigate the level intelligently. To add to that, the enemy must find its way to the player to attack it. For this, we are using the A* pathfinding library. The library [4] implements the A* search algorithm as well as adding numerous customizable options, such as multithreading, logging, and color options for artifacts.
A* is a search algorithm applied to pathfinding and graph traversal problems. In a graph data structure, it determines the shortest path between a start node and a goal node. A* determines the priority of exploration, using the cost to reach a node (g-value) and an estimate of the cost to reach the goal from that node (h-value). With a priority queue, the algorithm starts by exploring nodes with the lowest total cost and updates costs and pathways along the way.
A* Search Algorithm.
The steps I took in order to integrate A* into the Mystere game were:
- Building the Whole Level: That means manually dragging 3D objects into the scene, such as cars, buildings, and props.
- Marking the 3D Objects: Identifying walkable and non-walkable objects using Unity's Layer system. A 2D plane that serves as the "ground" object is located beneath the map. This enables A*, which knows where in the 3D world, to generate the graph model with walkable and unwalkable tiles. The 2D plane makes up the graph model itself. As demonstrated in Figure 11, higher surfaces do not present any issues in spite of this.
- Adding A Classes to the Enemy Objects: Using
Seeker,AIPaththat are responsible for moving the enemy, as well as guiding it to the player.
The round ZombieRoundHandler is the central component of the game. The circular system is precisely what its name suggests. Similar to boxing, in this game, the player battles an ever-increasing number of opponents. The idea behind this is to push the player by making the game harder. The least and most foes that can be present in a round are both limited. The round ends when the player eliminates every enemy, and a grace period begins. We use a state system that MonsterLove provided. Players use the 30-second grace period to reload on supplies, including ammunition. A new round begins at that point, and new enemies begin to appear. The order of states is this: first, Round_Start gets executed, ending with the Round_End. Each of those has substates, like Enter, Update or Exit, indicating the start, continuous, and ending phases of these states.
It serves as the circular system's cornerstone. In this condition, everything is calculated. What is the anticipated number of enemies and their composition? It will launch the enemy spawning process to introduce adversaries into the game after all of these computations.
When the round is over, this status is checked. Only when no opponents are actively spawning and every enemy is killed will the round come to a conclusion.
This state determines the grace period between rounds. The countdown from 30 to 0 is started, giving the player time to be ready for the following round. It also saves data and adds money for every enemy that is eliminated.
Resets the variables used in the previous round.
YouTube demo: Demo
Spotted a zombie
Exploring the map.
Left image: game view. Right Image: how the camera is represented in the 3D world.
The implemenetation of the story mode (thanks to Dialogue System).
Class structure
Audio sources in the game (top view).
A visual showing the attack distance of the Zombie enemy class.
The location of all enemy spawn points.
Shop system.