Rock Paper Deathmatch

This game is on GitHub to check out! (Project version is 2018.1.0f2)

“Rock Paper Deathmatch” is a 3D network-supported arena shooter, made in Unity at the end of my third year of college in 2018. This game was made as a group class project with three others (Ittai Mann, Andrew Jackson, John Luuke Saake) and it spiraled into complexity the longer we worked on it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The design gimmick of this game is that there are three weapon types to pick up in each arena - Rock, Paper, and Scissors - and you throw them at the other player. Depending on what the other player is holding on impact, they will either die (holding Rock and Paper hits them) or survive the hit (holding Scissors/Paper and Paper hits them).

The result of the rules for the weapons is that players are often looking for what the other player is holding (the weapons are distinctly colored and easy to identify) and reacting accordingly; ducking behind some cover or chasing after them. It makes for fast standoff-styled gameplay where encounters are resolved quickly, combined with the small levels the game comes with. Additionally, the rules of the game were easy to pick up and understand by players, as Rock, Paper, Scissors is a very well-known game that spans across multiple cultures.

With the design easy to formulate, the real challenge came in implementing it all. I was tasked with creating the GUI and menus, player controller, and implementing the networking. Networking in Unity was the biggest pain, since I had never been taught how to make a networked anything (not a single competent course offered on it, what gives?) let alone a fast-paced FPS game. Needless to say, I spent a few sleepeless nights getting it all together.

After the game was done, I had on my hands several useful prefabs and modules of code that I would go on to use for later projects as well: a home-grown Input Manager that supports rebindable keys, and a full-fledged options menu for the player to delve into. So hey, that’s good!