BatSense — Devpost

Inspiration

We were inspired by how bats see the world in real life through echolocation.

What it does

Navigate a 3D pitch-black cave as a bat using echolocation pulses. Every ping reveals the cave's geometry but also acts as a signal of your location to lurking predators. So maneuver through the obstacles, avoid the hunters, and find the path to escape the cave alive.

How we built it

We built the core engine using Three.js r128 and custom GLSL shaders to replace traditional lighting models. The environment remains mathematically invisible until a sonar pulse propagates through the scene. Enemy pathfinding was from THREE-pathfinding. UI was good old HTML + CSS.

Challenges we ran into

Displaying 3D sprites so they appeared affected by the sonar waves while moving.
Balancing difficulty of enemies / obstacles.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The visual impact of the sonar wave. Watching the light ripple outward to reveal the cavern is incredibly satisfying and gives the player a fleeting but vital sense of spatial awareness. Also how we transformed blindness into a high-stakes gameplay loop.