Circuit Defense

Inspiration

We wanted to make a fun, open-ended kind of game which also educates those who play it on some simple laws of physics. We went with circuits because we found them fun to play with when we were studying them and it really fits into the turret defense theme quite well.

What it does

During the game, zombies will attempt to attack the core, which the player has to defend. Each defense the player builds is made of wires, batteries and turrets. The components have to be connected together, much like making a full circuit. The turrets are only active when powered by the circuit, which in turn requires the circuit to be fully connected to pass the charge. Each component has a Positive and Negative terminal, and they have to be connected in a full loop where the current passes from Positive to Negative, in order to work.

How we built it

We split up the workload between the four of us. The workload was split into turret logic, wire logic, enemy AI and final implementation as well as VR controls. Each wire and battery carries a charge that moves around the circuit. When the charge encounters a turret, the charge is added to the turret which will power up and do its actions depending on the amount of charge it has gotten.

Challenges we ran into

The wire logic was particularly hard as we were aiming for a node-based binary system for the wire logic, particularly with finding the direction and flow of the wires. We wanted the wires to connect up automatically, as well as being modular which proofed to be a challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A lot of the initially planned system was finished and working. While not the most hi-fidelity game, the graphics, we feel, have a certain low poly art style appeal to them. Overall we were pleased with what we had managed to make, especially for one of our first hackathons.

What we learned

Planning the wire logic a little more as well as researching more into the maths behind it would have helped with the production and implementation of the logic

What's next for Circuit Defense

Fixing wire logic to be more responsive, and reliable. Adding more turrets types, enemy types, wires etc Adding more formulaes that simulate real world physics electrical circuits as well as having more components types that might make for interesting interactions as well as extending Circuit defense's capabilities as a learning tool.

Built With

• unity