CosmicHunter

Inspiration

We were inspired by the hackathon’s Space Cowboy theme and wanted to blend two iconic genres sci-fi and western into one fast paced, action-packed experience. The idea of a lone cowboy traveling across the galaxy, hunting alien outlaws, and taking down UFO bosses felt like the perfect mix of creativity and fun.

What it does

CosmicHunter is a Unity-based 2D shooter where you play as a space cowboy with a six-shot revolver, hunting alien criminals. You'll come across unique enemies, environments, and boss designs in your journey across the universe. The game is hosted on a React website running from our home server so players can jump right in and play online.

How we built it

We developed the game in the Unity Game Engine, programming in C#. Along the way, we created pixel art sprites and animations for the cowboy, aliens, and bosses. These were later implemented into the gameplay. Our backend setup runs on a home server using Nginx and Cloudflare, serving a React web app that embeds the Unity WebGL build for easy online access. We collaborated using GitHub and worked together to balance gameplay, design levels, and build a cohesive space-western aesthetic.

Challenges we ran into

Getting Unity’s WebGL build to run smoothly on our self-hosted React site.
Balancing difficulty between enemies and bosses while keeping gameplay fun.
Managing assets, animations, and collisions efficiently in Unity.
Working under hackathon time constraints while coordinating game design and deployment.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a fully playable Unity game in under 24 hours, including programming, art, and sound design for a complete experience.
Successfully hosting and deploying the game through our own server.
Designing unique enemies, animations, and boss mechanics to keep the player engaged.
Bringing the Space Cowboy theme to life with our own twist.

What we learned

We learned how to integrate Unity WebGL builds into a web app, how to optimize assets for smoother performance, and how to collaborate effectively under pressure. We also deepened our understanding of game design loops, enemy AI, and self-hosted deployment. Overall, we learned a ton about the Unity Game Engine and creating out own games! It was a long process, but definitely a worthwhile one.

What's next for CosmicHunter

We plan to expand CosmicHunter with new planets, more enemy types, power-ups, and maybe a story-driven campaign. Long-term, we’d love to refine the visuals, add multiplayer bounty hunts, and publish it as a free browser game for everyone to play. Though we didn't get everything we originally planned to complete, we are VERY proud of the progress we made, and can't wait to continue development in the future!