Inspiration
A Treasure Hunt game is an opportunity for everyone to have fun. Whether you`re 7 or 77 years old! It can be indoor, outdoor and even themed, there is a lot of treasure hunt game ideas for everyone. Yet, it will need enough amount of planning and preparation from setting the scene, creating the map and clues to hiding & hunting treasures. So normally, people will need to exert effort, get some guidance & have some tools just to build a fun treasure hunt game. And with kids involved, pretend play has to be considered. Pretend play is powerful for kids, it makes them use their imagination. Pretending to be a pirate on a treasure hunt, it satisfies the kids pirates fascination! it is an obsessive phase that all kids go through at some point in their development and creativity and imagination are likely to flourish, whether it is coming up with their own Pirates names or wearing their own invented pirate costumes. It could also suggest the beginning of another fantastic attribute, Leadeship! Kids love pirates, they make them learn how to solve problems and compromise while shouting “Yarrr!” !
What it Does
Treasure Hunt is a Multiplayer pirates themed game in which players are landed on a pirates treasure Island and attempt as one crew to stride across the Island, find the hidden gold coins (some are slightly difficult for kids and some are easy for encouragement) and try to collect 50 coins in the shortest possible time. While playing and striding across the Island, the screens display players names, numbers of collected coins, total number of coins out of the 50 target coins & the crew timer which is synced across all the screens. Once the 50 coins are collected, the timer stops and the congratulations message for the players appear with their achievement and the Top Hunter announced. The game encourages to work as one crew on one target with a little incentive for the most active player at the end. The game comes with more than 50 coins, so if some are missed or the game played many times they do not need to go the same path everytime they play, specially that, when a coin is collected, it is synchronized to disappear from the scene of all players so they can explore a new path each time. One crew can play many times to achieve a shorter time. Also different crews can compete to achieve a shorter time against one another. At the end of the day, the game is adventurous with Pirates theme from the visual and sound elements to the spirit of working in a team against time. The game can be played also if the players are not in the same physical location which helps players to stay connected even if in distance. It encourages to go outdoor in a good day as it needs almost 50 to 70 steps to go from the landing point to the Island end.
How it was built
The game was built in a Sync Framework Template mixed with Portal system and using physics bodies, so the host can invite other players and once they join, each one can start walking in the Island scene after each player decides his physical safe location to stride across the scene - which is the Island to find and tap the hidden gold coins. The game delivers a similar experience to the VR treasure hunt games yet, easier as VR requires gear (the Headset) and prior knowledge of using the VR and in some cases not adequate for kids.
Challenges
The heavylifting part was done by amending the helper scripts within the Sync Framework Template, there are advanced concepts that I could benefit to make them work for the game, particularly the raycast and the shared scoreboard scripts . Managing the whole Multiplayer experience was also challenging from the initial screen to the game end, there is a story that you need to keep telling along the whole experience and to boost this experience with the right visual and sound effects.
Accomplishments & Learned Lessons
The game worked as desired, a simple straightforward Multiplayer treasure hunt game that anyone can play, anytime with no preparation needed and delivers a magical experience. Learned more about managing Multiplayer experiences and also many ideas of how to implement the game have changed during the game building journey just to make it scalable in the future, and this is another thing I have learned in this journey.
What`s next for Treasure Hunt
Creating something for older kids and adults where they have to solve riddles, find clues and so on to finish the game.
Built With
- physics.js
- portal
- sync
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