Wanjhwati - Atya Patya

Inspiration

Growing up in Sindh, the traditional game of Wanjhwati was the heartbeat of our youth. Played on hard-packed earth with chalked trench grids and lightning-fast agility, Wanjhwati is a cherished Sindhi street sport of tag, evasion, and tactical positioning (historically documented and formally codified across South Asia as Atya Patya).

While mainstream sports enjoy countless video games, indigenous games like Wanjhwati had practically zero digital presence. When the RevenueCat Shipaton 2026 was announced, our mission became clear: build the world's first high-fidelity, physics-based 3D game dedicated to Wanjhwati, make it instantly playable on Web, iOS, and Android, and design an ethical, player-first monetization model powered by RevenueCat.

What It Does

Wanjhwati: Atya Patya delivers authentic, fast-paced tactical evasion gameplay with modern 3D graphics:

Authentic Wanjhwati Court & Rules:
- Raiders (Attackers): Commit forward across 9 restricted trench lines. Once a line is crossed, you cannot retreat back into a cleared lane. Sprint across to the far end to trigger Tond (which forces the entire defending squad to turn and freeze in place), then battle your way back across all trenches to score a full Lona!
- Defenders: Guard the court locked along their specific horizontal trench lanes.
- Wanjhu (Captain): Dominates a dynamic "T" — patrolling the entire front line plus the central vertical spine, requiring them to "cut the squares" before any tag counts.
- Match Format: Fast-paced 4 innings of 3 minutes each, with sides alternating raids. Total cumulative points decide the match.
Hybrid & Accessible Controls:
- Responsive on-screen virtual joystick and touch action triggers on mobile and tablets.
- Precise keyboard (WASD / Arrow navigation / 1–9 player hot-switching) and mouse controls on desktop.
Intelligent AI & Transparent Umpiring:
- Tactical CPU opponent squads with reactive spatial zoning.
- An automated 3D AI umpire review protocol with multi-angle instant replay cameras for close calls and tags.
Multiplayer & Deep Customization:
- Instant room-code multiplayer lobbies powered by Playroom alongside offline single-player AI simulation.
- Rich cultural cosmetic customization (authentic Sindhi Ajrak patterns, attire, skins, headwear, and signature celebration animations).
Live Analytics & Telemetry:
- Global telemetry dashboard monitoring live match stats, innings completed, and real-time server health.

How We Built It

Frontend & 3D Engine: Built with React 18, TypeScript, Vite, and Three.js via @react-three/fiber and @react-three/drei.
Physics & Collisions: High-performance 3D rigid-body dynamics and axis-locked movement constraints engineered with @dimforge/rapier3d-compat.
Mobile & Native Shells: Bundled seamlessly for iOS and Android using Capacitor 8, featuring responsive haptics, screen orientation locks, and native status bar theming.
Monetization via RevenueCat:
- Integrated @revenuecat/purchases-capacitor to power an ethical, player-friendly "Coffee Tip Jar" model (supporter entitlement).
- Backed by tiered offerings configured in RevenueCat (small, medium, large coffees).
- Granting supporter status permanently disables occasional post-match interstitial ads and unlocks exclusive supporter marks, without gatekeeping any of the 50+ free cultural cosmetics.
Advertising: Non-intrusive AdMob interstitial ads on native mobile for non-supporters via @capacitor-community/admob, strictly throttled between completed matches. Supporters never see ads.
Multiplayer Networking: Integrated Playroom for instant peer-to-peer lobby generation and multiplayer synchronization.
Infrastructure: Deployed globally on Cloudflare Pages and Workers with edge caching, analytics logging, and zero-latency asset delivery.

Challenges We Ran Into

Translating Trench Tag Physics to 3D: Real-world Wanjhwati relies on strict line constraints (defenders cannot step outside their trench width; raiders cannot step backward). Tuning Rapier physics colliders and axis locks to guarantee zero glitching or clipping across trench lines while keeping movement fluid was a major engineering feat.
Unified Cross-Platform Purchases: Ensuring @revenuecat/purchases-capacitor handles native iOS and Android purchases with seamless offline/online fallback, while gracefully degrading into a clean web preview at wanjhwati.com without throwing runtime errors.
Low-Latency Umpire Replay: Recording rolling spatial coordinate histories of all players during intense raids to render instant multi-angle slow-motion replays without causing frame drops on low-end mobile devices.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

Bringing the traditional Sindhi game of Wanjhwati to 3D life for the first time in video game history!
Delivering silky-smooth 60 FPS 3D gameplay across budget Android devices, iPhones, and modern desktop browsers.
Achieving a zero-friction monetization model using RevenueCat: no aggressive paywalls, no predatory microtransactions—just genuine cultural appreciation and optional supporter tipping.
Building a full game loop from scratch—from custom 3D low-poly models, textures, sound, and animations to cross-platform store readiness.

What We Learned

How to leverage RevenueCat's entitlement architecture to cleanly separate client logic from backend pricing and offerings.
Deep mathematical modeling of sports evasion mechanics and spatial AI pathfinding.
Best practices for cross-platform asset bundling, Draco 3D compression, and hybrid web/native deployments.

What's Next For Wanjhwati

Ranked online multiplayer matchmaking and regional community leaderboards.
Additional culturally inspired historic arenas and commentary in regional languages (Sindhi, Urdu).
Enhanced tournament mode with spectator lobbies for community broadcast streams.