Wildlife Simulator
Overview
Wildlife Simulator is a multiplayer fighting game where you get assigned an animal and try to slay other beasts (or just run and annoy people if you are a rabbit). The game requires one computer connected to wifi running the game, and then as many HTML5 compatible devices (phones, tablets, other computers, anything with wifi and a browser) as you want may connect to it and join the brawl!
Controls
To move, drag and hold around the center of the screen. To use your animal's move just tap the screen. Your animal's objective is listed on your device. Have fun!
Installing
To play this game, run the executable on a computer. Then with a smartphone, tablet, or computer, open a browser and go to happyfuntimes.net and join the game! Since there is a lot of networking magic going on to make this simple to join, please refer to troubleshooting section if you run into problems.
Troubleshooting
- make sure you are on the same wifi as the machine hosting the game
- forward port 18679 on your router
- try using the Chrome browser
- manually type in the host computers ip address to your web browser (super tedious, but very good chance of working) using this format: "http://[host_ip_address]:18679"
- BEST PLAYED ON 16:9 ASPECT RATIO
Development
I made Wildlife Simulator over the course of a weekend at HackUCI 2017. I wanted to make a game using the HappyFuntimes library which allows you to connect many HTML5 compatible devices to a computer over the same local wifi network. It opens up the possibility to easily make games with a very large number of players, because it bypasses the need for conventional controllers, and most everyone these days has a smart phone. In the top image you can see multiple players playing on their phones!
Though HappyFunTimes came with some default controllers, I ended up making a custom one that felt simpler to control while looking at the game instead of your phone. Also, I wanted to add a scoring system but ran out of time in the jam. I might add this later though as it would validate bunnys since they would get points just by living, hah!