History of Computing Frogger 3D game
This game was created for the History of Computing Class at the University of Notre Dame. The objective is to start with a 2D game and transform it into a 3D game. We chose to implement the classic game Frogger; it encapsulates the original competition of the classic game. The user is able to weave through traffic, cross a river, and hop over the train tracks all in a certain amount of time. Compete through the different levels and hop through a newer, exciting version of Frogger!
We used Unity to build the scene and the code for the game. For the scenery we created cars, trucks, trains, and logs in the water all through Unity. Also, we implemented the required physics for the vehicles and collision detection. We created a frog skeleton in Maya to animate it in the same manner as an actual frog. This provides the user with a realistic view of a frog moving around the course. We implemented game play code that times the user, keeps track of the user’s score and lives, and determines how a player loses a life based on the collision detection. For the user input device, the keyboard is utilized to navigate throughout the scenes. This game can be run online through Windows and through MacOS. The code is also stored to GitHub and can be downloaded with the links on the website. This game is built into the website and will run you automatically when the user opens the link. This feature means that there is no need to build the game from scratch each time. This website used on GitHub is used for the documentation of the project.
Clay: Focused on the frog animation to allow the frog to move properly. The work was done in Maya to build a skeleton for the frog and apply animation to the object. He also worked on the coding of the game and implementing the frog into the scene so the game could run properly together. Alec: Worked on the scenery adding in the cars, trucks, train, logs, and objects to the display. Implemented the code that allowed for collisions on the objects and the physics on the objects so that they would correctly interact with the frog. He used Unity to make all of the objects in the scene. Chris: Worked on the code for the game play state that included the determination of how points are scored, the way in which the frog can lose a life, and different levels into the game. Additionally, he completed the documentation throughout the stages of the project and generated the website using GitHub for integration of the game online.
The team accomplished significant functionality according to the planned objectives for the game features. We successfully created a complete and functioning game with a few different levels, an animated character, and Unity objects which included collision detection. The game implemented a realistic 3D view of the original game Frogger which was the main objective of the project. Additionally, we were able to create a website that includes the game and properly documents our work.
We gained a great deal of experience in the process for creating objects in Unity and in the details of the workings of Unity, in general. We learned how to add physics to objects and collision detection which was especially interesting and exciting when seeing the final project in action. We also learned how to animate an object and import it from Maya into Unity. Finally, we were able to successfully embed a Unity project into a website so that the game can be executed online and played by all!