Bug Blast is a course project assigned in an undergraduate computer science class centered around basic data strutures, algorithms, and object-oriented programming. It is a 2D game 🎮 that features the player attempting to exterminate enemy bugs by dropping bug sprays while trying to avoid being infested. The different components of this game are derived from the original Bomberman game, created by Hudson Soft, a Japanese video game company.
The player navigates through a series of mazes using bug sprays to exterminate bugs called Zumi. In order to advance to the next maze, the player must first exterminate all of the Zumi before an exit square appears to move on to the next level.
If the player is on the same square as a Zumi at any given time, the player loses a life. The player starts with 3 lives.
When the player drops a bug sprayer, a timer 🕔 will count down, and after a specified amount of time, the sprayer will spray poison mist onto the surrounding squares. Any Zumi on any of those squares when the timer expires will be exterminated. The player can also be killed by this bug sprayer when it goes off, so be careful! In addition, any destroyable bricks can be destroyed by these detonated bug sprayers. The player can only drop 2 bug sprayers at a time.
There are two types of Zumi, Simple Zumi and Complex Zumi. Simple Zumi are essentially blind and only move in straight lines. Complex Zumi, on the other hand, move aggressively toward the player when they are within a particular smelling distance of the player.
The following shows the common controls in this game.
| Action | Key Binding |
|---|---|
| Move up ⬆️ | W |
| Move down ⬇️ | S |
| Move left ⬅️ | A |
| Move right ➡️ | D |
| Quit | Q |
| Drop bug spray | [SPACE] |
Alternatively, the arrow keys of the keyboard can be used to move the player avatar around.
When Zumi are exterminated, they may drop a goodie. There are three kinds of goodies in this game.
An Extra Life goodie gives the player an extra life.
A Walk Through Walls goodie allows the player to walk through destroyable bricks. However, it only lasts for a limited amount of time once it is retrieved. If the player is on the same square as a destroyable brick when the power of the goodie goes away, the player will lose a life. Be careful!
A More Sprayers goodie allows the player to drop more bug sprayers at once for a limited amount of time.
The following shows the points distribution in the game.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Destroy Simple Zumi | 100 |
| Destroy Complex Zumi | 500 |
| Pick up goodie | 1000 |
Every level also has bonus points that the player can earn after completing each level. However, the amount of bonus points that can be earned in a level is reduced by one point for each tick of the game. Whatever bonus remains when the maze is completed is added to the total score.
New levels can be customized and added to this game by specifying the parameters of each level in a separate data file. The following shows the data file for Level 0.
probOfGoodieOverall=100
probOfExtraLifeGoodie=0
probOfWalkThruGoodie=100
probOfMoreSprayersGoodie=0
ticksPerSimpleZumiMove=5
ticksPerComplexZumiMove=10
goodieLifetimeInTicks=40
levelBonus=1000
walkThruLifetimeTicks=200
boostedSprayerLifetimeTicks=200
maxBoostedSprayers=6
complexZumiSearchDistance=5
###############
# * @ * #
# #### #### #
# * s* * * #
# * * * * #
# ##### #
# #
# #
# #
# #
# # * # #
#*************#
# * # * #
# * e * #
###############
The parameters and layout of the maze must be separated by a new line in order for the data file to be parsed correctly. In addition, all parameter values must be non-negative integers.
The following describes the first few parameters related to the likelihood of some goodie being dropped when a Zumi is exterminated.
| Parameter | Probability of... |
|---|---|
probOfGoodieOverall |
Any goodie being dropped |
probOfExtraLifeGoodie |
Extra Life goodie being dropped |
probOfWalkThruGoodie |
Walk Through Walls goodie being dropped |
probOfMoreSprayersGoodie |
More Sprayers goodie being dropped |
The values of probOfExtraLifeGoodie, probOfWalkThruGoodie, and
probOfMoreSprayersGoodie are probability values given that some goodie is
dropped, and must add up to 100 (100%).
The following describes some other parameters related to speed or duration of different objects in the game.
| Parameter | Meaning (in ticks) |
|---|---|
ticksPerSimpleZumiMove |
How fast Simple Zumi move |
ticksPerComplexZumiMove |
How fast Complex Zumi move |
goodieLifetimeInTicks |
How long goodies last after being dropped |
walkThruLifetimeTicks |
How long Walk Through Walls goodies last |
boostedSprayerLifetimeTicks |
How long More Sprayers goodie last |
The following describes other miscellaneous parameters.
| Parameter | Meaning |
|---|---|
levelBonus |
Maximum bonus points |
maxBoostedSprayers |
Number of sprayers for More Sprayers goodie |
complexZumiSearchDistance |
How far Complex Zumi can smell |
The following describes what each character in the maze layout represents.
| Object | Character |
|---|---|
| Permanent brick | # |
| Destroyable brick | * |
| Starting location of player | @ |
| Simple Zumi | s |
| Complex Zumi | c |
| Exit | e |
The specified maze must be 15 squares wide by 15 squares high. The perimeter of the maze must be surrounded by permanent bricks. Any space characters in the maze layout represents space in which the player and Zumi can walk.
The code for this project is adopted from skeleton code provided by Carey Nachenberg and David Smallberg. The skeleton code provides functionality for graphics and audio.
This project can be developed on the latest version of Visual Studio or Xcode.
For further instructions on setup for either IDE, please refer to the README
in their respective folder.