There are a growing number of great games on Rune being played by millions of players every day. It's time to take a look at one of them of them - Duck Wars, that was part of the Rune Open Source Grants program. This incredible game was created by the talented developer, Ethan.
What’s the Game?
A classic implementation of BattleShip with a fun twist using rubber duckies as your targets. It's light hearted fun but fits the platform perfectly as a game that you can enjoy while still chatting with your friends. The art style and sound effects are just perfectly matched to the game play.
For those who don't know battleships in Duck Wars you place your ducks in the bath in any arrangement you like. The opponent does the same. You then take turns in taking pot shots and each other's ducks. The first one to blast all those pesky ducks wins.
What’s Great About It?
Things that seem to work about Duck Wars on Rune (good tips for other devs):
- Well known classic game
- Bright and obvious graphical style
- New twist and style on the old classic
- Easy controls for mobile
Developer Interview
Ethan kindly agreed to answer a few questions for us on his experience making games on Rune.
How long have you been building games?
Before developing Duck Wars, I had only built a few very small games in Unity occasionally over the years, so my game development experience is quite limited.
What gave you the idea for the game?
The idea for Duck Wars came from my girlfriend, who really loves ducks! Initially, I wanted to create a 1v1 multiplayer game, and combining that with a duck theme ultimately led to the concept of a duck-themed battleship game.
How long did the game take to build?
It took about two months to complete the game, though I worked on it off and on during that time. Progress was steady but varied depending on my schedule with school.
What was the most fun bit of the game to develop?
The most enjoyable part of the development was definitely implementing multiplayer using the Rune SDK. Having never worked with multiplayer before, it felt almost like magic to see how seamlessly it integrated with React. After laying the groundwork for the game, adding multiplayer functionality and seeing it come to life was incredibly satisfying.
Did you expect the game to be successful?
Honestly, I didn’t expect the game to be particularly successful. It started as a small, fun project I worked on the side without anticipating much. However, being able to see thousands of players engage with and enjoy the game has been a great surprise and incredibly rewarding!
What would you do different next time?
One thing I'd do differently next time is to incorporate regular user testing throughout the development process. Being able to get continuous feedback from players would have helped identify and address many of the issues I faced during development early on, improving both the development experience and the final product.
How did you find Rune to work with?
The experience of working with Rune has been really great! The documentation was clear and easy to follow. Whenever I had questions or encountered issues with the SDK, I could reach out to the developers on Discord and they would promptly address them. The developers also sought feedback on my experience with the SDK and asked for suggestions on how they could improve the development experience, which I really appreciated!
Anything else you'd like to say?
Be sure to check out my other game on Rune, called Tap Party!
What Do the Players Think?
Here's some of the thousands of player's comments on the game
My favorite game by far!
such a fun game with nice background music! I love this
Best game ever!
It's clear that Duck Wars is well loved! Ethan has built a great game and entertained a huge number of players worldwide!
If you’d like to talk about the game, learn how it was built, or build your own, drop by our Discord.
