2 posts tagged with "Game Spotlight"

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.

Play Duck Wars Now

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.

At the core of Rune, we have games being enjoyed by millions of players. I’m glad to take the time to celebrate one of them, Melancia, that has been doing very well on the platform. This wonderful game was made by jallen.

Play Melancia Now

What’s the Game?​

Deceptively simple, the game features a Tetris-style well in which the player drops brightly colored fruits. When two fruits of the same type collide, they combine to make the next bigger fruit. The aim, as the name of the game may give away, is to make melons by combining all the other fruits. Other players are also playing in their own wells, trying to get to the melons before you.

It’s a clean concept implemented with especially satisfying physics and sounds that evidently keep players coming back for more. There’s something very delightful about the pop as you make your next fruit combinations.

What’s Great About It?​

Things that seem to work about Melancia on Rune (good tips for other devs):

• Simple, understandable mechanics with no text to read
• Bright and obvious graphical style
• Physics—especially shared physics—make for a pleasing experience
• Easy controls for mobile

How Does It Work on Rune?​

The game was implemented on the Rune SDK without having to change anything or take any special measures. If you’d like to see for yourself, the source is open:

https://github.com/jallen-dev/dusk-games/tree/main/games/melancia-game

The game was built over the course of a week, which, while short for game development, is pretty common amongst Rune games. It doesn’t take months of work to put out something to millions of players!

Developer Interview​

Jallen was kind enough to answer a few questions for us on the game and the development process.

How long have you building games?

About a year. I'm originally a web dev who has been easing into gamedev by making games in React, pixi.js and three.js.

What gave you the idea for the game?

It's heavily inspired by the game "Suika Game" which went viral last year. The main way Melancia Game differs is it's multiplayer and a race against the clock. It also puts less emphasis on the puzzle aspect, since there is no penalty for your fruit spilling out of the top of the container.

How long did the game take to build?

1 week. I started it on March 12 and it went live on March 19.

What was the most fun bit of the game to develop?

Figuring out how to get the physics library to play nicely with Rune. It was a fun challenge to solve, and I tested a few different solutions. What I ended up going with is having the client send the position/rotation/velocity of every fruit each time it drops a new fruit, so that the other clients can sync. Since each player has their own separate container of fruit, it's not really a problem to let each client be the source of truth for that player's fruit state.

Did you expect the game to be successful?

I had a feeling it would do well, since it's based on a hit game. I think my changes to the gameplay also helped it be a better fit for Rune's audience. It's faster-paced and requires less deliberation, which is ideal for a casual game over voice chat. Still, I was surprised by just how well it has done.

What would you different next time?

Use propel-js to do the physics logic side. My solution with syncing state is a bit of a hack. Plus having the physics in logic would enable new features, like players sharing the same container (i.e. a co-op mode).

How did you find Rune to work with?

It's fantastic. Small API surface, not opinionated about what you use to build your game's client. I think it's great for most types of web games.

Anything else you'd like to say?

If you liked this game you might like another one of my games that shared the same inspiration: https://coinjargame.com/

What Do the Players Think?​

One player comments:

The game is just cool

Another player says:

The game is simply top

I think they like it! Thanks so much to jallen for building the game and giving joy to so many players around the world.

If you’d like to talk about the game, learn how it was built, or build your own, drop in at the Discord.