Bobber Buddies

Made for The University of Staffordshire's Junior & Senior Collab.

Summary

Race your friends in an exciting, fast paced environment!

Compete to catch the most fish!

Fight over your catches to steal points from you opponents!

Bobber Buddies is a local 2-4 player PvP where cute animals fight to be the ones to catch the most fish in a limited amount of time. 

Controls

How to Play

Bobber Buddies is a game designed for 2-4 players using Xbox controllers. 

The goal is to be the player with the most points when the timer runs out. You earn points by taking the right coloured fish to the right coloured port. 

There are 3 colours of ports/fish: blue, purple, and orange. 

• The orange fish are worth 6 points. 
• The purple fish are worth 3 points. 
• The blue fish are worth 1 point. 

There are two ways in which you can get fish: by fishing for them, or by stealing them from other players before they are deposited.  

Fishing:  

• Approach an active fishing spot on the map and press the fishing trigger button [RT].  
• A QTE will appear; the player must press the button again [RT] at the right moment to succeed at this QTE and catch a fish.  
• The more valuable a fish, the more difficult their QTE will be. 
• Once you have caught a fish, that fish will follow behind you until you deposit it at its corresponding port. 
• The fish are automatically deposited when the players' boat enters the zone of water designated for the port. 
• It is possible to catch and tow multiple fish, but you will not earn the points for them until they are deposited. 
• Whilst you have caught and are towing fish, it is possible for other players to steal those fish from you. 

Stealing: 

• Approach a player who has fish and press the stealing trigger button [RB]. 
• This will cause a stealing QTE to pop up, involving the facing-buttons of the controller. 
• The player who is stealing, and the player who is being stolen from will have to battle to be the quickest to button-mash the corresponding buttons. 
• Who is winning the tug-of war can be seen in the bar below the facing button UI: the colours of the bar correspond with the colours of the players battling. 
• If the player who is stealing is the fastest, the most recently caught fish from the other player will become theirs. 
• If the player who was being stolen from is the quickest, they get to keep their fish.  
• Whoever loses this tug-of-war will be temporarily stunned.

Dashing & Stunning: 

• Players can dash using the dash button [LT]. 
• Knocking into another player whilst you are dashing causes that player to be knocked backwards. 
• This can be used to interrupt a player who is in the middle of a fishing QTE. 
• This dash can either be a small dash, by tapping the dash button, or a charged dash by pressing and holding the dash button for at least 1 second. 
• The charged dash lasts for longer, and striking another player with a charged dash causes a greater knockback, and temporarily stuns the player, leaving them unable to move for a couple of seconds. 

Players' scores are kept track of in the UI at the bottom of the screen, with the player in 1st place having a corresponding golden crown; so if someone gets too far ahead, everyone can easily identify and gang up on them. 

Credits

Project Lead & Producer - Ffion Boardman

Technical Lead - Tahseen Khan
Systems & UI Programmer - Tahseen Khan
Systems & Gameplay Programmer - Eve Dunn
Gameplay Programmer - Cody Hayward
Gameplay Programmer - Michael Graham-Weall
Gameplay Programmer - Luke Fisher
Gameplay Programmer - Ffion Boardman

Design Lead - Armando Ritter E Silva
Conceptual Designer - Alfie Cordon
Conceptual Designer - Yosef Taram

Game Art Lead - Chloe Jenderko
Texture Artist - Chloe Jenderko
3D Artist - Edwin Bullock
3D Character Artist - Jamie Foster
3D Environment Artist - Sam Jones-Williams
3D Artist - Sean Ratcliffe

Concept Art Lead - Yu Hao Qiu
Character Concept Artist - Yu Hao Qiu
Promotional Material Artist - O Tin Chow
Creature Concept Artist - Oliwia Wieczorek
UI Artist - Ffion Boardman

Music
"Mischief Maker" Kevin Macleod
"Comedy Cartoon Funny Background Music" Starostin