Goal of the game

In the game, the player needs to collect as much points as possible. However, on both sides of the field are enemies that should at each other. The player is not directly targeted but is caught in the crossfire. Hence the name. As the game progresses, more and more enemies appear at the sides, increasing the number of bullets the player has to dodge.

Unique selling points

The player is never targeted directly by the enemies. This forces the player to employ more strategy and to have a wider view of the game world. The player also has a view unique abilities. There is the ability to boost a short distance so that the player can outrun or dodge a bullet. The player can also slow down time for a short while to catch their breath.

Technique

When I made this game, I had no experience with 3D game development. This was my first 3D project, so I did not try to do anything ambitious. Instead, I focused on a more technical game to familiarize myself with the 3D part of Unity.

A lot of the game is completely randomized. The blocks that provide cover are placed at every tile in the game world at a certain chance. This leaves about 10% of the game world covered with blocks. Exceptions had to be made for the pickup so that blocks could not spawn on top of it, leaving the player unable to reach the pickup until the block is destroyed.

The enemies also appear in a random fashion. The game keeps track of all the points between two enemies on the same site and chooses one of those to points at random to spawn a new enemy. After this, it updates the list of points. This makes sure that the enemies are fairly spread out across the field.

The music reacts to the abilities the player uses. When the player slows down time, they slow down the music as well. This was done by changing the pitch of the music, making it seem slower than it actually is.

Achievements

This game was quite a lot of fun to make because it allowed a lot of experimentation. There also wasn’t a lot of pressure on the design process. I learned a lot about 3D game development and was quite happy with the resulting game. I also found that the competitive nature of the game could be used to further enthuse people into playing the game more.