Game Jam - Hungry Hungry Hippos

Requirements:

• Adapt a board game into digital form, drawing inspiration from the core loop and/or aesthetics

• Learn creativity, collaboration, and problem solving skills within a teamwork environment

• Cultivate agile methodology and iterative design practices

• Develop proficiency in game design principles, digital prototyping and playtesting

  
  

Vision for the project:

After some brain storming using filter lists my team came to the decision of making Hungry Hungry Hippos. We wanted to recreate all features from the original boardgame, whilst applying a twist which would make it more interactive and intuitive as a video game; some of these adaptations include: more movement control to the player, different fruit(point) variation and the ability for players to interact with one another.

Production Process:

The development of this game focused heavily on creating a scalable and designer-friendly system, with a modular approach that enabled rapid iteration and ease of use for artists and designers alike. Throughout production, Blueprints were structured with exposed public variables and integrated mathematical logic to minimize the technical burden on non-programming team members.

AI players were built using behaviour trees and blackboards, supported by a custom controller system and a dynamic nametag setup to help differentiate the AI players in-game.

A procedural fruit system was designed to vary fruit meshes and textures based on their point values, with an accompanying fruit spawning system tied into a wave-based system to manage gameplay pacing.

Key gameplay mechanics included sprinting, diving, and a grenade system that allowed players to stun opponents. The scoring system was developed alongside a dynamic rope mechanic, where the rope length increased relative to the player's score, adding a unique visual and gameplay feedback loop. Fruits could be carried by players, making use of physics body assets. And all characters in game were supported by physics-based ragdolls for satisfying movement.

Several materials and visual features were created, including custom grass and leaf shaders, post-process materials for stylization, and Niagara notify tracks for VFX integration. A leaderboard system and a full UI suite - including a start menu and all in-game interfaces were implemented to support both feedback and navigation.

Although ultimately removed from the final build, I also developed a bindable keybind system and a variety of powerup fruits, including mechanics like double jump, magnetism, increased speed, increased fruit carry, and cooldown nullification. These were fully functional and integrated, however later removed due to the scope of the project.

Results:

My grade for this project was a First.

I'm incredibly proud of how this project turned out. Not only did I gain a tremendous amount of technical knowledge, but I also developed strong collaborative skills by working productively within a team environment. I'm genuinely happy with the final result - the game is fun to play, and it was rewarding to see our vision come to life. Throughout development, I focused on optimizing every system I worked on and ensuring they were user-friendly for the game designers. Based on the positive feedback I received from them, that goal was clearly achieved.