Bison Run

Inspiration

In our rapidly evolving society, the traditional ways in which children aged 9 to 18 socialize and play have dramatically shifted. Gone are the days of neighborhood explorations and extended playtime with peers. According to a 24-year trend analysis by NIH, approximately 20% of children experience feelings of loneliness.

This isolation doesn’t just affect their social lives; it impacts their mental agility. Opportunities to engage their minds outside conventional settings are more crucial than ever. Moreover, with 75% of children not getting enough playtime (as reported by PR Newswire), the digital age calls for safe, stimulating, and engaging online entertainment that not only captivates but also educates.

Inclusivity and the encouragement of critical thinking and problem-solving skills are increasingly becoming necessities in the digital playground.

What BisonRun Does

Bison Run is a dynamic Roblox game designed specifically for young adventurers. It transcends traditional gaming by offering an exhilarating mix of obstacle courses and puzzle-solving challenges, all while promoting community engagement.

Solutions Offered by Bison Run Bison Run addresses key concerns through servicing, simplifying, solving, and innovating:

Servicing - Creating Community: We provide a vibrant, secure online space for children to connect, play, and grow. Features like live chat enhance interaction, while the game's challenges foster learning and fun.

Simplifying - Access and Engagement: Bison Run streamlines access to adventure and learning, making engagement simple and intuitive for kids.

Solving - Modern Challenges: The game tackles social isolation and the decline of physical activity by offering interactive, inclusive experiences that enhance social and cognitive skills.

Innovating - Digital Citizenship: Our gameplay melds entertaining content with educational elements, promoting problem-solving and critical thinking.

How We Built It

Development Tools and Environment We leveraged the robust capabilities of Roblox Studio, a powerful development environment designed for constructing immersive 3D experiences. Using Lua, a lightweight and efficient scripting language, we programmed the game's logic, interactions, and dynamic elements. Roblox Studio's integrated tools allowed us to model environments, design characters, and script complex behaviors, ensuring a seamless and engaging gameplay experience.

Asset Creation and Animation The creation of game assets was a pivotal part of the development process. We focused on designing a diverse range of obstacles, environments, and characters that would resonate with our young audience. Using Roblox Studio's built-in editor and third-party software, our team meticulously crafted assets that were both visually appealing and optimized for performance.

Animations played a crucial role in bringing the virtual world of Bison Run to life. From character movements to environmental changes, each animation was carefully programmed to enhance the game's realism and interactivity. We experimented with various animation techniques to achieve fluid motion and responsive gameplay mechanics.

Environmental Design and Day-Night Cycle One of the unique features of Bison Run is its dynamic environment, which transitions from day to night. This was achieved through careful scripting and the use of lighting effects within Roblox Studio. By manipulating the in-game time and lighting settings, we created a realistic day-night cycle that impacts gameplay and adds an extra layer of immersion.

The environmental design was approached with the aim of crafting diverse and challenging landscapes. Each level was designed to test players' skills in new ways, encouraging exploration and strategy. We incorporated natural elements, such as water, trees, and varied terrain, to create a rich and engaging world.

Multiplayer Functionality and VR Integration Ensuring smooth multiplayer interactions was essential for fostering community engagement within Bison Run. We implemented robust networking code to handle player interactions, real-time chat, and cooperative gameplay elements. The game was designed to support multiple players seamlessly, allowing friends to embark on adventures together.

Expanding the game's accessibility, we explored VR integration to offer an immersive experience for players with VR headsets. Adapting the controls and gameplay for VR presented unique challenges, but through iterative testing and user feedback, we optimized Bison Run for VR compatibility.

Challenges We Encountered

Our journey was fraught with challenges, from refining models and scripts to UI design and simulating the day-to-night transition. Adapting the game for VR and ensuring smooth multiplayer interactions were significant hurdles we overcame. Runtime Errors : We encountered logic flaws while trying to improve the physics of our tripwire and rope. Trying to access and modify the nil values of the initial vector positions would sometimes cause infinite loops. Corrupted Assets : Some of the textures, mesh models and sounds we tried implementing in our game to expand its functionality either refused to load or had specific parts that caused bugs when trying to scale the models. Performance Bottlenecks : Initially we had implemented a large unoptimized model that slowed down the gameplay so we had to make decisions that would prioritize user experience over game complexity. Latency and Data Handling : To enable seamless multiplayer gameplay we had to implement each user's local server to use the same randomly generated seedphrase that we used to ensure each player gets the same random map generation and experiences no lags in gameplay.

Accomplishments

Launched a Fully Functional Game: Successfully developed and released Bison Run, incorporating all envisioned features
Mastered New Tools Quickly: Learned and efficiently used a new programming language (Lua) and Roblox Studio in under 24 hours.
Aligned Game with Research Insights: Effectively integrated research findings into the game design, enhancing community relevance and addressing social issues like isolation.
Built and Nurtured a Community: Created a welcoming and inclusive environment within Bison Run, fostering meaningful connections among players.

What We Learned

Learning New Tech Stuff Using Roblox Studio: At first, Roblox Studio was new to us. But we got the hang of it, learning how to make our game look and work great.

Writing Code with Lua: We learned how to use Lua, a coding language, event driven programming, interacting with Roblox API, and Game physics.

Making the Game Look Good: We figured out how to design the game's look, from the buttons players click to the animations that make the game feel alive.

Connecting Players Together: We worked on making sure players could play together without problems, learning how computers talk to each other over the internet.

Soft Skills Solving Problems: We ran into some tricky spots, but we learned how to think of smart ways to get past them.

Talking It Out: Making a game together meant we had to be good at talking to each other, sharing ideas, and listening.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: We saw how everyone's different skills and ideas made our game better than if we worked alone.

Finding Fun in Coding: One of the coolest things we learned is how much fun it can be to create something from scratch with coding.

What’s Next:

Moving forward, we aim to expand Bison Run’s universe with more levels, challenges, and community features. Our goal is to enhance user engagement, introduce educational content, and continue building a safe, inclusive environment where creativity and friendships flourish.