---

Dungeon NFC

Team Size:
6
Team Role:
Lead/Gameplay Programmer

Dungeon NFC is a dungeon exploration puzzle solving based game in Unity 2D that was created in a team of 2 artists, 1 designer, 1 producer, and 2 programmers. In the game you try to solve rooms of a dungeon through use of cards that corresponded to tools such as a lockpick, torch, rope etc. as well as cards with a cooldown that corresponded to a class, such as a mage that could cast fire, or a warrior that could charge forward. The controls of the game were entirely done through the use of NFC chips and a USB NFC reader connected to the computer, and is also fully playable with a keyboard as an alternative.

As the main programmer on the team, my role was handling the gameplay aspects, such as figuring out how to get NFC reading to work and handling the scans within scenes. Through the use of an application called “GoToTag Windows App”, which I packaged with the build of the game and automatically launched on game start, I was able to read in NFC cards and use its content as a keyboard binding(For example, ‘A’ would be written on the NFC tag, and scanning it would function as if the A key was pressed). This let the game be testable and playable on a keyboard, while at the same time being completely playable the intended way with the NFC reader and tags.

This project became a big learning experience on how to create a unique experience in a game by the use of a new and interesting controller. My biggest regret with this game however is that I had to resort to using a third party application to get NFC tag reading to work, so most of the work I did looking into handling scans myself didn’t end up amounting to anything in the end.