MCT BACHELOR PROJECT • UNITY 6 & HDRP • NGO MULTIPLAYER

LOOTBUGS

“The Queen desires food. Make sure it’s not you.”

A high-intensity 3D co-op survival roguelike for 1–4 players. Step into the chassis of an 8-legged robotic scavenger with procedural Inverse Kinematics. Climb walls, tether glowing scrap, evade lethal AI horrors, and feed the colossal mechanical Queen before time runs out.

1–4 Co-op Players
360° Wall & Ceiling Climb
8-IK Procedural Legs
NGO Server-Authoritative
TRY IK SPIDER SIMULATOR → EXPLORE GAMEPLAY
Lootbugs 8-legged spider robot crawling vertically on a dark sci-fi wall
UNIT 04-SCAVENGER STATUS: OPERATIONAL // WALL GRIP: 100%
THE OPERATIONAL DIRECTIVE

The Scavenge Loop

Inspired by co-op roguelike hits like Lethal Company and R.E.P.O., every run is an unpredictable battle against time, physics, and roaming predators.

STEP 01
🚀

Lobby & Deployment

Assemble at the orbital Hub Base with up to 3 friends. Customize your robot's chassis color, upgrade your flashlight, and board the deployment pod into abandoned procedural facilities.

STEP 02
🕷️

360° Wall Scavenging

Traverse broken ceilings and vertical walls. Utilize suction fields and elastic tether cables to drag scrap canisters, scientific data drives, and radioactive cores.

STEP 03
⚠️

Evade Hostile FSM AI

Monsters patrol dark corridors with dynamic sight and hearing. Heavy loot slows down your movement speed according to the physical weight formula. Outrun or hide!

STEP 04
🔥

Feed the Queen & Upgrade

Return to base to dump loot into the Queen's incinerator mouth. Satisfy her escalating quota to earn credits for the Shopkeeper, or fail and become her feast.

The colossal mechanical Queen in her subterranean nest
🔥 INCINERATOR CORE: ACTIVE
SECTOR 0 - SUBTERRANEAN HIVE

The Mechanical Queen

In a post-apocalyptic era where humanity has vanished, the ruins of civilization are claimed by apex machine intelligences and mutated predators. At the apex sits The Queen: a colossal spider-like biomechanical furnace that devours scrap metal and high-tech components to fabricate new scavenger units.

You and your crew were spawned for a single purpose: venture into dark, unpowered complexes, gather abandoned human artifacts, and drag them into her fiery jaws. If your tally falls short of her quota, she won't starve—she'll consume you instead.

QUEEN_INTERFACE_LOG // TTY-04
> SYSTEM: DEPOSIT HATCH READY.
> QUOTA TARGET: 1,250 CREDITS [CYCLE #03]
> WARNING: FAILURE TO DELIVER WILL TRIGGER PROTOCOL CONSUME_DRONES.
> WAITING FOR CREW CARGO..._
ENGINEERED FOR PHYSICS & FUN

Core Gameplay Systems

Custom built in Unity 6 with advanced math, Inverse Kinematics, and networked physics.

SURFACE NORMAL PHYSICS

360° Omnidirectional Climbing

Standard Unity gravity is disabled in favor of a dynamic custom gravity vector. Using raycast dot-product analysis (`EvaluateCollision` & `SnapToGround`), your robot crawls effortlessly across ceilings, pipes, and vertical walls.

  • ✓ Continuous surface normal alignment
  • ✓ Smooth pitch & roll compensation
  • ✓ Toggleable Static vs Dynamic camera mode
RAYCAST & IK

Procedural 8-Legged Body Animation

Rather than canned walk animations, all 8 spider legs use Inverse Kinematics and raycasting to automatically plant their tips on uneven ground, moving along smooth sinusoidal arcs (`sin(t * π) * 0.3`).

  • ✓ Adaptive terrain conformity
  • ✓ Alternating 4-leg gait synchronization
  • ✓ Dynamic step height offsets
PHYSICS SIMULATION

Suction & Elastic Tether Dragging

Ditch traditional grid inventories for tactile physical looting. Activate suction fields to attract nearby salvage, or attach network-synced elastic tethers to drag heavy loads behind you.

  • ✓ Real-time weight vs speed penalty
  • ✓ Network-synced spring joints
  • ✓ Physics knockbacks & collisions
FINITE STATE MACHINE

Hostile AI State Architecture

Dungeon predators operate under an autonomous Server-Authoritative FSM with distinct Idle, Patrol, Chase, and Attack states, leveraging dynamic vision cones and NavMesh navigation.

  • ✓ Sightline & angle detection math
  • ✓ NavMesh pathfinding across rooms
  • ✓ Server-validated damage RPCs
Spider bots tethering radioactive scrap canisters while evading lurking monster

Tactical Physical Looting

Tethering high-tier scrap yields massive credits for the Queen, but the additional weight slows your sprint speed—making stealth and team coordination crucial.

INTERACTIVE LAB // HANDS-ON DEMOS

Test the Game Systems Live

Interact directly with the mathematical models and physics algorithms from the Lootbugs engine right inside your browser.

PROCEDURAL 8-LEG INVERSE KINEMATICS SIMULATOR Move cursor / finger inside viewport to steer spider
POSITION: (350, 230) GAIT: ALTERNATING TRIPOD / OCTO

Simulation Parameters

Adjust the spider bot's procedural IK and chassis physics in real time.

ACTUAL IN-GAME EQUATION (C#) EffectiveSpeed = max(MinSpeed, BaseSpeed - (TotalWeight / PlayerStrength))
8.0 m/s SPEED
TOTAL WEIGHT 0.0 kg
ESTIMATED CREDITS 0 C
MOBILITY PENALTY -0.0%
🕷️ ROBOT
NO ITEMS TETHERED

Add Salvage Items to Tether

Click items below to attach them to your robot's tether line and observe weight drag.

Tethered Inventory (0 items)
No scrap attached. Click items above to tether them.
Friendly Shopkeeper Spider Bot with fedora hat
“Welcome to Core-Tech Upgrades! Hand over your scrap credits and I'll soup up your servos!”
AVAILABLE SCRAP CREDITS: 750 C
ℹ️ Exponential Progression: In-game prices scale up by +20% per level: Cost = BaseCost × 1.20Level
❤️

Chassis Plating (Health)

LVL 0/5

Increases total chassis health capacity to survive predator strikes.

⚡

Overclocked Servos (Speed)

LVL 0/5

Boosts base crawling speed across floors, walls, and ceiling surfaces.

🦾

Hydraulic Winch (Strength)

LVL 0/5

Reduces the movement speed penalty incurred when tethering heavy scrap.

🔋

Capacitor Bank (Stamina)

LVL 0/5

Extends maximum sprint duration and speeds up battery recharge.

🔦

Photon Beam (Flashlight)

LVL 0/3

Expands the flashlight's volumetric reach and beam width in dark rooms.

YOU
AI PREDATOR
CURRENT FSM STATE: PATROL DISTANCE TO TARGET: 18.4 m

AI Finite State Machine (FSM) Visualizer

Simulate player visibility, distance triggers, and observe how the predator's server-side state machine responds in real time.

STATE Idle Ambient Scan
→
STATE Patrol NavMesh Waypoints
→
STATE Chase Direct Pursuit
→
STATE Attack Lethal Strike
C# SERVER AI EVALUATION LOGIC 
if (CanSeePlayer(targetPlayer)) {
    nextState = new ChaseState(this, targetPlayer);
} else if (remainingDistance <= stoppingDistance) {
    nextState = new PatrolState(this);
}
FACILITY MANIFEST & VALUATION

Loot Tiers & Scrap Codex

The Queen awards credits according to rarity, weight, and component complexity.

Rarity Tier Spawn Chance Point / Credit Value Weight Burden Typical Salvage Item
COMMON 60% 10 Credits 0.5 kg Rusted Structural Scrap, Copper Wiring
UNCOMMON 25% 25 Credits 1.0 kg Industrial Circuit Boards, Optical Lenses
RARE 10% 50 Credits 1.5 kg Sub-Atomic Quantum Sensor, Coolant Matrix
EPIC 4% 100 Credits 2.0 kg Overcharged Plasma Battery, Fusion Cell
LEGENDARY 1% 500 Credits 2.5 kg Sentient AI Neural Core, Dark Matter Canister
ENGINEERING & ACADEMIC DOSSIER

Technical Architecture

Developed by Emrys Melissant as a Bachelor Project for Multimedia & Creative Technologies (MCT) at Hogeschool MCT.

🎮

Unity 6 & HDRP 17.3

Utilizes Unity 6's high-performance runtime with the High Definition Render Pipeline for volumetric lighting, physical shaders, and realistic shadow mapping in dark abandoned facilities.

🌐

Netcode for GameObjects (NGO)

Server-Authoritative multiplayer with Client-Side movement prediction. Remote Procedure Calls (`[ServerRpc]`, `[ClientRpc]`) synchronize physics tethering and scoring safely.

🎙️

Vivox 3D Voice Audio

Integrated spatial 3D proximity voice communication so team members can whisper or shout across procedural corridors with realistic distance attenuation.

🗺️

Runtime NavMesh AI

Dungeon generation constructs modular rooms at runtime, triggering an asynchronous NavMesh surface bake so monster FSM agents navigate smoothly across dynamically generated corridors.

BACHELOR PROJECT CREDITS

Howest MCT • 3D & XR Specialization

Developer: Emrys Melissant
Mentors & Evaluators: Koen Heylen • Pieter Jorissen
Asset Pipeline: Leartes Studios Cyberpunk Gigapack & Sketchfab Robotics

“Lootbugs combines procedural inverse kinematics, custom normal gravity physics, and server-authoritative netcode to craft a distinct, engaging multiplayer roguelike experience.”