Implementation of pathfinding systems in real-time 2D shooter games on Unity game engine

Abstract

Designing pathfinding systems is one of the very first challenges in the process of game development. In recent years, many different genres have emerged in the gaming industry and each of them needs various pathfinding solutions. This study aims to implement such system in a real-time 2D shooter game. The nature of the genre implores the pathfinder to be optimized for dynamically changing position of the player and constant calculation of the new paths for the AI. In addition, it should provide realistic movement and behavior. A* search algorithm was implemented to the game. The analysis of the system showed that the pathfinder was highly dependent on CPU resources as the performance was mediocre, and the game was not stable in extreme conditions with many actors trying to find the path at the same time on the tested machines. These results forced the A* algorithm to be discarded from the game in order to preserve the stability of the game. It was concluded that despite its flexibility, the A* algorithm is not necessarily best suited to all genre of games. It excels at games that employ simple map and movement such as turn based games.