CPSC 4170 – 6170 / Fetch!
Luke Smith
Game Description
Fetch is a combination of a arcade game and a 3D platformer, in which the player plays as a dog traversing an environment to find and return both grabbable items to the point-scoring area (the deck) and also can find consumable buffs that increase time and dog attributes.
The objective of Fetch is twofold: maximizing score and completing the core retrieval goal of collecting five tennis balls. ��Players earn points by locating and returning grabbable objects to the Deck. At the same time, the player must also retrieve five tennis balls to trigger the game’s primary win condition, creating a second layer of pressure beyond simple point accumulation.
This dual-objective structure forces players to constantly weigh risk and reward, deciding whether to prioritize high value item collection for score or focus on securing tennis balls to guarantee victory. Consumable buffs reinforce this dilemma, by extending available playtime and enhancing the dog’s movement capabilities.
Game Mechanics
Fetch’s gameplay mechanics are built around interacting with randomly spawned items placed throughout the environment. Players move through the map searching for objects and decide how to prioritize them based on their type and value. Grabbable items can be carried back to the Deck to score points, while consumable items provide temporary buffs that improve stamina, strength, or speed. Clocks extend the remaining time and allow the player to continue scoring for longer.
Combined with quick movement and jumping, these mechanics create a simple and accessible core gameplay loop centered on item collection, movement, and exploration. Like an arcade game such as Fruit Ninja, the core interaction is easy to understand, but replayability comes from optimizing decisions around timing, item priority, and the randomness of item spawns
Technical Description
The technical architecture is based on two core scripts, a Gameplay Manager and a Dog Manager. The Dog Manager is responsible for player movement and interaction with items.The Gameplay Manager is responsible for spawning items and scoring items returned to the deck. The Gameplay Manager also handles time countdown and triggers events to conclude the game and display either a win or lose image based on if they collected the five tennis balls.
The spawnable items are prefabs connected to Scriptable Object scripts that store the value of points, consumable vs grabbable, and the buff type.
Additionally, there is an animator state machine tied to the movement of the dog to animate movement and remaining idle.
Controls
Fetch is designed to be played on Mouse and Keyboard.
Players control the dog using WASD or the arrow keys to navigate the environment. Pressing the spacebar allows the dog to jump. IInteraction is handled through clicking G. This is used to grab and release items. When used on grabbable objects, G allows the player to pick up and carry the item back to the Deck for points. When used on consumable objects, the same input immediately consumes the item, triggering its associated buff effect. The result is snappy movement with controls intuitive to all computer users.
Game Limitations
Future Work
Future iterations would include the ability for the player to select a dog from a few available different dog types. Each different dog breed would have different baseline stats across the stamina, strength, and speed categories. Fetch will also feature a persistent high score value so that launching the game, you're able to see your previous maximum score across sessions. Algorithms used in applying buffs would be fine tuned, the win condition objective would become more dynamic, the map could be procedurally generated.
Game objective
Game Screenshots
The main limitations of Fetch stem from the simplicity of its core gameplay loop, controls, and buff systems. The central loop of grabbing items and returning them to the Deck is easy to understand, but becomes repetitive quickly, especially within the game’s small map, which players can learn and optimize after only a few runs. Player controls are also minimal, limiting mechanical depth. The buff system is similarly limited by predictability. With enough familiarity, players can quickly identify which consumables are most valuable and which are worth ignoring, reducing strategic variety and making item decisions increasingly routine over time.