Happy 18th anniversary to my oldest surviving open source project, Pathfinder3D.
Pathfinder3D is a 3rd person, free-camera game that features a 3D character. The game world is a 2D board that has passable and unpassable terrain. The player may click anywhere on the 2D board and the character will navigate itself toward the clicked area in the shortest path.
Some areas are blocked by locks and are unpassable until the same-colored keys are obtained. The player must gather keys found throughout the world to open the locks.
The current world is won when the character reaches the goal point. When this happens, the next world will automatically load. The entire game is won when the goal point of the last world is reached.
There are 7 game worlds, all of which may be edited by the map editor. In the map editor, the user may specify the dimensions of the world, and the starting and endpoints. The user is also able to place obstacles, locks, and keys.
The game was submitted as a thesis project required for the completion of my bachelor’s degree. The programming language used was VB.NET .NET Framework 1. The game itself uses DirectX9. The map editor uses GDI+. Software used for the graphics: 3D Studio Max, Photoshop 6, and Bryce 5.
