Systems & Games

RushHour — Dynamic Passenger Pickup Game in C++

A real-time arcade driving game with escalating difficulty.

2024

OVERVIEW

The Project

A fast-paced, real-time 2D arcade game in C++ where players drive a car to pick up and drop off randomly spawned passengers while avoiding traffic. Each successful drop-off intensifies the challenge with more traffic and obstacles.

Objectives

Build a real-time arcade game with random events and difficulty scaling.

Encourage player skill development through a timed scoring system.

Tools & Technologies

C++SFML / SDLQueues & arraysTimers

METHODOLOGY

The Approach

Grid-based map design with roads, spawn zones and static obstacles.

Arrow-key vehicle control with collision detection.

Passenger queue system for pickup/drop-off with score tracking.

Difficulty scaling: each drop-off adds cars and speed; Top-10 leaderboard in a file.

OUTCOME

Results & Learnings

Smooth collision logic and frame-rate stability under heavy game state.

Persistent leaderboard maintained across sessions.

Key Learnings

Efficient memory usage and object pooling matter for real-time games.
Applied classical OOP principles to game development logic.

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