Overview
Head-Shot is an online multiplayer game inspired by Head Soccer, developed in C++ with a custom rollback netcode engine. The project was a deep dive into real-time networking, latency compensation, and deterministic game logic.
The primary challenge was implementing a rollback engine to ensure smooth online gameplay, even under high latency conditions. This involved synchronizing game states, predicting player inputs, and efficiently handling network corrections to maintain a good gamefeel.
Beyond networking, the game features physics-driven character movement, responsive controls, and competitive gameplay designed for fast-paced matches. Developing Head-Shot provided valuable experience in networking architecture, low-level optimization, and multiplayer game design.
Head-Shot uses “Bark” my own physics engine.
How it looks like
A match played in real conditions
What did I learn
- Implementing rollback netcode for smooth online multiplayer gameplay
- Handling input prediction and state synchronization to reduce latency effects
- Managing network corrections and reconciling game states efficiently
- Understanding and mitigating desynchronization issues
- Developing a real-time physics-based game in C++
- Ensuring deterministic behavior for consistent multiplayer synchronization
- Optimizing game logic to handle real-time updates with minimal performance impact
- Creating a responsive input system for competitive gameplay
- Handling memory management and performance optimizations in C++
- Implementing custom data structures to improve efficiency
- Profiling and debugging network-related performance bottlenecks
- Working on a complex multiplayer system from scratch
- Testing and debugging networking issues in real-time conditions
- Managing a project with high technical complexity and performance constraints