BEANPOCALYPSE

Battle Zombeans spontaneously, drive safely to earn Bean Bucks, and strategize upgrades at rest stops. Work together, survive the chaos, and reach your goal in the ultimate road trip RPG!

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Contributors

  • Nancy Farias: farias.nancy_75102
  • Aayah Osman: aao7489
  • Matthew Chavez Cruz: drawgonlgd
  • Amy Eng: ammmu

Inspiration

We drew inspiration from family road trips and the desire to turn long drives into an exciting, shared adventure. While road trips are great for bonding, they can also be boring—so we wanted to create a game that keeps everyone engaged and working together whilst preventing distracted driving. For the art style, we took inspiration from Omori and Don’t Starve, giving our game a lighthearted and spooky aesthetic.

What it does

Beanpocalypse is a cooperative road trip RPG where players take on different roles in the Bean Mobile to survive waves of zombie beans (Zombeans) and reach their destination, where they fight the final boss, Baked Beans.

  • Drivers earn points by maintaining safe speeds, dealing passive damage; the app will freeze when the car is moving for the driver player to prevent distracted driving.
  • Backseaters engage in turn-based combat against Zombeans and earn Bean Bucks at the end of every battle.
  • At rest stops, players strategize and upgrade their car’s tank health or attack power using their Bean Bucks.
  • The game ends with an epic final boss battle against Baked Beans! This is inspired by our lovely Beantown, whose name historically derives from the city's baked bean dish.

How we built it

  • Frontend: React (for the game UI and combat system)
  • Backend: Java, Maven (handling game logic and tracking progress)
  • Graphics: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Krita; sprites inspired by Omori and Don't Starve
  • Game Mechanics: We designed a system that balances driver-focused progression with team-based combat to keep all players involved and encourage communication and bonding between the players in the real world.

Challenges we ran into

Defining a balanced combat system that keeps both drivers and backseaters engaged.

Managing real-time progression while ensuring the game remains interactive without being distracting for drivers.

Adjusting scope—we initially planned to integrate camera-based AR combat and GPS mechanics, but we realized we wouldn’t have enough time to implement them properly.

  • The AR combat would have been heavily inspired by Pokemon Go, where the Zombean would appear on a surface in front of you with a UI overlayed on top that would instruct you to attack or block.
  • The GPS mechanics would have checked the speed of the car in real life to notify the backend when the players arrived at rest stops or the final destination to launch the rest stop UI or the final battle. Additionally, it would have checked that the driver was driving the speed limit to deal passive damage to enemies during battles.

Connecting the frontend and backend together. The MVC backend (the "view" being the front end) included all of the game mechanics such as spontaneous Zombean attacks, the Baked Beans final boss, rest stop upgrades, Bean Bucks currency, and more. However, we struggled to connect the two components together.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Creating a fun and engaging cooperative RPG in a short time.

  • Designing a creative game that encourages real-life teamwork and bonding.

  • Creating custom, unique assets including the Bean Mobile, the different player classes, the Zombeans, Baked Beans, logo, etc.

  • Developing strategic turn-based combat mechanics.

What we learned

  • The importance of setting realistic expectations—we had big ideas but learned to prioritize core features.

  • How to refine game balance so all roles feel meaningful and fun.

  • The value of strong visuals and theme consistency in making a game immersive.

What's next for BEANPOCALYPSE

  • Implementing camera-based AR combat, where backseaters scan zombies to reveal and fight them.
  • Adding GPS/speed tracking, allowing real-world location and driving behavior to influence gameplay.
  • Expanding player roles (Navigator, DJ, etc.) with unique abilities.
  • Introducing more upgrades, zombie types, and boss fights for replayability.
  • A feature at the end of rest stops to signal that the driver has switched players, mimicking real-world scenarios where multiple people take turns driving during long road trips.
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