Taokaenoi "Seaweed Slayer"

A local multiplayer party game made for TaoKaeNoi, Thailand’s well-known crispy seaweed snack. Players collect seaweed packs, stun rivals, and shoot pests on a shared arena. The big screen runs in Unity. Each phone is a controller: scan the on-screen QR code, pick a name and color, and play.

Developed by the College of Creative Design and Entertainment Technology, Dhurakij Pundit University, as an original TaoKaeNoi activation for gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show 2026 (29 October – 1 November 2026, Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok).

Project & Lead Developer: Asst. Prof. Banyapon Poolsawas

How it plays

One scene, Assets/Scenes/Game.unity, serves the Windows build, the WebGL arena, and the WebGL phone controller. The arena PC is the authority: it simulates movement, throws, collisions, and scores. Phones only send input.

Rooms use Photon PUN in the asia region. A Photon App ID must be set in Photon Server Settings, and both the PC and the phones need internet.

1. The arena opens a room and shows a QR code for the controller URL.
2. Each phone scans it, chooses a name and a color, then taps Ready.
3. When everyone in the room is ready, the QR hides and a 3-second countdown starts. Cancelling Ready during the countdown returns the room to the lobby.
4. A round lasts 90 seconds (editable in Settings). Results stay up for 10 seconds, then the same room returns to the lobby for another Ready check.

Action	Result
Collect a seaweed pack	+25 points. Packs respawn during the round.
Hit an enemy	+50 points. Up to 3 enemies. A new one appears 7–11 seconds after one is removed.
Throw	A cube flies in the facing direction. Cooldown is 0.65 seconds.
Get hit	The character flashes and cannot move, throw, or collect for 2 seconds. Extra hits during the stun do not extend it.
Touch an enemy	The player is stunned.

• 1–20 players. The Photon room has 21 slots because the arena PC uses one. The cap is set in Assets/SeaweedSlayer/SeaweedSettings.asset.
• Scores sort from highest to lowest. Ties keep a stable order by Photon actor number.
• The live rank card shows 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th–20th, and only lists players who are in the room.
• Trees are shuffled at the start of each round. A center path and the border stay walkable. Water and fences block movement.
• The camera is a straight orthographic view.
• With no phones joined, the PC can press Start (WASD + SPACE) and use WASD or the arrow keys to move, and Space to throw.

On a phone, drag the on-screen joystick to walk and press THROW to fire. The controller layout respects the device safe area.

Run the project

Open the project in Unity 6000.4.10f1.

Menu	Output
Seaweed Slayer → Prepare Game Scene	Refresh generated assets when the scene needs them.
Seaweed Slayer → Build Windows PC	Builds/Windows/SeaweedSlayer.exe
Seaweed Slayer → Build WebGL Site (Arena + Controller)	Arena at Builds/WebGL/index.html, controller at Builds/WebGL/Controller/index.html
Seaweed Slayer → Build WebGL Arena + Controller + Windows	All three builds
Seaweed Slayer → Validate	Checks assets and the player cap before a platform build.

The arena page fills the browser window. Fullscreen needs one click, which browsers require.