Soupocalypse is a hackathon-built physical fighting game where two players become the characters. Players move around a real arena, an mmWave radar tracks their position, handheld controllers send heading and action data, and a laptop turns everything into a chaotic soup-powered battle over the last bowl of authentic Chinese soup.

Pokémon battles in real life, except you are the Pokémon.

Check out the project demo on YouTube!

Two players stand inside a taped arena and fight as custom Soupocalypse characters. The arena is tracked with an HLK-LD2450 mmWave Human Radar, while each player controller provides heading, action input, and wireless game data.

The laptop runs the main Soupocalypse game engine. It receives live radar/player packets, tracks each player inside the arena, handles combat rules, renders the spectator display, plays music/SFX, and runs the full tournament-style match flow.

Players can attack with a forward/down swing to fire a beam or use an up action to create a shield bubble. Hits remove HP, shields block attacks, knockouts end rounds, and the full match system tracks wins until one player claims the soup.

The game features 6 organizer characters, each with unique colors, portraits, attack styles, custom animations, impact effects, voice lines, and victory presentation.

• mmWave Human Radar: Tracks player movement in the real-world arena using the HLK-LD2450.
• Full Tournament System: Best-of-3 round flow with character select, countdowns, round wins, match wins, and reset handling.
• 6 Organizer Characters: Playable custom characters based on organizers, each with their own portrait, theme, tagline, and attack style.
• Custom Animations: Character select animations, attack effects, hit effects, shields, particles, screen shake, impact frames, KO effects, and victory screens.
• Soup Combat: Beam attacks, bubble shields, HP, cooldowns, hit freeze, and crunchy SFX.
• Dynamic Music System: Lobby music, battle music, low-health/intense tracks, near-win music, and victory music.

• Player 1/2 Controllers: Sends heading and action data for both players.
• HLK-LD2450 Radar: Tracks blobs inside the arena and provides player position data.
• Bridge Node: Connects the hardware system to the laptop over serial.
• Laptop Server: Python/Pygame game engine, combat system, music/SFX manager, tournament controller, and spectator display.

• Aarav - Zhifubao
• Will - Builds
• Cisco - Beatboxin'
• Tongyu - Ceiling!
• Nathan - Goober
• Zach Latta - The Goat

Each character has:

• A portrait
• A theme color palette
• A custom tagline
• A unique attack type
• Custom fight effects
• Select, attack, hit, and victory audio support

• code/player/player.ino: Firmware for the player controllers. It reads motion/heading input, detects beam/shield actions, tracks player state, and sends player packets to the server.
• code/bridge/bridge.ino: Firmware for the bridge. It receives player and radar data, sends packets to the laptop over serial, and can trigger physical FX outputs.
• firmware_d15ac61/: Additional firmware/exported hardware files from the hackathon build.

• code/server/soupocalypse.py: Main Python/Pygame game. It handles rendering, player tracking, combat, tournament flow, music, sound effects, fake controls, and serial input.
• code/server/requirements.txt: Python dependencies.
• code/server/assets/fonts/: Fonts used by the spectator display.
• code/server/assets/sprites/: Character portraits and game sprites.
• code/server/assets/music/: Lobby, battle, intense battle, near-win, and victory music.
• code/server/assets/generated_audio/fight/: Fight UI sounds, impacts, round sounds, and character voice lines.

Install dependencies on a Python install with Pygame support:

python -m pip install -r code/server/requirements.txt

Run without hardware:

python code/server/soupocalypse.py --fake

The game opens native fullscreen by default. Use --windowed while tuning for your potential setup:

python code/server/soupocalypse.py --fake --windowed

P1 move: WASD
P1 aim: Q/E
P1 beam: F
P1 bubble: R

P2 move: arrow keys
P2 aim: comma / period
P2 beam: slash
P2 bubble: right shift

Enter: reset/start match
Esc: quit

Esc: quit

• Players select one of the 6 Soupocalypse characters.
• The match is best of 3 rounds.
• Each player starts with 3 HP.
• A beam hit removes HP.
• A bubble shield blocks attacks while active.
• The winner gets the soup.

We taped the playable radar area conservatively (the radar can see a bit beyond the tape). The arena is roughly 4m wide and 3.7m deep.

x = -2.0m to +2.0m
y = 0.8m to 4.5m