An Optimized Pathfinding in a 2D Zombie Survival Game Using the Jump Point Search Algorithm

Pathfinding is important for many games that use non-playable characters to reach targets in a 2D or 3D environment. In this paper, uses Jump Point Search (JPS) algorithm for path finding in a 2D Zombie Survival Game. JPS is an optimal, heuristic-based algorithm for finding the shortest route in a grid-based game environment. It skips unnecessary nodes to reach the goal state quickly. In this paper, we use three different heuristic functions, namely Euclidean, Manhattan, and Chebyshev distances, to analyze the efficiency (execution time or speed) of the JPS algorithm. From experimental analysis, JPS with the Chebyshev distance heuristic provides faster movement towards the target, taking an average of 6.45 seconds to reach the target, which is faster compared to the other heuristics.