top of page
< prototype 4 >
This game is a fun attempt at a simplistic rhythm game, themed to
a back-and-forth tennis volley between you and an imposing opponent.
The goal of this was to keep the core mechanic basic,
but compliment it with exciting visuals, sounds, and effects.
Overview
To start, you choose your opponent. On this screen, you can hear the music each opponent has with the beat in time with the changing visuals.
Pressing an input when the ball reaches you returns the ball!
The ball is synced with the BPM of the current song,
bouncing between you and the opponent on-beat.
Returning a volley increases your hit counter, and missing a ball
results in a life lost. Lose all your lives and it's game over.
Breakdown
While the game is fairly simple, it captures a few things I feel are very important with a game like this:
-
The menus are flashy, musical in their own right, and have quick snappy transitions
-
The opponents are large with personality to them, giving you something more to focus on alongside the music and volley. Them taking up more of the screen lets you enjoy their animations without getting too distracted on a smaller area and missing a ball.
-
The feedback of hitting a ball is explosive, with indicators on how early or late the ball is hit to better time yourself with.
Player Area
In a game where you have to keep your eye on a moving ball,
I found it best to place all relevant UI information near where you're gonna be hitting it. Other areas may cause a player to not notice their lives are low, or get distracted enough checking their volley number they miss the ball.
The "EARLY", "PERFECT", and "LATE" notifications also
appear here above the player.
When all lives are lost, the player explodes and the opponent begins a "taunting" animation - the immediate absence of the player character directing your eyes to look at the opponent's animation.
When all lives are lost, the player explodes and the opponent begins a "taunting" animation - the immediate absence of the player character directing your eyes to look at the opponent's animation.
Learnings
This project was at its core made to be fun, both in creating and playing.
Like anything in development, there are some challenges. Keeping the ball on-beat requires careful code, the ball has to still arrive at the opponent on-beat despite the fact it may get hit early. This is fixed by adjusting the speed of the ball based on distance and the BPM, but still a unique challenge.
There's also the matter of the song getting out of sync when clicking out of the game, or it pauses due to a computer function. Then individual player calibration, since not all devices send and receive the information at quite the same speed.
Even after al that, there's adjustments to be made to make sure hitting on the beat feels just right - ideally being able to play the game with your eyes closed. Subtle tweaks need to be made to simulate the feel of hitting it "on-beat" even when technically hitting it slightly early, but displaying it still as early.
A fully-realized version of this game could use deeper mechanics on top of the basic volley, perhaps allowing you to move your character across different positions the ball could land at, dodging obstacles, holding the racket down to charge up a ball for a big hit (simulating long notes in a song), etc.
The
bottom of page