DETAILS
Genre: Sports, Action
Format: 1-6 Players, 2v2 or 3v3 Symmetric Team Game
Platform: Windows, macOS, PS5, Xbox Series X|S
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DESIGN TENETS
* Fast
* Playful
* Digestible
The intention behind this game was to make a high-paced sports game with less emphasis on strategy and familiarity, and more on reactivity and intuition.
The hyper-focus on realism in modern sports games have bloated them with mechanics that warp the player's learning curve of both the sport itself and the game's representation of it. For this however, I wanted to design something that anyone could pick up and learn relatively quickly, and not be weighed down by required volleyball knowledge in order to outwit opponents. The party style game is more in line with current consumer interest anyway, thus having this be a game that friends can easily be recommended to and played with on the spot was important.
The design focus on speed makes it simply a test of reactions and communication between friends. This means the game has to be simple: your opponent serves, your team defends, you either pass to a teammate or chuck it back to the other side, or you receive a pass and smash it down over to the opponent's side; they either defend now or your team gets the point.
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GAMEPLAY HIGHLIGHTS
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GAMEPLAY HIGHLIGHT: LOBBING
Design tenets: fast, playful, digestible.
The player has a limited amount of actions, one of them being to lob the ball. Aligned with the passive nature of real volleyball, lobbing is passive and low stakes. In real volleyball players cannot hold the ball, but this not only emphasizes how unserious and playful this game world is, it also allows the player to take a more measured action with the lob. That could mean passing to a teammate, or simply getting the ball over to the side.
BALANCE
When lobbing, players can aim the ball straight away, even without possession of the ball. This enables the lob to be the truly strategic play it is, and essentially extend the "hit timer" so that the lob can compensate for its slow and highly telegraphed movement by being able to be hit at further distances.
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GAMEPLAY HIGHLIGHT: SPIKING
Design tenets: fast, playful, digestible.
Spiking here is simple, aggressive, and fast. Just like in real volleyball, it is the main attack method and a sure way to put pressure on opponents. Doubling down on the silliness, the players aim while already floating in the air; this levitation provides a high vantage point for the attack, allowing players to directly control the play area as is necessary for an aggressive action such as this.
BALANCE
A player's aim is only visible to all players when in possession of the ball, so to give opponents a fair chance to defend against spikes since blocking (as in real volleyball) is not an aspect of the game, players are unable to start aiming when preparing for a spike until they do indeed "have possession." The consequence is that, like true volleyball, the spike is the pinnacle of reaction timing for the game on both sides. Attackers decide in real time where they want to hit the ball as defenders in real time either try to predict or react faster to the attacker's targeting. This cat and mouse last only a moment, but highlights the true intensity and playfulness of the game.
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GAMEPLAY HIGHLIGHT: GRID MOVEMENT
Design tenets: fast, playful, digestible.
The last (or first) action a player can really take is moving. Because this game is about fast reactions, quick strategies, and teamwork, a grid-based system provides the most intuitive and reliable way to give users a sense of their own space and for where the ball is.
BALANCE
The skill differential with grid based movement becomes smaller due to each person having a unified point of reference, rather than having to be precise with movements and positioning to accurately move about and use the ball. This is needed to keep gameplay more fair and balanced; a.k.a. more fun.
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ENGINEERING HIGHLIGHTS
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ENGINEERING HIGHLIGHT: INPUT REPLICATION OVER NETWORK
This game is friendly but competitive, so a server-authoritative architecture is implemented for the networking. The game leverages Unity Gaming Services as well as Unity packages, Unity's "Netcode for GameObjects" to extend multiplayer functionality to basic objects and data, Unity's "Relay" to handle the actual usage and processing of the netcode, and finally Unity's "Lobby" to provide easier accessibility in matchmaking and or playing with friends.
ENGINEERING HIGHLIGHT: INPUT REPLICATION OVER NETWORK
Because this game uses a server-authoritative architecture for it's multiplayer, extensive network delays are to be expected as clients must request and wait for a response from the server to take any action. Client authority could be used for movement since speed and playfulness is essential, but the grid is an important aspect of the game so absolute congruency between clients is required; the server needs to accurately process the positioning of each player. The middle-ground is used here; client-side prediction. It is utilized to give players faster input feedback when taking any action, especially moving.
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