[Game Development] Hoop Flick #6–Shadows and Stuff

I had been feeling under the weather the past couple of days. That and the holiday season meant little time for blogging. But I did accomplish quite a significant number of minor updates to Hoop Flick. Let’s get right to it.



Upgraded Upgrades
Based on the first few weeks of testing, both personally and by some friends, I noticed three of the seven upgrades were either ignored or frowned upon – Sharpshooter, Icy Veins, and Teamwork.
Sharpshooter, which increases 3pt Chance, seemed weak, adding an increased but still small chance to get just a single point. Similarly, Icy Veins simply increased this chance, but you still get only one point, and the increase only applies in the last 10 seconds of the game. Finally, Teamwork, which increases the spawn rate of the Teammate NPC, is frowned upon simply because the Teammate NPC had become more of a nuisance than an actual help.

Because of these feedback, I decided to tweak a few gameplay details.


First, your 3pt Chance also becomes the Percent Chance that a Perfect Shot would give you a Special Shot point. This improves the Sharpshooter Upgrade, it won’t just give you passive points, but in the long run, more Special Shots, which could lead to Fadeaways or the “loop” ball (see below).

Next, when the shot clock is below 10 seconds (clutch), Shot Cooldown is reduced by your Icy Veins modifier, which start at 150% and goes up to 300% (i.e. Cooldown is divided by 3). In addition, instead of always spawning Money Balls, Money Balls spawn at a rate equivalent to 1/3 the Icy Veins modifier (i.e. starts at 50%, upgradeable to 100%).

Finally, Teamwork now also gives a chance (equivalent to 10*Teamwork Spawn Rate) that a ball bounce off the teammate would not count as a bounce. In other words, if you shoot the ball, hit the teammate, and he swishes it, it has a chance to become a Perfect Shot (100% chance if fully upgraded).

The Loop Ball
Shooting a fadeaway becomes almost a sure Perfect Shot once you get the proper way of flicking. Because of this, stacking up on Special Shots becomes a dangerous way of making the game never-ending. To prevent this, I added a cap on Special Shots, set at 10.

Moreover, when you reach 10 Special Shot points, a 100-point ball (100p ball, or loop ball) is spawned. As the name implies, it is worth 100 points, and 200 points if shot perfectly. it is bigger than a normal ball, so it’s harder to perfect, and easier to block.

Resolutions
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I bought a tablet to test my game on a bigger screen. To my pleasant surprise, it reminded me of a roadblock I had ignoring for the meantime – how to adjust the game for different screen resolutions and aspect ratios.

Most phones have 16:9 aspect ratio, while tablets usually have 16:10. The older iPhone and iPads used 4:3, and I believe the newer ones use 3:2. While Unity adjusts itself based on the resolution, the placement of the Sprites I used cause some of them to be cropped.

To accommodate this, I added several lines in most of the Camera code to zoom the camera out based on the resolution. This added extra black spaces at the top and bottom of the screen, which I decided to fix by expanding the Background images I used.

I do have an old iPad 2, but I can’t test the app on 4:3 and 3:2 screens yet since I have not registered for an Apple Developer account yet. However, the preview on Unity suggests it will look like this on a 4:3 screen (ignore the huge texts):

In contrast, the original scene is as follows:

Notice the extra detail at the top and bottom of the screen on the non-widescreen image. While they seem to give more information, whatever’s found there are merely cosmetic and do not affect the gameplay in any way.

I also believe it won’t be any easier or harder to play on that resolution/aspect ratio. I guess I’ll find out when I test it. The important thing is that the app is now equipped to handle it.

Minor Details
I also modified the third defender so he now moves his hands.

All three defenders move closer to the player upon reaching a certain level/score.

Upon reaching a certain level, the second defender gains an AI. He now times his jump based on your shot, and also swings his hands to emphatically block you.

Speaking of levels and scores, the leveling system was adjusted to make it even harder past levels 20, 32, 50, and 100. Levels correspond to certain points scored, which I’d rather not discuss here.

A change was also made on the “Plain” background mode, now using Black and Gray colors, as opposed to Blue and Gray.

Finally, and perhaps most noticeably, the game now has a semi-splash screen (will replace the actual splash screen when I get Unity Pro) and App Icon! Hurray!

Here are some screenshots:

Oh, and as the title implies, I added shadows! Not too much details though, as I still don’t have that kind of artistic skill. Just some basic shading on the sprites, as well as a shadow cast on the floor to add a little bit of feedback to the player visually.

I’ll work on improving the actual character models next time. I tried several times, I just don’t have it in me. Still, I won’t stop trying.

‘Til next time!