4K V-Ball

[Rick]

Here is a volley ball game in 4K.
You are the blue team. Use the mouse to position the yellow pass target.
Click the mouse when the blue ball shadow is near a player.
Click the mouse to have the red team server the ball.
Game is to 15 points.



http://javaunlimited.net/games/launch.php?type=jnlp&id=113

[nva225]

Wow... I'm afraid I'm not much good at that game but that is impressive. Psuedo 3D and multi-unit interaction in AI. I don't really get the yellow circle though, why does it float around 10-15 feet away from the mouse? (given perspective of those people)

Edit: Yay I scored a point. I think I figured out how the yellow dot works. You have some vertical rectangle as the input area and you just ran out of space to translate that to the angled field I guess?

[kevglass]

Fair play, this is an awesome achievement! Great great game.

Kev

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[Rick]

Edit: Yay I scored a point. I think I figured out how the yellow dot works. You have some vertical rectangle as the input area and you just ran out of space to translate that to the angled field I guess?

The Yellow dot is the target that the ball will travel towards when it is hit. It slides along the floor of the court. The court is in 3D but the mouse is in 2D. So the translation means the mouse and target can not stay in sync. If you move the mouse left and right the target moves left and right on the court. If you move the mouse up and down the target moves up and down the court.

If someone has any suggestions on how this could be improved I would love to hear.

Thanks for the positive comments.

PS. I do not know if you noticed bu the game has some sound effects as well.

[x30ice]

Hi,

great for a 4K game!

And as long as the yellow dot has to b on the court I think that a '3D' mouse will be more intuitive.

[me]

Hi Rick,

Impressive!
Nice in-game timing required when trying to hit the ball.
Also, mastering the teamplay is a challenge. Just like the real thing

Best regards from

[f.l.x]

Really nice! impressive for 4k but i get beaten every time 

you should try to get cursor picking

[woogley]

i think if you just grabbed the mouse so we don't see it.. it won't be as confusing

nice game

[Morre]

Thoroughly awesome! I don't really know what else to say

[Rick]

I updated the target movement so it is now closer to the cursor. It is still not 100% on but better than before. I did not have room to hide the cursor or do a full inverse function to get it eactly right. See if you think it's any better.

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[jojoh]

Really impressive and good looking!

Also very difficult. You might have to give us some hints on how to beat the AI. I only win points when AI serves out  Manage to return 1/3 or so of the balls. And haven't been able to make a single smash.

Sometimes (GC?) hick ups makes it impossible to return ball 

New mouse cursor/behavior works surprisingly much better.

Good work!

[x30ice]

I like the new mouse system more than the initial one.

And a question: how much space does the sounds take ?

[Rick]

The sound takes 266 compressed bytes. This is I built and compressed with all the sound code removed the difference is 266 bytes.

[Rick]

I was waiting for feed back to see how hard it was. I thought it was too easy. Of course once you play it over and over whilst developing I guess it does tend to get easy. I was even thinking of increasing the opponent speed on the fly to keep the game even. I could lower the speed if the opponent gets too far ahead, they take it easy. Or increase the speed if the opponent falls behind, they fight back.

Ok here are some hints to beat the game. 

You need to set up the ball for a spike like in the real game. To do this when receiving the ball place the yellow target between the two front players. I usually place it between the two front right players. The closer player will go for the ball. do not move the target just pass the ball straight up. This will result in a high set. The other player will then move in for the ball. Now move the target to an open spot on the oponents court. I usually pick the corner just inside the 10 foot line.  Click to jump and either click again at the top of the jump or just keep the mouse down This should result in a nice hard spike and with any luck should win the point. If the opponent manages to return the spike just try again the ball needs to get to the spot before the opponent can run it down. Once you get the right technique you should be unbeatable.

One other hint is to watch the blue shadow of the ball and click the mouse when the shadow is just in front of the player. You will never hit the ball if the shadow gets past you.

[jojoh]

Click to jump and either click again at the top of the jump or just keep the mouse down This should result in a nice hard spike and with any luck should win the point.

Ah yeah, that did it. I managed to win, and now it is quite easy.
Quite impressive game in 4K. I think it could be nice to see this in a "full" version, where the AI would mix it up a bit or maybe even learn the opponent, so one couldn't use the exact same technique all the time. It sort of loses it's replay value as it is now, once you have "figured it out". Still one of the most sympathetic 4K games I've played. Maybe I am a bit biased since I am making two AI sports-games myself. Cool to see that a 4K game really is on par with games that sold for $20 a few years back

[nonnus29]

This game is amazing!  I suck at it, but wow.  I'm really loving the retro, pixelly graphics in this and Pitfall.  Plus ai and realistic volleyball game play.  4k is getting out of control this year.  Wow.