Rugby, or for our American fans - American football, is the showcase of the final Squishy Sports sport mode that we want to share with you! Although Rugby and American Football are different sports our version of this awesome sport mode takes the concept of hitting the ball over the post to score a goal - a similarity between both sports!
This sport brings more vertical gameplay to Squishy Sports - as does Basketball! The main difference between the two modes is the scoring area! Whilst Basketball demands accuracy from players, Rugby has a large score area! This makes the sport mode a little bit more accessible to players as they find themselves smashing the ball over the bar to see their score increase! In the high-level play, experienced players will need to consider using their double jump and directional dashes to stay airborne and block goals!
Another feature that makes this sport mode feel different from others is the ball itself - it’s EGG shaped! This combined with the different character shapes means that the way you interact with the ball will feel different and perhaps more unpredictable! Players will need to take this into consideration when placing their shots, picking their characters, and special moves! Is your opponent trying to keep you grounded with a bear trap? Counter that with a devastating Tornado to kick everything up in the air!
And that brings us to the end of our sports showcases! We hope you’ve enjoyed this insight into our sports modes to learn about how and why we designed these! Stay tuned for more posts that deep dive into more aspects of our game and art design!
Thanks for reading!
Dev Update #9 - Table Tennis Sport Showcase
Table tennis or Ping - pong is one of those super addictive sports in real life and we thought it would be a great addition to Squishy Sports! Rather than using bats players smash themselves into the ball to return it - this keeps continuity across all of our sports modes! In this post, we will talk about how we made this feel different from other sports modes and how we put our own Squishy spin on this classic sport!
Table Tennis plays very similar to Volleyball but it is a little bit more accessible for less experienced or younger players! This is due to the addition of the table occupying a lot of the play space! The scoring area is roughly half the size that it is in volleyball meaning it’s a little harder for your opponents to score and it’s easier for you to return. This adds a safety net for players and makes it a much more accessible sport to jump into and almost acts as Volleyball “easy mode”! This means players can focus on getting those exhilarating volleys going a little bit more easily!
Our Ping Pong ball is our smallest ball and feels different to bash around than any other ball! This recreates the same fast-paced nature of Table Tennis you get in real life! However, in our version of this sport we players can stand on the table - because why not?! We thought this would be really fun and give players an option to play more offensively whilst potentially leaving their scoring area open in a risk-reward fashion!
The smaller scoring area means that you can think really carefully about what special move you are going to use! Below you can see Heart placing a cake mine on their side to act as a safety net and save themselves from losing a point! Player choice of shape and special move is one of the core parts of our design and we are super excited to see how players use all the tools we have given them in creative ways when we launch!
We hope you enjoyed this insight into the design of our Table Tennis sport! Whilst on the surface it can seem similar to Volleyball - under the hood there is a lot more going on that makes this sport stand strong on its own!
Thanks for taking the time to read about our Game Design on this sport - stay tuned for more sports showcases and other features soon!
Dev Update #8 - Basketball Sport Showcase
Basketball was the third sport mode that we developed for the game and this really added a whole new dimension to the way players play the game! In Volleyball and Football, you were largely playing a horizontal focussed sport with large goal areas. Basketball introduced much more verticality and more precision in aiming. The goal areas are much smaller so players need to get the right arc and power on the ball in the hope of landing a perfect slamdunk!
We often see a lot fewer goals in this game mode, however, the intensity builds as the ball stores more velocity! (explained in our Volleyball showcase post!) The anticipation of the goals builds player excitement and the ball pings around the scene like a pinball machine, squishing anything it comes into contact with! This creates really heated matchups and again gives that great euphoric result when a player does manage to score!
To help players with the precise there is some ‘code magic’ centered around the goal area that essentially helps the ball into the net if you hit it into the right area! This will be unnoticeable to players, however, if it wasn’t there you would be frustrated at the actual level of precision you would need in reality. We want our players to have a positive experience so we worked carefully on this bit of ‘behind-the-scenes’ magic, testing regularly with players to make it just right so that those Basketball games feel fun to score in!
Below you can see the initial prototype of this sport mode! There are actually quite a lot of changes that have been made to this early prototype. We actually raised the goals significantly to really drive up that level of verticality in Basketball’s playstyle! It shows again how our core concept and design of characters can be experimented with in new ways to create a representation of a Sport that everyone is familiar with!
Again in this sport mode, you will need to think about what character has the best shape for your playstyle to help hit the ball vertically and arc into the hoop! Do you prefer rounded characters like Circle, Heart, or Egg; do you prefer characters with angled edges like Triangle or Trapezium or do you prefer the flatter edges of Hexagon or Square? Think about these carefully as well as what special move might help pick up for your shape’s shortfalls!
We hope you enjoyed reading a bit more about the design of Basketball sport mode and how we designed this to bring variety to the sports collection that is - SQUISHY SPORTS!
