Long time no see! Not sure if anyone noticed that there’s little to no information about the major update last month. That’s because after the July patch we’ve announced that the team needs to take some time to further optimize the game while bringing in new exciting content to the SBT community. As a result, we decided to cancel the August update so that the team can put all the hard works and efforts to make the new version happen as soon as possible.
Moving on to the September update, to prepare for the big patch that’s coming out later, the September update will mainly be focusing on these aspects: game balance, in-game tutorial, surrender system, new item and more skins for characters.
Let’s start off with game balancing first, ever since the July patch there have been numerous messages from players complaining about how strong R47 is under the current meta. We’re fully aware of the whole situation with R47 and other characters but since game balancing takes time, we decided to fix this issue in the next major update (which is in September) so that the team will not be overloaded by tasks at all times.
In the September update, players can also expect a brand-new item coming into the game. ‘Reverse Ball’ is a defensive-focused item that can reverse the direction of the ball to the opposite side of where it heads to. It’s an advanced item that has a lot to explore and can be used in conjunction with abilities from other characters to score & defend in the dying moments of the match.
Another big change coming into September is the in-game tutorials. There have been too many requests about having a proper tutorial system in-game ever since the launch of the open development, and it’s now finally here in September!
The in-game tutorial will allow players to take a few pre-designed practice trials and get a better understanding of the game.
For old players, we’ve also taken suggestions by adding a practice arena at the end of the tutorial where players can browse items on the field and practice the usage of each item.
Another new thing we added in-game is the surrender system. As many players have suggested, having a surrender system will help reduces unmeaningful matches. We’re still experimenting with the surrendering mechanics in which it might not be perfect when it first launched but we hope to get better as we go.
Regarding new skins, we’re planning on having another 2-3 sets of new redeemable skins for each character. Here are some of the previews for the new skins in the next update:
Be aware that in the September patch we’ll clean up player coins, while skins that already been bought will still remain in player’s library. So if you happen to have spare coins in your hands, don’t hesitate to spend it right now!
So I think that’s pretty much all the major contents covered in the September update, we fixed & add some of the key things that players have been asking for while saved some time and resources to prepare for more content to deliver in the future.
A more detailed patch note will be out on the day of the patch where you can expect more optimizations coming into September!
Let us know your thought by talking with us on social media and communities:
We’ve seen some people in the group asking about how we designed characters, especially in relates to character skillsets. Thought it’d be a good topic so here it is! We’ll take a look at the ability designs and share some basic knowledge when it comes to designing characters.
Sports Game vs Real Sports
Sports game has always been a niche genre in gaming and people often relate it to real-life sports due to the popularity of games like FIFA and NBA 2K. As for real football (soccer), there are different positions including forward, midfielder, defender and goalkeeper. It’s a common knowledge that different rules were assigned based on their positions, and it seems like this rule have passed onto many sports games as well and people would’ve assumed that character abilities should naturally tight with their positions, so if you’re a defender, your skillset should then only focus on defending.
Things were a little bit different in Super Buckyball Tournament however, we quickly abandoned the idea of linking character abilities with their positions as we found very few people in our studio are willing to play goalie due to its inability to show off in-game and scoring goals, needless to say that in our game character don’t even have a pre-set positions. Therefore, instead of giving characters stereotypical skillsets, we offer each character abilities that are versatile and can be used for both attack & defense.
For instance, Pink‘s ultimate ‘Point Ray’ and right-click ability ‘Color Cannon’ can be useful for both scoring goals and interrupt other’s control over the ball, the same for character R47’s ultimate. As for Lang, although being a striker but he did have a tackling ability, with his ultimate ‘eye of the storm’ being quite supportive rather than attacking-based. Or more generally speaking, we designed all our characters with the mindset of having at least some level of attacking abilities, since players can feel the excitements when scoring goals, even if they play as a goalkeeper. This does not only makes the game more fun but also creates more possibilities in the field.
Characters need versatile skillsets
Balancing The Skillsets
When it comes to ability designs, balancing is something that developers cannot get away with, especially in multiplayer games. In SBT, each character has 2-4 abilities so it took us a lot of time just to balance the game so that each character is not too overpowered and there’s always counter play between characters.
Character Pai is arguably the most popular character among new players, he’s fast, can dash while being very agile. Most importantly, he has the ultimate that can blast the ball into the net without the need to aim. Is he too powerful? Probably yes, but for new players only. Once new players got used to the game and played enough of Pai, they’ll gradually start to realize the advantages of other characters. With the arrival of Gridiron one month after the release, Pai’s effectiveness was further reduced as he was directed countered by him.
Pai's ability can also be useful for defense and counter
Overall, as our first multiplayer project, we still need to learn how to balance characters along the way and there’re a lot more to be done once more characters added in.
The use of basic elements in character abilities
When designing character abilities, it’s worth adding some personalities into it. In SBT we paired each character with some basic elements such as air, fire, energy, lighting and water before we even started to design their skillsets.
Air/Wind: The design of character Lang was inspired by Japanese ninja. Since ninjas are often very fast and disappear without a trace, therefore we believe air/wind should be the most suited element for Lang, and then designed skillsets based on it.
Fire: Both Gridiron and R47’s ultimate has some forms of fire elements, in which you can see from Gridiron’s engine and R47’s girder when blasting out the ultimate. The fire element makes their abilities more alive and vivid.
Energy: Energy usually comes with bright colors and high contrasts, which in line with the designs of Pink.
Electricity/Lighting: Pai is by far the fastest player in SBT, we believe it would be a great fit if his skillsets can be paired with lighting, therefore his entire skillsets are based on lighting and electricity.
Water: It’s pretty obvious that Eriel’s ability sets were based on water, her animations are mostly blue and watery.
Best Ultimate Design
If anyone asked for the best ability we ever designed in SBT, its probably the ultimate from R47. As a character, he not only has excellent defending stats, which you can see from his bulky appearances but also showed amazing talents on both ball control and shot power. As one of our first few designed abilities, R47’s ultimate ‘Batter Up’ uses a girder to hammer up a high-speed fire strike. Unlike the ultimate from Pai which will aim the goal automatically, ‘Batter Up’ completely relies on players' precise control. Sometimes you can score a stunning two-pointer, but in some occasions, it might go completely wide or even ended up scoring an own goal through deflections. It’s an ultimate that’s simple, easy to use but hard to master, which basically sums up the core ideology of the game and sets a cornerstone of our ability designs.
Ever since the start of open development, we have been actively collecting player feedbacks while making the game better. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to discuss with us!
Join our socials for cool news, updates and contests:
Two weeks ago we started a community activity called 'Training Day', which basically to group up a bunch of players (especially new players) in a designated time and teach them all the tricks and skills about SBT while having some fun time playing together.
The training day will be arranged and hosted by our community players every week and after talking with them we've decided to have our training day set to 9 PM CEST (12 PM PST) every Sunday
The training will last about an hour and feel free to join our Discord for more details about the training day!
The 3rd Tournament is Just Around the Corner!
The 3rd Western Community Tournament is scheduled to take place on Sunday the 6th of September from 11 AM PST/8 PM CEST to 1 PM PST/ 10 PM CEST!
The Schedule is: - 11 AM (8 PM): All teams will play their first match at the same time. - 11:30 AM (8:30 PM): The Semifinals will be played one after another. - 12:30 AM (9:30 PM): The Finals - All matches will be played best out of 3.
Teams will be made by the devs after the signup based on player levels.
We already have enough players for a 2-bracket tournament. But we will keep the signup open until Thursday evening and if we reach 36+ players, we will do a 3-bracket tournament.
We have a prize pool of 240$ for the winners: 1st price is 50 dollars for each player* 2nd price is 20 dollars for each player* 3rd price is 10 dollars for each player*
Here is a little inspiration from the final at the last Chinese Tournament
See you on the 6th!
Patch Note 0.403.1
- Adjusted the stun duration of R47's Ground Pound, slightly reduced the stamina consumption of the Ground Pound - Adjusted the maximum number of friends a player can have, now you can only have 50 friends at max
Patch Note 0.402.1
1. Fixed a bug where the room list in the lobby cannot be scrolled to the next page 2. Fixed an issue where there’s no loading screen after the match has been found 3. Fixed an issue where players cannot score in one of the goals when returning to the practice range after the final goal in extra time 4. Fixed an issue where players might not be able to get into the match if repeatedly click pre-assign position screen 5. Fixed a bug where Gridiron's ultimate Garbage Day might punch the ball into his back 6. Fixed an issue where players cannot shoot the ball after the reset (goal scored) 7. Fixed an issue in which some of the debuffs do not reset properly after the goal has been scored 8. Fixed a problem when there’s no new message in the lobby but the new message notification pops up
July Update Patch Note 0.401.1
New Contents:
- New Character：Eriel
Character Abilities (Right-Click): Fish Cannon Over time, Eriel generates 3 types of bullets which can be shot out with her Fish Cannon. Each bullet contains special abilities that can be used to buff & debuff characters and opponents
Type of Bullets: Bubble Bullet Characters who got hit by bubble bullet will be covered in a bubble and stay in the air for a few seconds, they'll not be able to move during the time. Ink Bullet Ink bullet will cause explosions when it hits the ground. If it hits the character, the ink will block the sights of the player's computer screen. Buff Bullet Eriel and the teammates who got hit by the bullet will receive a buff and will not be knocked down by any abilities and items.
Ultimate (Q): Grappling Hook Eriel release hook from the mouth of the fish in his hand to grab the nearby ball back to her.
- Added collection menu into the game where players can preview skins and character abilities - Added 2 sets of basic skins for each character - Added in-game Mission System - Added Pre-Assigned Position function for players over Lv8 - Adjusted the difficulty of AIs and the matchmaking rules for new players - Changed Level restrictions for new players from Lv7 to Lv8
Character Adjustments:
General adjustments: - Adjusted the passing curve for some of the characters so that it’s more appropriate - Slightly adjusted the height of all the double jump moves
R47 - Ground Pound (Right-Click) no longer cause stun effects for teammates - Added stamina consumption when using Ground Pound in the air, the Ground Pound will only cause stun to opponents when stamina is consumed - Adjusted the range of Ground Pound stun effects - Fixed an issue with R47’s shooting range
Lang - Wind Tackle: 1. Added character weight/mass into considerations, the heavier the character is the less likely he/she will be knocked back 2. Cancelled the aim assistance that currently applies to Lang’s Wind Tackle - Slightly increased the shooting range of Lang - Decreased the time of Lang’s shooting animation
Pai - Cancelled the ability when performing Acrobat or Parkour, Pai can jump to higher heights by using Dash + Jump
Gridiron - Slightly decreased the hitbox size of Gridiron - Slightly decreased the hitbox size of Gridiron’s Plasma Shield - Increased Gridiron’s passing & ball-handling abilities - Slightly increased the running speed of Gridiron
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed a bug where players might get kicked out of the custom room if the room is full and about to start - Fixed a bug where players could get out of the stadium when using Lang’s Wind Tackle - Fixed an issue where Gridiron’s Plasma Shield cannot be activated within the goalline of the Great Harbor Arena - Fixed a bug where character Lang’s ultimate will repeatedly recover energy for teammates - Fixed an issue where player data might be displayed incorrectly - Fixed a bug where players might turn into spectators when joining a training room opened by new players - Fixed a bug where the in-game UI might disappear during the match - Fixed a bug where the camera might be shaking if players don’t control characters for a long time before the match starts - Fixed an issue where there might be a conflict when AI is about to take over the character while the player starts to control the character at the same time
The July update will reset player match record, leaderboard score and in-game coins. Players names and Levels will remain.
July Patch Review
The July update should be coming in the next few days and here it's a patch preview on what players can expect out of the July patch!
New Character: Eriel
Back in April when we announced the open development of Super Buckyball Tournament, people got very excited about the mysterious blue-haired girl from the trailer. Since then we constantly had players ask us when she would come out, and now the time has finally come!
We have made a little introduction video for her with a nice summer soundtrack to showcase her skills Check it here：
[previewyoutube="SdfIw2YekH4;full"]
Her playstyle can vary as she has a broad range of skills which gives her much control across the field. Our recommendation is to play her as a midfielder to help with disables for supporting either the attacker or the goalie.
Her Fish Cannon slowly generates 3 different types of bullets over time, which rotates with each new bullet. These 3 different bullets have different effects when blasting them out to teammates & opponents.
Her bullets are:
Bubble Bullet Characters who got hit by bubble bullet will be covered in a bubble and stay in the air for a few seconds, they'll not be able to move during the time.
Ink Bullet Ink bullet will cause an explosion when it hits the ground. If it hits the character, the ink will block the sights of the player's computer screen.
Buff Bullet Eriel and the teammates who got hit by the bullet will receive a buff and will not be knocked down by any abilities and items.
Her ultimate is called Grappling Hook, which she releases the hook from the mouth of the fish in his hand to grab the nearby ball back to her.
While her speed and agility might not be as fast as Pai or Lang, she does have a very strong set of abilities that can easily shift the balance of the game in the heat of the moment.
Compared to our other characters, Eriel is so far the most difficult character to play and it will take some practice to play her well. Her versatility in the game requires the player to have a broad overview of the playing field and since her abilities are not spamable, timing is very essential for domination.
Skin System
Next after Eriel, the skin system is very likely the most desired feature in this update.
As you have noticed we have had coins in the lobby for a while, but no one has been able to use them yet. The good news is that you will finally be able to spend to hard-earned coins. But the bad news is that we will reset everyone’s coins and levels again. This does however not hold you back from starting a new fortune.
We have made simple few skins for each character, including Eriel and we have more coming up. The skins are divided into components for most characters therefore different skins for the same character can be combined into the look that you like the best.
So what’s more to come in July? Time to introduce our long-awaited in-game mission system!
The current plan is to have 3 daily and 3 weekly missions in place, by completing it you receive extra coins to get one step closer to your favourite skin！
Feel free to refresh current missions at any time if you happen to find the mission boring or hard to complete, just be aware that it cost coins every time and you only get 3 chances to refresh per day.
It’s a quite basic feature by now but we’re hoping to explore more of it in the future, there’ll be exclusive events & activity points system where we giving out a bunch of cool stuff, so stay tuned on our official social media and communities for more!
This Mission system will also be the foundation for a future battle pass, so we would very appreciate feedback on your experiences related to the missions and the system itself as well as suggestions for new missions or for how we can make a cool battle pass later on.
Pre-assigned Position
We’ll also be making a significant adjustment in the matchmaking process, start from the July patch. After the update players will have to assign themselves into attacking position (which is position 1 or 2 in-game) or defensive position (position 3) in-game. You may also select both if you’re are fine with playing all positions.
The reason for implementing this is that we got plenty of feedback from players talking about not being able to play the position they desired. Swap position in-game sometimes did not work, either the players on other side do not know how to swap or they both want to play goalie.
For those who can comfortably fit into any position, this system would not affect them at all, but for players who do care about it, this would improve their gameplay experience by a country mile.
If you have any good ideas or suggestions, please send you feedback to our discord or sbt@pathea.net
So that’s all the major things coming out in the July patch, We’ll have a much more detailed patch note about the update a bit later, stay tuned have fun in Super Buckyball Tournament!
- SBT Dev Team
Dev Log - The Design of Special Effects
Hey folks! It’s been quite a while since the launch of our open development build, while we’re actively developing our game, we’d also liked to share some of the interesting contents and topics during the development!
We gonna start off with the special effects as our very first topic, it’s one of our major strength and from there you can see how we paired character abilities with visual effects.
As a multiplayer sports game that primarily based on real-time physics, one of the most important thing for us is to synchronize the visual effects so it does not conflict all the major elements of the gameplay.
Here we use one of our cool character ‘Lang’ as an example. Since he’s one of the faster and more agile characters, the special effects we used must match with his personal traits. The gentle breeze that follows the movements of his arms when he punches and the leaves that fall in the special effects indicate the speedy aspect of the character.
When tackling, this time instead of breeze the flow of wind turns into a blast, with the sense of layering players can be started to feel the flexibility of this character.
Lang’s ultimate ‘eye of the storm’ is a large range, distracting ability that can dominate the field for a good few seconds. When designing its special effects we wanna make sure it does not visually block the character itself, while still showcasing the power of the abilities. In which we used high colour saturation so that players can clearly distinguish the special effects and character.
We also demonstrated the design ideology of our special effects from other aspects of the SBT, including the items. In an item called ‘bomb trap’, we added a few different colours and adjusted the colour saturation. Those colourful glowing lights make the item almost impossible to ignore and added a sense of mystery into it.
The expressions were largely enhanced after adding halo effects with some basic designs. It worked out like a surprise for us and I highly recommend using it.
It’s absolutely crucial for players to be able to clearly separate special effects and characters. Since SBT is a fast-paced game, to provide better in-game experiences we tweaked our special effects a little bit, with higher saturation rate than the characters.
About the texture, using textures directly from the photo will result in extra details and cause unnecessary visual distractions. Therefore, we hand draw all the effects and combined softer lines with shape motions. We believe this can decrease the number of visual interruptions and improve in-game experiences.
I believe that’s all we can disclose about the special effects for now, hope you found it interesting and let you have a better understanding of the game! Also let us know if you have good suggestions for topics, and don’t forget to play some buckyball!
Tournament Updates
We are happy to announce that we've just finished the first western Tournament last weekend on Sunday the 28th of June.
It took us a long time to get enough people to sign up, but after the steam festival in mid-June, we finally had enough to get the games going!
1st place with the prize of 50$ for each player went to team 3: Jamer Ravioli xSpokz
2nd place with the prize of 20$ for each player went to team 7: Antemannen2 NachoCheese Lalo
3rd place with the prize of 10$ for each player went to team 1: Chazz22 Dictator Tots DrivingLion
A big round of applause to these guys!!!
You can see the whole stream of the final and semifinals hosted by Gos_Maul
Or you can see the shorter version with 1 match from each game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlH53Q1Zsu8 Or the highlights here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_WVOdrGd1g
2nd Western Tournament
Date: The date is not set in stone yet. We are looking at either Sunday the 19th or Sunday the 26th. Time: 11 am PDT/ 8 pm Central European Time
The Signup for the 2nd Western Tournament is possible on Discord. 24 players are needed. After the 24 slots have been filled, players can still signup as backups in case someone pulls out.
Even though we had 24 players confirmed, there we a couple that didn’t show up, which was a bit disappointing and to avoid that in the future, we will ban non-showers from future tournaments (unless they have a really good reason), starting from the next tournament.
Rules: The rules will be announced later.
Stream: Gos_maul will be hosting the tournament as well. There are 2 more streamer slots available, so if you are also interested in streaming the next tournament, send a private message to Viks on Discord.
