Field Hockey or Netball games

[sigh]

A quick example of how the timer works and the opposition defending.

Now thinking that instead of having 5 throwing animations, it is better to just have 2 which would be an overhead throw and a straight throw. With just these 2 throwing animations, they will be able to be re-used for the bounce passes, lobs and sling throws. This also reduces the amount of sprites significantly.

Once I animate the rest of the chest pass and jump shot animations, that should be all the sprite animations for this netball game finished. Next - what sort of special moves could it have?

I'm thinking:
1) Net goal could grows twice the size, making it easier to score.
2) Player speeds up the opponents timer, giving them less time to make decisions on where to shoot.
3) Team summons extra players to pass to.
4) Team increases their movement speed.
5) The team makes the ball invisible when they throw it.

Always did love your pixel art and animation style and you put such personality even into tiny sprites like these.  I had no interest in playing a Netball game (not into sports games in general) but I'd play this even just for the pixels, but also looks like it could be a genuinely fun lil arcadey game.  The Sensible Soccer of Netball.

Thank you very much. This netball game would definitely be fast paced and arcadey in a Speedball type of way.

@sigh Is this turning from a mock-up into an actual game, right before our eyes?
If so, can I be a tester? 

Well - it indeed has! That wasn't the plan, but as there wasn't much to it in terms of animations, I thought that I may as well finish it as a real game.

Sprite sheet is missing the catching ball animations:



After the catching animations are done - that will be all the sprites finished.

[sigh]

Updated the way the catch and throw mechanic works to make the feedback more stronger and more expressive:



When the ball turns orange; that will be the window in which the player can hold the button to catch the ball:



I imagine a punchy sound effect when catching the ball.

I may also need to look at the court again as I think it maybe a bit too big...

[sigh]

Updated with shadow changing colour too:

[Gryzor]

You work on it round the clock? 🙂

[gurneyh]

Updated with shadow changing colour too:

I find the first iteration better.
The color change on the ball should be enough, because applied on the shadow it's more distracting for my taste.
Great animation work with some pixels, as usual. Great job!

[OneVision]

This is awesome work Sigh. Both in terms of GFX and gameplay anticipation.
I really hope to be able to play this someday.

Good luck !

[sigh]

Updated with shadow changing colour too:

I find the first iteration better.
The color change on the ball should be enough, because applied on the shadow it's more distracting for my taste.
Great animation work with some pixels, as usual. Great job!

Really appreciate the feedback and I think you may have a point. Also - there would be some tracking for the player when trying to catch the ball. It wouldn't be 'pixel perfect pin point accuracy', so there would be some level of generosity.

I have added one more sprite for the ball, which is a larger version to give it a bit more depth and perspective when doing lob passes:



In netball (watching it on the common wealth games) there is lots of fake passing. This could be executed by 'double tapping' in a direction. There will be another copy of the sprite animation which will be of a single colour, behind the main animation, which will be delayed by a frame:



You can see the blue frames on the top - which is same animation as stated, but will be recoloured within the code as would be expected.

This is awesome work Sigh. Both in terms of GFX and gameplay anticipation.
I really hope to be able to play this someday.

Good luck !

I really do hope so too. I really do think that this has the potential to be something quite special and incredibly fun. It would also be the first netball game ever made to my knowledge.

[andycadley]

I suspect the reason there weren't hockey/netball games back in the day is simply that they were considered "girls" sports, and video games were considered a "boy" thing and so there was a simple assumption there would be little to no demand. Odd there hasn't been since, but I guess they're still quite niche sports too in comparison with Soccer, Rugby etc.

It's an interesting concept though. For the netball mock up you'd need at most 16 sprites (14 players, the ball and it's shadow). And they're only 8*16 if my eyeballing is correct. Those numbers literally scream GX at me, which would let you double the horizontal resolution of the players and either have a full 16 colours for the background or even draw it in Mode 1. And you could use two button controls rather than trying to shoehorn everything onto just one. And hitting 50fps with hardware sprites would be trivial...

Kind of wish I had more time. And even a vague understanding of netball.

[sigh]

I suspect the reason there weren't hockey/netball games back in the day is simply that they were considered "girls" sports, and video games were considered a "boy" thing and so there was a simple assumption there would be little to no demand. Odd there hasn't been since, but I guess they're still quite niche sports too in comparison with Soccer, Rugby etc.

It's an interesting concept though. For the netball mock up you'd need at most 16 sprites (14 players, the ball and it's shadow). And they're only 8*16 if my eyeballing is correct. Those numbers literally scream GX at me, which would let you double the horizontal resolution of the players and either have a full 16 colours for the background or even draw it in Mode 1. And you could use two button controls rather than trying to shoehorn everything onto just one. And hitting 50fps with hardware sprites would be trivial...

Kind of wish I had more time. And even a vague understanding of netball.

Yes - definitely being seen as mostly a girls sports. There are no Mens netball teams in the common wealth games, though there is talk of having it in the next one.

The sprites are a bit bigger than 16*16, and some of them are a bit larger than that when it comes to jumping, shooting etc.
I had thought of trying to squeeze them all into 16*16, but I wasn't able to make it look dynamic enough. I also learned so much from creating the sprites from the football game and used that as reference. The amount of animation frames for this netball game have been optimized and cut down considerably, to make sure there aren't many sprites.

I don't mind whether it's on the GX or stock CPC, but having the extra button on the controller would indeed help.
I'm also looking to use the method that was explained in the football game by Axelay for creating different skin colours for the players.

[Animalgril987]

@sigh , I think, just from Amstrad's sales figures, that stock CPC would be more in demand. I image that quite a few people on here don't have a Plus or GX (myself for one).

[Carnivius]

@sigh , I think, just from Amstrad's sales figures, that stock CPC would be more in demand. I image that quite a few people on here don't have a Plus or GX (myself for one).

Yeah, I'm more fascinated by it being a CPC game rather than Plus/GX myself.  Always have been more in favour of the regular CPC.  The Plus/GX never appealed to me. If I'm gonna be using more speed and 4096 colour palette I may as well go Amiga like many customers and developers did back then.  But it's up to Sigh of course.

[sigh]

@sigh , I think, just from Amstrad's sales figures, that stock CPC would be more in demand. I image that quite a few people on here don't have a Plus or GX (myself for one).

@sigh , I think, just from Amstrad's sales figures, that stock CPC would be more in demand. I image that quite a few people on here don't have a Plus or GX (myself for one).

Yeah, I'm more fascinated by it being a CPC game rather than Plus/GX myself.  Always have been more in favour of the regular CPC.  The Plus/GX never appealed to me. If I'm gonna be using more speed and 4096 colour palette I may as well go Amiga like many customers and developers did back then.  But it's up to Sigh of course.

I don't mind either way. I was hoping that it could be a 64kb game but it may need a few extra kb for the sound effects and music. Graphically, it looks like it will need 24kb  - but as the sprites are rather small, it maybe able to be compressed/decompressed on the fly without losing speed maybe?

Here is the game mechanic for shooting at the goal which is the same to passing to a team mate, but with an added extra:

1) If the player releases the button and then presses the button again at the apex of the balls height - the ball will fall into the net.
2) If the player releases the button and then presses the button again after the apex of the balls height - that will result in the ball hitting the rim.
3) If the player releases the button and then presses the button again before the apex of the balls height - that will result in the ball missing the net completely.



I think that this should provide enough tension and skill to make it fun.

[sigh]

The following Gif shows an opposing team intercepting the ball with a catch. It then shows that same team missing a catch with the ball deflecting off the player:

1) If an opposing player intercepts the ball and catches it, the player will turn orange and the game will freeze for 2 frames in order to emphasise the impact. The crowd will cheer.

2) If the player presses the button after the orange, it will deflect off their body.





If the player presses the button before the orange, the player will miss the catch completely. This is similar mechanic to the scoring.

Next; creating the special abilities. The bars at the the bottom of the screen will fill up each time the player does a successful pass. When it is filled, the special ability will activate automatically. It will be active for 5 seconds.

I think it would be good if each team had their own individual special ability and their own court. Each team would also have a unique soundtrack too. This would make them feel more unique and it also gives a off a "fighting game" feel about it when you are battling them on their own turf:

1) Team Alley - concrete court with graffiti. Red colour uniform. Ability - The opposing teams goal, grows twice the size.
2) Team Field - grassy field court with some specks of flowers. Yellow colour uniform. Ability - players move faster.
3) Team Snow - Snowy court(but with no sliding). Blue uniform. Ability - summons extra players to pass to.
4) Team Beach - Sandy court. Green uniform.
5) Team Roof - Rooftop court. Purple uniform.
6) Team Champ - Championship court with crowd. White uniform.
7) Team Super - Wooden floor court with crowd and tv cameras. Black uniform.

They could exchange a few diss words to each other on the court, before starting the game, just to give it a slight story element (which is simply to be crowned the best netball team) and to make it personal between the two teams.

[sigh]

Just looking at the sprite sheet so far. I potentially have space for the shoulder pass or overhead pass which are already animated, but I think it maybe better to just stick to the two passes - chest pass and jump pass, then just have the ball move and act like either of those passes:

You cannot view this attachment.

(so, scrapping shoulder and overhead passes)

Also - there are substitutions in netball. I think what would be cool is that halfway through the match, the substitution happens but it is the "boss" of that team that is the substitute. This boss will be waiting on the side lines(like in the arcade version of Renegade) and will be of a different colour. They will be in the Goal Attack position and move faster and have better accuracy. Also, when they activate the special ability, it will last longer:

You cannot view this attachment.

[Skunkfish]

Perhaps the 'boss' could only be substituted in for a single quarter of the match, adding a bit of tactics to when this is used?

[Animalgril987]

Oh, I like that idea @Skunkfish 

[sigh]

Perhaps the 'boss' could only be substituted in for a single quarter of the match, adding a bit of tactics to when this is used?

The last quarter, would probably be the best way to do it? It would give it that 'boss level' feel when they step onto the court.
Also - each quarter lasts for 60 seconds meaning that 1 match is 4 minutes in total.

Here is how the special ability would activate. The bars at the bottom fill up with each pass*. When the bar is filled, an animation will play (with this ability, the opponents net on the right hand side gets bigger). While the ability is active, the bar will start to deplete each second. When the bar is empty, there will be a flash to signal it's end:



*This gif also shows the bounce pass.

[sigh]

Changed the end of the super ability to something less annoying;



This is less distracting.
I also think that maybe the players could change to a different colour while the ability is activated. They could all turn navy blue making them look like shadows.

Another thing is that the bar will only build up in the MIDDLE of the court. So in order to stop players spamming continuously in the middle of the court as shown in the gif:

1) Once a successful pass has been made in the middle of the court, the bar will fill up by one.
2) If the player make another pass in the middle of the court, the bar will not fill up again.
3) The player must make a pass out of the middle of the court into another area.
4) Once the player from that area makes a pass back into the middle of the court, they will gain another bar.

[sigh]

I have been thinking about the control system again and I think it maybe be in need of some changes in order to make the game feel more quicker and arcadey:

When in possession:

Tapping the fire button:

1) If the player holds a direction and taps the fire button, the ball is thrown directly to the nearest team mate who will catch it automatically.
2) If the player has the joystick in neutral and taps the fire button, the player will perform a bounce pass directly to the nearest team mate who will catch it automatically.

Holding the fire button:

1) If the player holds a direction and holds the fire button then releases, the player will throw the ball in that direction. The nearest team mate will be selected for the player to control, where they will have to run towards the ball and press the fire button to perform a running catch.

2) If the player has the joystick in neutral and holds the fire button and releases, it will perform a lob throw to the nearest team mate who will catch it automatically.

3) The longer the player holds the button, the further the throw.

Double tapping the joystick:

1) Double tapping the joystick will still make the player do a fake pass.

When defending:

When a player is standing near an opposition who has the ball, they will automatically go into the defending pose with their arms raised above their heads.

1) Pressing the fire button will make the player lunge or jump for the ball.

[sigh]

Here are the different skin colour combinations. I'm not sure how having different colour hair would be handled:




I am now done with everything for this game in terms of graphics, control system and gameplay flow. The graphics fill 3 sheets of 160 x 200 (24kb).

In regards to music, each team would have a unique piece of music. It would be good if the music had a 'fighting spirit' to it such as:

[sigh]

So - that's pretty much it for this game which I am calling 'Netball Hot Shots'.

I have spent 2 weeks on this and have done all that I can (apart from the menu and title screen) so I wont be touching this again. It wasn't even supposed to reach this finish state in the beginning. However - if anyone is interested in making this or the football game, then let me know.

I would of loved to have entered this type of a game in a CPCRetroDev competition, as the first netball sports game .   

[Gryzor]

... or the first basketball game to be of some quality next to Basket Master? 

[sigh]

I definitely wouldn't turn it into a basketball game, as there are already a few on the CPC with Basket Master being really good fun. There are no netball video games of any kind on any platform then and now, which makes it even more interesting and challenging to me.

[Gryzor]

Basket Master was the only one that was any good, and this has a distinctly different look (plus the benefit of not being a one-on-one game).

I also used to enjoy the GBA title as a kid, spent countless hours on it, but now - oh what a pile of crap that is.

[sigh]

I was looking at some of the gameboy, megadrive and snes games. I too have noticed that there are many 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3 basketball games compared to full team ones.

Here is an update for the scoring. I have now made the mechanic simpler, by having the player hold the button and releasing it on the orange. During this time of shooting, the counter on top of the players head will disappear. If they take too long to shoot, then the player will shoot automatically and miss the net completely.



The further away they are from the goal net, the faster the ball flashes making it more difficult to score. If the player is closer to the goal net, the ball flashing will be slower. This is my last update:D