Cool idea to have a sports game be both real-time and turn-based. I ran into no bugs; everything on the gameplay side seemed quite polished. Seeing the ball go over the head of one player and then it go over the head of another starting further back than it was was a bit jarring, but I understand it was just showing every player within proximity of your shot getting their chance to try to block the ball. I assume you have plans in the future for how to incorporate that more seamlessly into the visual side of the game(?).
Unless I missed it I don't think think any actions showed their % chance to succeed (if I understand from the itchio page, the chance for success is comparing stats + some random number being rolled). Would like to see this in the future to more quickly ascertain how potential actions will play out.
One of my next tasks will be to better represent the stats on the UI. You can estimate the chance of the success using the player's pass/shot power minus any blocker's block power. But I agree is isn't well presented.
Finally, Blood Bowl but with girls instead of abominations
Took a bit of time to understand how it works, but it most certainly works! Even managed to win one game. I understand that it's a prototype and everything is a placeholder, but the most confusing thing for me were the animations - they were very confusing at first, especially since the ball teleports to the player if the player manages to intercept it (for example).
Also - the animations in general are a bit slow, would've preferred them to be a bit faster.
Rng is a bitch, but I'm probably just unlucky.
I think you've got a real gem on your hands, just need to polish it - and it will truly shine.
Thanks for the comment and congrats on another DD stream. I did see your stream on my game and I thought you picked it up quite quick. I do agree to take this game forward I do need to pick an artstyle, redo most of the 3D models and animations. Then start to add some special passes etc.
There were a couple of comments on the camera transistions which I'll think of a way to smooth out too.
Love the game idea The match seems to go on for so long with all the animations present, you could cut it down to half the duration if you're not willing to have the timer go down when animations play? I beat the team 5-0 with still around 50 "seconds" left.
Animations could be shortened a little, every pass has an animation where they take three business days to look left and right. I think it could be cut.
I've never played blitzball, but I'm a huge Inazuma Eleven fan. They keep all the non-special move animations there (where they intercept/trap/catch the ball) extremely brief and impactful. They also have this small touch to have the timer keep ticking down even during animations, but give a slight injury time because of all of the animations/or if the team with the ball has the advantage to score a goal (This is also present in actual football games) Lastly you already know this but the stats are so random, I had one guy be absolutely terrible in all stats to the point of being unusable, even for passing.
I'm looking forward to a version of this game with even more developed mechanics and actual characters. Great work
had a rough start and they were beating me 3-0 but I managed to tie them and in the last ten seconds there were many close calls but my girls couldnt score the winning shot, ended up on a tie
Okay so now a bit of feedback, I feel like I'm doing a lot of watching and not playing, having to wait for each animation to play, also I found awkward how the game goes from animation to actual gameplay, I wouldnt know for sure how to move and that seemed important since the characters move quite fast and a fraction of a second can be the difference of two characters entering in their stop range
After playing a full match I have no idea what the stats really do, just some vague idea of what to press based on colors.
It seemed easy to trick the AI to move how I wanted when attacking, I was able to get an easy free pass inside the goalkeep area into a shot, the other's team movement were predictable
-Oh so it's a 2 button game, interesting. Using controller.
-I can't stand this game, every time you get into a large AOE of someone they stop the game and they get a chance to intercept you. After happening 10 times in a row it's making me want to die. There seems to be no agency, unless I shoot well before getting close to the goal. There's no visual % telling me the chance of any move, and the visual placement of characters doesn't seem to matter in the least. And it looks like you can never pass/shoot before they try a tackle, so what gives? I also have no bloody idea what a ball power is. If it matters, I wish there was a short blurb like 'the higher the easier to score'.
-Maybe have the big ring around the current player always visible to get an idea of where the intercept range of enemies is.
-After the 'I got the ball!' cutscene, I don't like how it starts gameplay while moving the camera away, I'd rather go back to the main view for a moment before continuing, otherwise it's disorienting.
-The visuals are alright, sans variety in team members. I do wish the ball looked more unique, it looks like soccer which makes it weird.
I've never been into sports games, so idk maybe it's just not for me. The system seems cool in concept, I'm sure it will be better when built up more. Keep up the good work.
Camera goes crazy fucked when controlling the goalee. the reselect button never selects the character i want. and MC-Kyubu got busted stats on this run and keeps cockblocking me which is hilariously frustrating.
But i'm having a blast this is pure soul, i don't really play sports games so i can't compare it to anything else other than Blitzball from FFX and it's great at that.
Oh quick edit: something that's frustrating is sometimes i gain control of a character and i want to open the menu and shoot quickly but no matter how much i mash the button it doesn't respond, if there's like a cooldown or something internally the player should be informed
I'll fix the camera angle bug when the goalkeeper has control. There is a red cooldown bar at the top when receiving the ball or cancelling out the menu but it does disappear quickly.
There's loads of areas to improved but I'm glad you got some fun from it though :)
please double and triple down on the goofiness. i love the freeze frames. i love the backwards runs.
will you add special moves next? it would be interesting if different characters had unique skills. it would add more strategy on who to pass the ball etc
Special moves are planned, using them will decrease the HP. Also I do want to be able to choose from different teams with different stats / skillset to mix up the play style too.
I did watch a steam of the game and did see that they did get a little disoriented when the screen transistioned from the ball flight to the in game view so I'll think of a better way to handle they. I agree with the animations they look a little slow and clunky. Plus the tactics will be improved too, the cpu will just defend their own goal mostly (if you are winning you can stand still and run down the clock currently).
Comments
Cool idea to have a sports game be both real-time and turn-based. I ran into no bugs; everything on the gameplay side seemed quite polished. Seeing the ball go over the head of one player and then it go over the head of another starting further back than it was was a bit jarring, but I understand it was just showing every player within proximity of your shot getting their chance to try to block the ball. I assume you have plans in the future for how to incorporate that more seamlessly into the visual side of the game(?).
Unless I missed it I don't think think any actions showed their % chance to succeed (if I understand from the itchio page, the chance for success is comparing stats + some random number being rolled). Would like to see this in the future to more quickly ascertain how potential actions will play out.
One of my next tasks will be to better represent the stats on the UI. You can estimate the chance of the success using the player's pass/shot power minus any blocker's block power. But I agree is isn't well presented.
Thanks for giving the demo a go though.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2616331255
Finally, Blood Bowl but with girls instead of abominations
Took a bit of time to understand how it works, but it most certainly works! Even managed to win one game. I understand that it's a prototype and everything is a placeholder, but the most confusing thing for me were the animations - they were very confusing at first, especially since the ball teleports to the player if the player manages to intercept it (for example).
Also - the animations in general are a bit slow, would've preferred them to be a bit faster.
Rng is a bitch, but I'm probably just unlucky.
I think you've got a real gem on your hands, just need to polish it - and it will truly shine.
Thanks for the comment and congrats on another DD stream. I did see your stream on my game and I thought you picked it up quite quick. I do agree to take this game forward I do need to pick an artstyle, redo most of the 3D models and animations. Then start to add some special passes etc.
There were a couple of comments on the camera transistions which I'll think of a way to smooth out too.
Love the game idea
The match seems to go on for so long with all the animations present, you could cut it down to half the duration if you're not willing to have the timer go down when animations play? I beat the team 5-0 with still around 50 "seconds" left.
Animations could be shortened a little, every pass has an animation where they take three business days to look left and right. I think it could be cut.
I've never played blitzball, but I'm a huge Inazuma Eleven fan. They keep all the non-special move animations there (where they intercept/trap/catch the ball) extremely brief and impactful. They also have this small touch to have the timer keep ticking down even during animations, but give a slight injury time because of all of the animations/or if the team with the ball has the advantage to score a goal (This is also present in actual football games)
Lastly you already know this but the stats are so random, I had one guy be absolutely terrible in all stats to the point of being unusable, even for passing.
I'm looking forward to a version of this game with even more developed mechanics and actual characters. Great work
had a rough start and they were beating me 3-0 but I managed to tie them and in the last ten seconds there were many close calls but my girls couldnt score the winning shot, ended up on a tie
Okay so now a bit of feedback, I feel like I'm doing a lot of watching and not playing, having to wait for each animation to play, also I found awkward how the game goes from animation to actual gameplay, I wouldnt know for sure how to move and that seemed important since the characters move quite fast and a fraction of a second can be the difference of two characters entering in their stop range
After playing a full match I have no idea what the stats really do, just some vague idea of what to press based on colors.
It seemed easy to trick the AI to move how I wanted when attacking, I was able to get an easy free pass inside the goalkeep area into a shot, the other's team movement were predictable
-Oh so it's a 2 button game, interesting. Using controller.
-I can't stand this game, every time you get into a large AOE of someone they stop the game and they get a chance to intercept you. After happening 10 times in a row it's making me want to die. There seems to be no agency, unless I shoot well before getting close to the goal. There's no visual % telling me the chance of any move, and the visual placement of characters doesn't seem to matter in the least. And it looks like you can never pass/shoot before they try a tackle, so what gives? I also have no bloody idea what a ball power is. If it matters, I wish there was a short blurb like 'the higher the easier to score'.
-Maybe have the big ring around the current player always visible to get an idea of where the intercept range of enemies is.
-After the 'I got the ball!' cutscene, I don't like how it starts gameplay while moving the camera away, I'd rather go back to the main view for a moment before continuing, otherwise it's disorienting.
-The visuals are alright, sans variety in team members. I do wish the ball looked more unique, it looks like soccer which makes it weird.
I've never been into sports games, so idk maybe it's just not for me. The system seems cool in concept, I'm sure it will be better when built up more. Keep up the good work.
Camera goes crazy fucked when controlling the goalee. the reselect button never selects the character i want. and MC-Kyubu got busted stats on this run and keeps cockblocking me which is hilariously frustrating.
But i'm having a blast this is pure soul, i don't really play sports games so i can't compare it to anything else other than Blitzball from FFX and it's great at that.
Oh quick edit: something that's frustrating is sometimes i gain control of a character and i want to open the menu and shoot quickly but no matter how much i mash the button it doesn't respond, if there's like a cooldown or something internally the player should be informed
Thanks for giving the game a play.
I'll fix the camera angle bug when the goalkeeper has control. There is a red cooldown bar at the top when receiving the ball or cancelling out the menu but it does disappear quickly.
There's loads of areas to improved but I'm glad you got some fun from it though :)
please double and triple down on the goofiness. i love the freeze frames. i love the backwards runs.
will you add special moves next? it would be interesting if different characters had unique skills. it would add more strategy on who to pass the ball etc
Special moves are planned, using them will decrease the HP. Also I do want to be able to choose from different teams with different stats / skillset to mix up the play style too.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I think this is a really cool proof of concept. Could go far with the right systems.
Feedback:
- Transition from animations to gameplay is very fast, makes it hard to react
- all the players move the same speed so there's no ability to catch up
- Kind of related, there's not much play in the middle of the field, it's just running to the goal, then passing/shooting
- Animations could be a *bit* faster, or give players a skip option
- I'm sure it's planned, but stats and RPG abilities would go crazy in a game like this
You've made great progress so far and i see the vision, keep it up!
I did watch a steam of the game and did see that they did get a little disoriented when the screen transistioned from the ball flight to the in game view so I'll think of a better way to handle they. I agree with the animations they look a little slow and clunky. Plus the tactics will be improved too, the cpu will just defend their own goal mostly (if you are winning you can stand still and run down the clock currently).
Thanks for giving the game a try.