Instabilliards by TastiHam

made by TastiHam for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

3D Billiards with energy balls and unstable crystals.

Shoot balls loaded with energy into the unstable crystal cubes until they break. Stored energy is represented by color from green (low) to red (high). Crystals break after reaching a certain threshold. Energy is generated and stored in the balls based on the speed of each collision and released when hitting a crystal. The ball that breaks a crystal gets destroyed and excess energy is added to the total score.

I didn't really have time to add a win screen or different levels, but the game is supposed to be over when all crystals are destroyed.

Also, the balls are meant to be unstable as well and explode when loaded with too much energy, but since I had no time to add audio / visual feedback for the exploding balls I felt like it would be too confusing, so I removed it for now.

Controls:

Mouse - Aim and hold left mouse button to shoot by moving the cue forward

R - Restart level

Esc - Quit game

You can move around freely while balls are in play and moving using wasd, shift, space and left alt / ctrl.

Thanks for playing!!

Link	https://tastiham.itch.io/instabilliards
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/instabillards

Ratings

Overall	1148^th	3.208⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Fun	756^th	3.417⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	194^th	3.854⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Theme	1432^th	2.5⭐	26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	1017^th	3.3⭐	27🧑‍⚖️
Mood	1145^th	3.022⭐	25🧑‍⚖️
Given		32🗳️	24🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 79716

05. Oct 2021 · 14:34 UTC

I like the graphics but don't understand how it follows the theme

Agent_Peterson

05. Oct 2021 · 14:36 UTC

Hey this was very nice! I really like the concept, didn't expect the game to be in 3d like that at all. It took me a while to actually be able to hit something but I got used to the controls relatively quickly. I feel as though the sensitivity might be too high as well. It would cool and help with the vibe with some music, sound effects, background visual effects too. But great job overall!!!!

BJakubowski

05. Oct 2021 · 14:43 UTC

Nice concept with 3D billard and nice visual effects, but ball sometimes goes out of boundaries of the playground, I guess it should be teleported inside in case of that

JuanRod707

05. Oct 2021 · 15:48 UTC

Very entertaining game, now I really wanna play billards in space. The concept is very fresh and the game is very intuitive. The auto camera switch is kinda violent and the game could really use some sound and atmosphere tho.

Rendow

05. Oct 2021 · 18:12 UTC

The 3D pool concept is fun! I also got the bug that the ball exits the box sometimes, but otherwise I enjoyed playing. Simple but effective graphics and great camera transitions. Well done!

Quinn Mohamed

06. Oct 2021 · 06:20 UTC

This is such a cool concept on pool

Magnanix

06. Oct 2021 · 07:35 UTC

Nice work :). Only issue I had was with mouse sensitivity and not being able to hit the ball hard because I ran out of runway :P.

🎤 TastiHam

06. Oct 2021 · 16:30 UTC

@greatvv @agent-peterson @bjakubowski @juanrod707 @rendow @quinn-mohamed @magnanix

Thank you all for the great feedback!

I have addressed some of the issues you brought up. All balls should now stay inside the play area and the sensitivity and cue speed are more consistent :)

BorisFromMurmansk

06. Oct 2021 · 19:51 UTC

As it is not very clear how to explode these crystals, to make them unstable, so one gets the impression that you are just playing billiards, but in any case, playing it is quite interesting. The graphics are nice and the reflection helps to remove emptiness from the frame.

🎤 TastiHam

07. Oct 2021 · 01:11 UTC

@borisfrommurmansk I just realized that I added a bug that makes the crystals unbreakable with the last update. Oops! Should be fixed now, thanks for you feedback!

Lintfordpickle

07. Oct 2021 · 14:49 UTC

As a few others as said, I wasn't too sure how to play, so I just pretended I was playing 3d pool, and I actually enjoyed it just for that. The game ran smooth and the graphics were good.
I realize it is difficult as a solo-dev, but some kind of sound/music would have really helped. A solid effort none-the-less

figueroass27

08. Oct 2021 · 04:53 UTC

3D pool is a super fun a unique idea. I think the simple visuals are more than enough for the idea of the game. Im a little sad that there is no sound or music though. Im also having a little trouble with shooting the ball, its not detecting my movement forward or something, though that might just be me. Either way, I think its a wonderful idea that is tons of fun.

David price

09. Oct 2021 · 17:20 UTC

Really good concept! Kind of want this to exist in real life :) Good physics, the balls ended up where I had expected them (after I figured out how to think in 3D). The camera was a bit jumpy once you hit the ball, could have lingered a little after, or moved slower from the shot. But overall a fun game :)

🎤 TastiHam

10. Oct 2021 · 10:44 UTC

@lintfordpickle @figueroass27 @david-price
Thank you all for the feedback! I probably should've just put in some free chill music at least since I opted out of the audio rating anyway. I'll keep it in mind for next time :D

@david-price Real life you say? Maybe I could try to make a VR version haha

Joel Davis

14. Oct 2021 · 05:41 UTC

Really neat concept! It was pretty hard to tell what was going on, I think making the balls different colors and having some more points of reference for "top", "side", and "up" etc.. would make it easier. My biggest complaint was the camera movement after taking a shot made it really hard to see what was happening. Really fun though, and like others said, I'd love to see a VR version.

vidim888

16. Oct 2021 · 00:06 UTC

Great game! I think one way to improve it would be to add the direction ball will move after hit like a lot of flash billiards have.

Chacharl

17. Oct 2021 · 17:29 UTC

Fun little game, the concept is pretty cool !
I think the camera is aiming a bit too much down : the only part that you can look while shooting is the top of your screen which can be a bit annoying, but it's not that much of a problem.
I find that it's hard to estimate the strength you'll put in the ball when shooting, I guess it would have been more understandable to have a kind of strength gauge to evaluate your shots.
Otherwise great job, I find it really cool !

LDJam user 117129

21. Oct 2021 · 13:33 UTC

3D pool! I've never seen this, I think it's a really cool concept. I also struggled a bit to hit the corner cubes. I think adding a little feedback for where you are going to hit the ball would go a long way. Good work!