LudumData

BallBoy! by Neandi

[raw]
made by Neandi for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

Ballboy Header.png

Yaaay! Tennis!

A short game about being a Ballkid at an amateur Tennis Match. Enjoy!

Throw Tennisballs into the baskets on each tennisplayers side. If they get empty you lose a life!

Controls

  • Move - WASD / Left Stick
  • Aim - HOLD & DRAG Mouse / Right Stick
  • Throw - RELEASE Mouse / RB or Y
  • Jump - SPACE / A
  • Dash - SHIFT / X
  • Escape - Alt F4

Team

  • Coding by Neandi :computer:
  • Coding by KekLuck :computer:
  • Coding by SunSh4dow :computer:
  • Graphics by TouristHistories :pencil2:

Made with Unreal Engine 5, Krita, Audacity & Photoshop.
Sounds: SFX from Pixabay (opting out)

Changelog :tools:

Sixth time participating, first time with a team of 4 - still struggling with time management.

Notes from us

Touri: I lost all my mental somewhere between NpcWalkSprite2 and NpcIdleSprite1.
Neandi: Tennis is harder than expected.
Kekluck: Secretly this is a game about birds and their sounds.
SunSh4dow: Nice to ship a game project for once!

Thank you very much for leaving feedback, playing & your rating!

Link https://trsthstrs.itch.io/ballboy
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/ballboy

Ratings

Overall 360th 3.571⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 399th 3.31⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 533th 3.024⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Theme 430th 3.619⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 231th 4.048⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Humor 198th 3.476⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 350th 3.619⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 21🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

ZAZiOs
Oct 06th · 23:51 UTC
I liked the funny graphics. But didn't understood where to put the tennis balls, but good job!
CaptainCorgistan
Oct 06th · 23:52 UTC
Like overall art style! So minimalistic and still stylish
Adam Gallina
Oct 07th · 00:04 UTC
The environment is really well done, the sprites/expressions are even goofier with the realistic backdrop and tie together nicely. Overall I had a lot of fun, would have been nice to have some extra mechanics to manage overtime, but it was really creative how the pigeons steal the balls and gradually make it harder!
Sirplop
Oct 07th · 00:54 UTC
Charming artstyle, pretty fun concept! I had the players stop serving after about a minute, which I'm pretty sure isn't supposed to happen!
MaiMai
Oct 07th · 04:09 UTC
Nice, this feels really solid for a game jam. I didn't understand why I got a game over the first time but then I realized what my job was actually supposed to be :smile:.
I was going to just toss balls to the other side in hopes they would get in the basket and then I understood why the birds were there :smirk: Great design!

Good job and clever use of the theme!
Nicso
Oct 07th · 16:13 UTC
Tennis would be way funnier this way.

Nice entry with good graphics and solid gameplay.

I’m sure a funny music would have make it way funnier tho.

Nice work :thumbsup:
My4sthma
Oct 08th · 10:10 UTC
The silly and cute graphics make me wish there was more silly gameplay. For example throwing the players with balls and birds to make them play slower.
Phobos
Oct 08th · 20:49 UTC
Really good game with silly funny graphics
Aquanim
Oct 09th · 07:35 UTC
I also had the tennis players stand still and stop doing anything for a while (with neither basket empty) but they eventually started playing again. Not sure why.

I did expect there to be a penalty for running through the court while there was a point in progress, but the game probably is more fun as it is.

Fun concept and fun game :)
Eugenik
Oct 09th · 16:28 UTC
I definitely love the art style, very nice work !.
slay a stone
Oct 12th · 08:31 UTC
These tennis players are quite bad for the amount of balls i need to collect for them :-). Nice take on the theme, throwing the balls in the basket felt satisfying!
6Knowledge
Oct 13th · 17:56 UTC
Not quite sure what happened as the players just stopped playing by the first minute, expected it to go for as long as there were lives left. A very interesting take on the theme, can't say I've come across another like this one. The graphics and the style of them were absolute standout and a lot of time was clearly put into them.
daniel
Oct 18th · 20:06 UTC
I love so much about this, the whole look and gameplay is right up my alley. Enjoying all the different takes on the theme like this one. The billboard sprites with the court works really well visually. Also had the players stop playing after 3 minutes, but still a really great self contained game that kept me engaged the whole time.
Zyrconium
Oct 22nd · 23:36 UTC
You've made a very ambitious game that gets a lot of things right, especially the tinier design decisions like the birds that help push the game towards an end point, the need to (fairly chaotically) throw the balls back into their recepticles and the addition of a dive button.

I might recommend some alternates for the more common sound effects that you cycle or randomly pick between so that the same sound wasn't playing quite so frequently.