Game Development

The Ball Game 

As part of the Client/Server Web System Development Module, which forms part of my B.Sc. in Internet Application Development, I was required to design & develop a game using primarily JavaScript. Since this module is fully focused on Web Technologies, I decided to use some new very interesting standards such as HTML5 and CSS3 together with JavaScript.

Online Interactivity has always formed part of my to-do list which finally, thanks to this coursework, I managed to dedicate a couple of hours to learn the technologies and best practices used to develop such interactive and fun games.

Game Overview

So.. what is this game? When I was assigned this coursework, although the aim of the coursework was to create a moving object, I decided to take this a number of steps further and focused on replicating a famous sport called Curling (nickname: Chess on ice). Curling is a sport where players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. This game replicates this sport in a restricted manner.

Upon launching the game, the player is presented with a screen consisting of a ball, target and two sliders used to choose both the angle and speed of throwing the ball. When both the angle and the speed parameters are set, the user will be required to click on play and the ball will start moving, hopefully towards the target. The target is made up of different circle sizes, each giving the user different points depending where the ball will stop moving. The aim of the game is that the player gets the ball closest to the centre of the whole target where he can obtain the highest points. The player will be given three chances to 

When I pointed out my idea earlier on, I stated that I am replicating this sport with some restrictions. In Curling, users can throw multiple stones without the previous stone being removed so as these can be repositioned for a higher score as well as using a so called Curling broom to make the stone reach further distances. Another fact is that Curling is a sport where two teams compete with each other using different stone colours.

In the game implemented, both features where not included due to time constraints. However the game has been built carefully to accommodate for such improvements to be added to this game in the future.

Game Creation Process

The Ball Game was designed and developed in five (5) phases, with one phase building upon the other as follows:

• Game Plan - Read More
• Setting up the User Interface - Read More 
• Making the Ball Move - Read More
• Making the Ball Bounce off Walls - Read More
• Designing Levels and Scoring - Read More

A detailed explanation of each of the phases mentioned above can be accessed using the Read More link next to each of the phases.

Future Enhancements

• Player Login to store scoring and comments
• Cross-Platform compatibility
• Choice between Single and Multi-player
• Staggered levels (Intermediate can be accessed only once the player passes the Beginner Level)
• Enable level design by players
• Introduce obstacles and different surface elements
• Stop the ball smoother by reducing velocity 
• More realistic re-bounce rather than a fixed 90 degrees angle
• Multiple balls drawn on the same canvas which can collide with each other
• Using arrow keys to set angle and speed