Project in Review: ?Ball

When I began working on ?Ball, I was concerned about the topic of the Weekly Game Jam, which for Week 54 was "Amnesia." My team and I engaged in a few brainstorming sessions before we settled on the basic premise of the game.

I was pleased to be able to work with Joe, Jake, and Luke; I owe the enjoyable experience partly to their talent, but mostly to their amenable attitudes, which made cooperation and communication over the internet simple, despite the fact that we were hundreds of miles apart.

As for the game itself, I am pleased with how the project turned out, considering that this was my first time working with these teammates and my first time joining a game jam. I did not anticipate such a small scope from the game, but in retrospect, my expectations were a little too high; besides, the end product is a pleasingly simple and fairly polished sort of minigame.

One of the other participants in the jam noted that the concept of ?Ball leaves plenty of room for expansion, and I certainly agree. For example, early in the development process, I had the idea of giving players a choice between three randomly selected game rules after each goal. Our team never implemented this mechanic, partly due to time constraints, but I would have loved to see it in action. 

Of course, as with most game jam games, ?Ball also has room for polishing: the game would benefit from a way to prevent balls from becoming stuck behind the goals, as well as better weighting on which rules are chosen.

Other than some minor issues and the ever-present room for expansion of the idea, I would call ?Ball a success as my first game jam project. I hope to try this experience again.