Streetball the Mecca

The Concept

Streetball the Mecca has many inspirations but when it comes to gameplay I mainly looked at the NBA Street and NBA Ballers series for inspiration. The game NBA Street Vol 2 especially, due to its status as a one of the best basketball games of all time. It’s fans currently ravenous for a return to that gameplay after the series died 15 years ago.

Thus I aimed to return to the arcadey feel of those games, as not only was there a gap in basketball games, but pretty much the entire sports game genre had moved towards more realistic and simulation gameplay. The struggle being making it unique enough that players don’t simply go back to the games of the past instead.

Full Production

Streetball the Mecca is the first time I’ve ever led a full production of a major project, outside of a school like structure. This means dealing with community outreach and managing contractors for art and animation during production. While I had worked on teams before this was a step above anything I had done previously, as I had to do these duties in conjuntion with with developing the game from the ground up all on my own.

You Can’t Beat 2K

Seems obvious to say but many people often asked me if the game was just like 2K the only major basketball game being played. So I knew that I couldn’t just make a basketball game put it in the streets and call it a day, I had to differentiate. This led to the game becoming it’s own unique thing that cannot be mistaken for anything else.

So Loook Different

Most notably was the art style I developed, having characters be a combination of traditional African art, and the iconic And 1 Streetball mascot that became popular in the late 90s to early 00s. And while not shown here giving clothing a moving design using a mask effect similar to the children’s cartoon Chowder. Not to mention that unlike most other major sports titles Streetball the Mecca will be using sprites rather than 3D models. When you see these characters, especially in motion you’ll know it’s not like anything else you’ve seen.

And BE Different

When it comes to gameplay that was easier to differentiate as the feel of just moving the characters would have them recognize what this game is going for. But someone giving this game a passing glance won’t notice it like they would the art style, so the game has 2 very unique distinctions. First is the game is one on one, keeping with the theme of showing off one’s individuality while limiting the scope of the game. The second being that the game takes place on a 2D plane, akin to a fighting game. This game forces confrontation, as a player you must find a way to make space by interacting with your opponent, even slipping by someone requires you to out smart them.

This isn’t even mentioning other game systems such as dribble moves which can break your opponents ankles or create space. The cancel system, which allows players to cancel any dribble animation as long as the ball is in the correct hand, increasing the skill ceiling and allowing for major player expression. Hype which is built up during the game and gives players the opportunity to goaltend or perform a super move. Among other systems that I won’t get into here.

The Issues

As with any game there are issues but due to the fact that I was either in school or not a lead on any of the projects I made before I either didn’t have a full grasp on the issues or the issues were not really my fault in a way. However, with this project I can’t say that as I’ve had a hand in literally everything about the game. Since the game is unfinished these problems will mostly be from a development side rather than issues with the gameplay which may change as the production goes on. Thus the main issues are as follows:

Scope

Any developer knows how this goes, I had originally planned for 2 characters and 5 levels to be playable within 6 months. However this was a massive over estimation. This is namely due to the art style that is integral to getting prospective buyers interested. However there is a reason most games use 3d animation. 2D sprites may look amazing but the more realistic nature along with the intricate movements caused production to slow when it came to creating animations for the characters. To the point I had to hire a second contractor in order to keep production going at a decent pace. This caused a massive delay in tackling game feel as I had to wait to get rough animations of moves so that I could spend time making sure the game’s movement was solid.

Limited Knowledge

While I do have 2 contractors helping with the game they are only handling art and animation, thus all of the game’s coding and design duties fall on me. This isn’t an issue in most cases as I think I have done a fairly good job of managing time with the project and following David Wehle’s advice of getting something done everyday. However there are certainly gaps in my knowledge that I have no idea on how to tackle and have caused delays and in some cases still have yet to be solved properly, namely being online networking, While I have a fair knowledge of programming I must admit that I am somewhat lost when it comes to networking a game. So while this game is networked and playable online I have no idea of how to mitigate lag, or make the game function the same way it does locally. Or to be more precise I have no idea on how to implement the solutions I’ve heard, I don’t know how to implement rollback net code, or make it players interact properly when running into each other online. While I have no issue asking for help the main issue that arises is recognizing how much help do I need? When should I prioritize getting this help? etc.

Marketing

There’s a reasons companies put a ton of money into marketing a product, no one will buy it if they don’t know it exists. Obviously getting the word out there has been tough but that’s not actually the reason this is in here. The main reason is actually once again having to do with timing, figuring out when to market my game and how much. Most designers will say you’re never going to be satisfied with your game and that makes it difficult to judge when even a small part of the public should see your game. When I first released a pre- alpha build I knew the game was broken in so many ways. But at a certain point even though I’m quite proficient at finding bugs I needed new eyes on it and my pool of testers was limited. So I still struggle with showing off such a blatantly unfinished and unpolished work to the public and I wonder if even promoting any more is worth it. All the while knowing the game still has massive issues, but many of which I won’t find without the help of others.