• Product description 3D pop-a-shot basketball game. Reached #29 on Top Applications across entire App store.
• Release Date Jan 5 2010
• Product Genesis Had previously built a basketball shooting multigame (Flick Basketball) with my theComplex engine. We redid the models and graphics, breaking this component out into it’s own title to focus and polish it.
• Team Self, Producer, Artist, QA team.
• Core Technologies C++ game in theComplex engine supporting iPhone OpenGL
• Most Proud Of Integrated a theora video decoder for the backboard to animate short videos triggered by the player’s actions, like that seen at arcades. This was on devices that could not yet do any sort of video through standard apple APIs.
• Responsibilities All code except the ball throw itself.

All of the 2d user interfaces were implemented using Interface Builder. theComplex was able to load xib files directly and create OpenGL-based objects with them. This also included support for any aspect ratio screen (as would be needed on Android). Later on I found out the producer was able to create a free advertisement-based version of the game without any need of a coder until it was practically complete.

Backboard and net movement were animations imported from Maya using the Collada importer of theComplex engine.

Added synchronized network play with four other players via GameKit (bluetooth or wifi). It synchronizes the game start, then displays the scores of the other players in real time.

Integrated Plus+ leaderboard system.

Built an in game “store” that you can purchase additional basketballs and prizes. How you did in the game awarded you special points that you redeem in the store.

There was a bit of discussion around the ball throw itself. I had built a method of throwing the ball that worked out the ideal angle/speed to throw the ball, and then averaged all the player input to modify it. The feel was pretty easy, good for casual gamers. However the game Skeeball had recently been released and was a fairly big hit. In that game, only the player’s beginning and end of the swipe mattered, and it was used to make a direct correlation to the velocity and angle of the throw. It was much more difficult in my opinion.

An older (but more exciting!) portfolio page for this project.