I don't have any experience in writing a post mortem. Knockball is a game made in a couple of days, not very innovative and honestly nothing groundbreaking. It was a diversion from my main project, and makes not much sense to write a post mortem about it. And still.

Idea

I drive my youngest son to basketball training every weekend, wait there and usually watch them play. A week ago they started a new game: two teams playing on their own half and trying to knock down a base built of hula hoops while trying to defend their own. I usually think about how I could use things happening around me in a game, so this was fairly obvious. And probably more presentable as the ones I was considering about fever and diarrhea a week before, while I was sick.

Visuals

I am old. Not ancient old but old enough, that if my kids ask me to play a bit of Kirby Star Allies with them, I usually lose sight of my character and get confused by all the shiny, flashing chaos that is happening there. I like simple and clear visuals, and lately I was browsing a couple of Intellivision games, just because I find the minimalistic graphic design very appealing. I also mocked up an Advance Wars style historical game influenced by these graphics, so the art direction was quickly decided.

Development

Making the game was rather quick, except one issue with the controls. I have two Thrustmaster controllers and started to test with those and quickly noticed that Unity has issues with them. Both the old and the new input methods read the analog stick incorrectly. I researched for a couple of hours, asked around on reddit but could not find a solution. Luckily I have an X-Box and a Switch controller as well.

I did try some new things, like the aforementioned new input system, a simple screen shake, and particles. I never did particles before. After the first shaky steps I think I have a good understanding of the options now. I like it, I will try to use it more often, and still think about how I could fit it in my main project.

I started with the 320x200 resolution, and up until the very end it was the basic game mode. Even after I did the low res title screen. But switched to the classic look with the final release. I am not sure, but I think this setup makes the game even more frantic.

Testing

But if it is really more tense, I don't know. I played a couple of test games with the kids, but somehow they did not get into the competitive aspect of the game, and always wanted to end the match in a draw. I played solo as well, but yeah, hard to be competative that way. So riht now I just hope it is fun in the way it was intended. The kids liked even as a coop game.

Marketing

16 hours after it was published on itch, there were more than 200 other, newer games listed. I thought it would be funny to advertise it on twitter and reddit by asking the internet to make this a global e-sporting phenomenon. It seems it wasn't. I got one wisit from both sites. This project will go down unnoticed I guess, but I am ok with that.

Conclusion

The game was fun to make (except for the Thrustmaster fiasco), so I will definiately do smaller projects in the future like this one. It boosted my morale for the main project as well, though even writing this takes away prescious time from it. So I just end it here. Thank you if you read all the way to the end!