Okay, so today I decided to mess around with creating a “bikini volleyball game.” Don’t judge, it was a random idea! I’ve been playing around with some basic game dev stuff, and this just popped into my head.
Phase 1: Getting Started (aka Total Confusion)
First, I fired up Unity. I’ve used it a bit before, so I wasn’t completely lost. I created a new project, calling it something super original like “VolleyballFun.” Yeah, I’m great at names.
Then came the hard part…the actual, you know, game. I needed a beach, obviously. So I spent like an hour messing with the terrain editor, trying to make some decent-looking sand dunes. It ended up looking more like lumpy mashed potatoes, but hey, it’s a start.
Phase 2: Characters and…Physics?
Next up: the players. I grabbed some free 3D models online. Basic, low-poly ones, because, well, I’m not exactly a 3D artist. I did find one model pack. I rigged them up (which means I made the skeletons work, sort of). I did my best.
The volleyball…oh boy. I added a sphere, gave it a physics material, and started playing with the bounciness settings. I wanted it to feel, you know, volleyball-y. It mostly just ended up either flopping like a dead fish or bouncing off into the stratosphere.
Phase 3: Making it (Barely) Work
- I wrote some very, very basic scripts to move the characters around. Think “WASD” controls, nothing fancy.
- I added a net, basically just a stretched-out cube. Very high-tech.
- I fiddled with the physics some more, trying to get the ball to behave. It was a constant battle of tweaking numbers and praying.
Phase 4: “Playtesting” (aka Laughing at My Own Failure)
I hit play, and…well, it was a mess. The characters moved like they were underwater. The ball had a mind of its own. Sometimes it went through the net. Sometimes it stuck to the players. It was glorious, in a terrible way.
I spent a good chunk of time just trying to hit the ball back and forth. Mostly, I failed. But it was kind of hilarious, watching these blocky figures flail around and the ball doing whatever it wanted.
Phase 5: Giving up(sort of)
I am giving up for a while.
So, yeah, my “bikini volleyball game” is far from ready for prime time. But it was a fun little experiment. I learned a bit more about Unity, got to mess with physics, and had a good laugh. Maybe someday I’ll come back to it and make it actually playable. But for now, it’s a glorious, buggy mess, and that’s okay.
