Alright, so check it, yesterday I was messing around with some simple game stuff and thought, “Hey, why not try to make a soccer game kinda thing with an England flag theme?” Sounds simple, right? Well…
First thing I did was fire up my usual game engine. I’m not gonna name names, but it’s the one everyone uses, you know? Then, I grabbed a basic soccer ball model from the asset store. Didn’t wanna waste time modeling one myself, ain’t nobody got time for that!
Next up, the England flag. I could have just slapped a picture of it onto a plane, but that’s boring. Instead, I decided to try and make it a bit more 3D-ish. I used some cubes and stretched them out to form the red cross on a white background. It looked pretty janky at first, kinda like a toddler built it with blocks, but after some tweaking, it started to resemble something decent. Think low-poly, Minecraft-y England flag.
Then came the fun part: the actual soccer bit. I added some basic physics to the ball so it would bounce and roll around. I tried to get it so if you click the mouse then it would “kick” the ball. Sounds easy, but getting the force right was a pain. Too much power, and the ball flies off into the stratosphere. Too little, and it just kinda sits there looking sad. Spent a good hour just fiddling with the force and direction to make it feel somewhat realistic. Note to self: brush up on physics.
I thought about adding some players but got lazy. So, just imagine there are tiny, invisible England players kicking this ball around. For now, it’s just me, the ball, and a kinda-sorta England flag background. Players can imagine they are scoring when the ball is clicked.
To spice it up a little I added a simple score thing just so there was something actually to keep track of. If the ball clicked in the right spot then the score goes up by one.
Lessons Learned:
- Making something look simple takes way more time than you think.
- Physics engines are both awesome and frustrating.
- I need more coffee.
Overall, it was a fun little project. Definitely not going to win any awards, but it scratched that creative itch for the day. Maybe next time I’ll actually add some players and make a real game. Or maybe I’ll just make a giant, bouncy England flag. Who knows?
