Okay, here’s my blog post about my Flyers Red Army game project, just like you asked.
## My Flyers Red Army Game Adventure
Alright folks, let me tell you about this crazy project I tackled – a Flyers-themed “Red Army” style hockey game. It was a wild ride from start to finish, full of head-scratching moments and plenty of fist-pumping victories.
It all started with an itch. I’m a huge hockey fan, Flyers all the way! And I was also getting into game development. I thought, why not combine the two? I wanted to make something that felt old-school, like those classic NES hockey games, but with a modern twist and a whole lot of Flyers spirit. The Red Army games were always so much fun, so that’s where my head was at.
First things first: Research. I spent a solid week just playing different hockey games, old and new. I wanted to nail down what made them fun. What felt good about the controls? How did they handle player movement and puck physics? I took a ton of notes and even sketched out some rough level designs on paper. Yeah, paper. Old school, remember?
Next up, I had to pick a game engine. I went with Unity, mostly because I had tinkered with it before and knew the basics. Plus, there’s a ton of tutorials and resources online, which is a lifesaver when you’re stuck. I also wanted to make sure it can be played on most devices, so that also factored into my decision.
Then came the real work: coding. I started with the basic player movement. Getting the skaters to glide around the ice smoothly took way longer than I expected. I messed around with different physics settings and finally found something that felt right. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good start. The first version was super janky. They were all over the place!
- After the movement, I started working on the puck handling. Passing, shooting, all that good stuff. I wanted the puck to feel responsive, like it was actually attached to the stick. This involved a lot of vector math and collision detection, which made my brain hurt sometimes.
- Next up, the AI! This was probably the biggest challenge. I wanted the computer-controlled players to be somewhat intelligent. It wasn’t easy. It took me days and days to debug all this.
- Got the goalies set up, basic sound effects added (crowd noise, puck hitting the boards, that kind of thing), and a simple scoring system.
Now, I needed to add the Flyers flair. I created sprites for the players. All of them wearing the orange and black. I designed a simple arena with the Flyers logo plastered all over it. And of course, I had to find some iconic Flyers goal songs to play after each score. This was the fun part!
Then it was time for testing, testing, and more testing. I got some friends to play the game and give me feedback. They found a bunch of bugs and balance issues that I had missed. Turns out, my initial goalie AI was terrible – they let in every shot! So I had to tweak that and a bunch of other stuff based on their suggestions.
After what felt like an eternity, I finally had something that I was happy with. It wasn’t perfect, but it was fun, challenging, and full of Flyers spirit. It was just a blast to play!
Looking back, this project was a huge learning experience. I learned a ton about game development, physics engines, AI, and even a little bit about 2D art. And more importantly, I proved to myself that I could actually finish a game from start to finish. That feeling of accomplishment is priceless.
So there you have it. My Flyers Red Army game adventure. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Maybe next time, I’ll try to add online multiplayer. That would be epic!
