Ace Breakers is a multiplayer pickleball game developed for VR, with the goal of providing players with an immersive experience that was both fun and challenging. While the project ultimately did not achieve all of its intended goals, the development process provided valuable insights into what it takes to build a successful multiplayer VR game.
Programming
One of the most important lessons learned during the development of Ace Breakers was the importance of carefully managing shared objects. In a sports game where stability is key, it’s critical to avoid frequent ownership transfers of shared objects. This requires decoupling networked and offline functions and assigning one programmer dedicated to networking development.
Another key takeaway was the need to carefully identify which data needs to be stored in the cloud and which data can be kept locally. Too much cloud storage can lead to network problems, which can negatively impact player experience. Using events to pass information that needs to be synchronized for different classes of functions and using RPC to pass data that needs to be synchronized within the same class can help manage network traffic.
Unity’s physics system is not reliable in multiplayer mode and requires custom physics scripts. Using Prefabs can reduce workload when customizing resources. Additionally, adding more debug logs and creating visual debug tools in the scene can help manage runtime errors, which are difficult to detect in a VR environment.
Design
In terms of design, the development team learned that it’s important to empathize with the player’s perspective, obtain their feedback, and assess whether the game requires modifications based on their recommendations. While it’s impossible to create a game that pleases everyone, soliciting player feedback can help identify areas for improvement.
It’s also important to recognize the intended demographic and create a design tailored to their needs. For example, because Ace Breakers was designed as a VR game, the target audience was players with VR experience, and the design needed to consider their game habits to create intuitive controls.
When designing a function, it’s important to consider how related functions will be designed and how they will operate. For example, when designing the singles mode, the development team needed to consider how to teach players to play this mode in the tutorial and what features players needed to know before they played.
Finally, managing the project’s scope is critical. When the development team recognized that networking was time-consuming, they abandoned plans for a doubles mode to ensure they had sufficient time to make adjustments and provide a satisfying experience for the singles mode.
Playtesting
Playtesting is a critical component of game development, and the development team of Ace Breakers learned a few key lessons during the process. First, a sports game requires a lot of practice to get used to how the game works. Don’t expect a 20-minute playtest session to be enough to onboard players and provide in-depth feedback. For a 20-minute session, expect players to struggle to play the game at all.
Defining the target audience early on is also important. Whether the game is made for athletes or for people who have no experience in the sport, it’s critical to cater to the group of people being targeted and adjust the game to make their life easier. If the game is a hardcore sports game, having long-term playtesters is crucial. This allows observation of how they learn new features and how their skills grow as they practice more.
Conclusion
Ace Breakers was a project that provided valuable insights into what it takes to build a successful multiplayer VR game. The lessons learned during the development process can be applied to future game development projects, particularly those involving sports games and VR