First Pickleball Game
We drove to the pickleball courts at Schenley Oval this Monday and played our first 2 vs 2 pickleball game among the team. It was way harder than we expected to control the ball, especially when there was strong wind. We subconsciously swung the ball in a tennis/ping-pong way all the time and it usually resulted in hitting the net.
The weather was freezing cold and we literally broke 3 balls due to the low temperature. As beginners, we barely made it to 3 hits per rally, but it was still a lot of fun to play!
We then scheduled a weekly pickleball session at the RPIS every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon from 4:30 – 5:30 pm. We can use these sessions to play games and/or playtest with guest without having to go outside.
For the next step on this, we’ve scheduled a private pickleball lesson with a local coach, Laurel (https://pickleballlessonsbylaurel.com/), who was a certificated professional of this sport. We hope to gain a better understanding of pickleball through this lesson, and also take it as an opportunity to interview and see what a pro player might interesting in this project.
Updates
Art
Play has been working on the team logo and the outcome was a masterpiece. We all loved it!
He also finished the coarse model for the court and the paddle.
Programming
Sion and Aiden used this week to set up the programming & VR environment for development. They also made a first playable demo with a serving machine and built-in physics applied to paddle collisions.
We will use this simple scene as an experimental playground for the future development of customized physics and ball movement.
Design
Chao and Valerie researched existing racquet sport games and made a feature list with priorities as a general guide for future development.
