Backboard Buzz
Three in a row lights the rim.
What it is
An arcade hoop-shoot built to a real cabinet's measurements: a 12-inch rim, 7-inch balls, and the rim 74 inches up. Each basket scores 2. Make three in a row and the rim lights up, and every basket scores 3 until you miss. In the last 10 seconds, every basket scores 3 anyway.
On a wide screen there are two hoops side by side. A friend can take the other one by tapping its balls; if nobody does, you race the machine. It starts gentle and gets sharper each time you beat it, and gentler when it beats you. The result names the winner.
With nobody playing
The machine plays itself, and a finished round goes back to that after fifteen seconds untouched. Once a round is over, the next flick starts a new one.
How to play
- ShootFlick a ball up at the hoop
- Join inTap the other hoop's balls
- Play againTap, or flick the next ball
A short or slow push puts the ball back rather than throwing it.
On a desktop, press on a ball with the mouse and sweep upward, the same as a flick. On a keyboard, hold Space to charge — full power after two seconds — and let go to shoot. The arrow keys aim, Escape puts the ball back, and Enter plays again.
It keeps your best
Your best score is kept on this device, and the sound stays off once you switch it off. A shared screen can run it in kiosk mode, which saves nothing and starts quiet, with the number of hoops and the length of a round pinned for a cabinet.
What isn't settled yet
Whether the last ten seconds should keep scoring every basket 3, or the lit rim should be the only bonus. How hard the machine should be at its sharpest. And there is one way to play so far: a fixed hoop and a sixty-second round, with no moving hoop and no bonus round.
Build Log
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Build 7
Went live with a computer rival that sets its own difficulty: four settings from gentle to sharp, one step sharper after each race you win and one gentler after each you lose. A single fixed rival was either unbeatable for a hesitant player or no contest for a good one, so letting each race set the next finds a player's level without a menu.
Credits and licences
Built on three.js, used under the MIT licence with the copyright notice retained in the shipped file. Typefaces are licensed under the SIL Open Font Licence. Cover art was rendered from the game’s own drawing code.
Backboard Buzz is original work by Launchway Games.