IMPORTANT NOTE TO REVIEWERS

I recently shipped, but it had a key problem where 3 lines of code broke the tutorial. Please check V1.0.2 on the GitHub page which has the fully functional, fixed version for both Mac and Windows.

• The issue was that there was a null reference error because I accidentally referenced three things that didn’t always exist in the code
• The V1.0.1 fix broke the spiking, once again sorry for inconveniences

Actual final devlog

Thanks for following or reading or viewing Duos and my journey in making it. I’m just adding this devlog which is my readme updates and stuff so nothing much to see here. Made an itch page as well.

Devlog 15 - Last log before ship + minor fixes/testing

Progress (last devlog)

TLDR: I removed the third person camera stuff, added a pretty ball trail, and text for the game start and serving indicators

• I did some further testing to make sure there were no bugs (which I don’t think there are anymore, I fixed a problem where the pause menu didn’t work on previous parts)
• I added a really nice blue ball trail which I think makes the game look wayyyy better
• I also added some nice little features like text that shows which team is serving and shows when the game starts

What next?

• Shipping time… I’ve genuinely enjoyed making my game on Stardance for the past few months, and it’s definitely something I hope comes again in some kind and hopefully I’ll have time to do a project for it too. I wouldn’t have worked on this game as much as I did if it wasn’t for Stardance, so I’m really grateful to any Stardance devs who might read this

Acknowledgements

• AI usage involved debugging, with I think ~0-1% of my code AI written. I used AI when I couldn’t figure out why there might be an issue in my code, as often it’s good at picking the needle bug out of the haystack (good analogy??)
• Thanks to my friend A_Hostage (from slack and irl) who is the worst player the game has ever seen... 🤦 (he did give me good advice on the gameplay and style tho)

Devlog #14 - Almost done!

This devlog is copy pasted, the devlogs keep breaking when I attach a vid of the tutorial which is why I had to copy this in case it broke again.##

Progress

TLDR: I made a fully functional tutorial, added points UI and functional pausing menus

• The tutorial I made is a sequence of maybe 70+ lines of code, and teaches you all the core fundamentals of volleyball
• My friends have had a fair chunk of time testing the game, and we found a tonne of bugs(mentioned below), but also they’ve been saying the game’s quite difficult to play
• Some bugs I had to fix included the settingsManager like duplicating itself bc it has DontDestroyOnLoad() which means that it won’t delete itself when loading a different scene, so I had to make all the exits out of a game destroy the object
• Another thing I’ve found is that the indoor map is a bit laggy, which I think is bc it has multiple lights and stuff, but I think I’ll keep it anyways. My laptop was running on low power mode while testing anyways so probably it’s still playable
• All the logic with the sets and points works now and there is a functional UI that looks ok, but tbh I’m not very good at UI design so I’m working on it

What’s next

• This will be the second last log before shipping, I’m going to try my best to get a good third person in because that’s something all of my friends have been asking for in the playtesting

Devlog #13 - New maps!

Progress

TLDR: I made 3 new maps that replace the old test map, being indoor, forest and beach, which are all super cool, and I’ve started working on the tutorial.

• 2 of the 3 new maps (forrest and beach) were made via the terrain feature so I have some nice landscape for both, but I decided to keep them relatively simple
• The indoor map looks kinda scary like backrooms vibes which idk about, I’m not that great with lighting and stuff, and it also has a super cursed ground texture if you look outside of the indoor area…
• The tutorial is going along pretty well without much trouble and so far you can learn to bump and to set which is nice

What’s next?

• As mentioned previously, I’m going to work on the scoring and graphics, and obv I want to get the tutorial done ASAP
• I’ll also add free practice mode bc I get that the game will probably be kinda hard for beginners
• I don’t have enough time in Stardance left to make cool multiplayer or even local multiplayer or difficulties, so those will come in a future event, hopefully Terra if I can stay consistent.

Devlog #12 - New screens!

Progress

TLDR: I made a new splash, menu, and settings screen on the same canvas using a separate script to switch between the pages, with a transition!

• I’m genuinely super excited bc Duos is starting to turn into like an actual game. I used Canva to handmake all my assets and stuff which was a bit of a trek bc it doesn’t get counted toward hours but it was worth it bc the design is original
• I used separate scripts for buttons to enlarge on hover, dot ribbons to scroll across, and to change the text on the different modes
• This took quite a while since I’ve never really done much in UI other than like a basic button/canvas, so I’m pretty proud of what I’ve done. Also, I hit 60 hrs on Duos

What’s next?

• I’m gonna work on the three maps, indoor, beach, and forrest, which should be pretty easy
• I’m then going to implement some graphics, so like a UI scoreboard and setboard(idk is that a thing lol)
• I’m also going to make the 3rd person view way better, it’s really impractical rn, I’m thinking like just volleyball style (new vb game that came out recently)

Side note
I’m coming close to shipping, I was previously trying to work up to 44 hrs but I realised I should probably get maybe 60-70 hrs to be safe, bc I really want to get the Bambu Lab A1 Mini…

Devlog #11 - Point distribution and new loading screen (?)

Progress

TLDR: I finished a ground detection system that sees when the ball hits the ground and gives appropriate pts. I’m also working on a new pre-menu/splash screen!

• The ground detection system uses a collider check that looks for when the ball hits the ground and sees where the ball was last and the last player to touch the ball, giving points accordingly
• There were issues with ground hits giving double points because the ball would bounce, so I had to add a cooldown that prevented this
• The ground hitting detection made me realise the bots kept letting the ball hit the ground first, so I had to fix that up by getting bots to hit earlier which I did by reducing hit cooldown (idk why it worked)
• I’m also working on a new splash screen! (check below)

What’s next?

• Hopefully I can get the splash screen done fairly quickly now that I think I’ve finalised a design
• I want to make a menu screen and a tutorial
• I’m going to add some kind of animations for the characters
• I’ll also eventually add some sort of score-keeping graphics and animations

Devlog #10 - Gameplay systems

Progress
TLDR: Fine tuned bot spikes to be more consistent with a diff system, made a starting serving procedure

• I’m not kidding when I say I must’ve spent like 4 hours just trying to make the bots way more consistent in spiking so I switched from a fixed delay to waiting until the ball is at a certain point in order to spike
• Bots and players now tp to default positions at the start of gameplay and bots have a serving procedure
• TPs and positioning took some 3-4 hours because character controllers tend to conflict with teleporting using transform.position, which is smth I didn’t know till chat(ai) told me

What’s next

• Going to keep working on the gameplay system so that you can play a full set at least
• I’m gonna hopefully then work on the menu to make it look nice
• I’m also going to make a tutorial since I think the game would be relatively difficult for beginners

Devlog #9 - Teammate

Progress
TLDR: Made the teammate who can make plays and spent LOTS of time fine-tuning gameplay and spikes

• I essentially used a similar set of code for the teammate compared to the opponent bots, except with a few changes such as decision making
• It took maybe 2 hrs to fine tune and fix bugs related to the spike to a point where it is somewhat consistent
• I also improved the touch system so each bot knows who the last player to touch the ball was which took the bulk of the time

What’s next

• I’m planning on improving the difficulty by making the bots spike steeper angles depending on the distance from the net
• I’m then going to try and make the game
  management for point counting and stuff
• I’m also planning on improving the menu so that it feels more immersive

Below: I must’ve written like over 1000 lines of code for the whole project

Devlog #8 - Bots

Progress
TLDR: Built a position predictor/tracker for the ball and made bots able to go to the ball/hit

• It took about 2-3 hrs to make the ball tracker, which uses physics/math (SUVAT equations) to solve for the general predicted position of the ball after a hit
• I then spent about 5-6 hrs trying to figure out how to implement the bots, as even trying to get them to move reliably to the ball position was difficult
• The bots can return your first ball you hit at them

What’s next

• I’m now gonna try and make these bots able to decipher between who last touched the ball and then do sets and hits and stuff to complete playsJ
• I also need to figure out the teammate, which should be easier

Devlog #7 - Third Person

Progress
TLDR: Made a toggleable third person orbiting view

• This took a really long time because I’ve never actually made a proper third person view in Unity before
• It took quite a lot of code (140 lines), mainly because trying to make the camera orbit properly and not just tilt is way more complicated than it looks

What’s next

• I’m finally get a move on and make the game manager and the teammates/opponents cpus
• After that, I’m hoping to do some refining work on the menus and stuff and make Duos more polished as a game, not just like a one trick pony project

Devlog #6 - Menu (kinda)

Progress
TLDR: Made a menu w/ environment and play button

• I haven’t worked on the game for a while bc of exams in the past few weeks, but I should hopefully still be able to complete the game before the challenge finishes.

• I designed a few elements in Canva and tried to pair them with an environment, which took forever bc the grass wouldn’t sway properly and kept shifting around.

• I linked the play button to reach the main volleyball game part, but I will probably make a submenu

What’s next

• I’m going to start working on a 3rd person view for the character since it is pretty hard to play in first person

• I’m going to make a tracker for the ball so there can be more visual cues as to where its going

• I should hopefully be able to start making the opponents/teammate which I’ve been procrastinating on

Please offer any feedback, it’s been really useful!

Devlog #5 - Set

Progress

TLDR: Added set, rerouted dive button, unified hitting system

• The main thing I added was a set, which is now F (for front set). If you don’t play vb, the set basically hits it high for someone else to spike (hit) the ball
• Changed the dive button from F to Q
• Moved all the hitting stuff to a unified system, so basically clicking a certain button registers a type of hit via a string that determines if you set, spike or bump. This should make it easier in the long term

Any feedback’s great! Suggested gamemodes, features, arts, nitpicks are all welcome!

Devlog #4 - Crosshair cooldown timer

Progress

• Made a crosshair that basically goes clear(ish) once you hit, and then goes back to opaque once the cooldown timers over (1 s)
• Also made the sky a little bluer

All suggestions are welcome btw, I’m happy to hear what sports, features, etc you want to see in the game!

Attached a vid of gameplay below and another Goober portrait

Devlog #3 - Dive

Progress

This genuinely took way too much math and testing values, but I finally got a somewhat decent looking dive implemented. When you press F, your character hits a dive and saves the ball. It uses this rectangle hitbox area, and balls that go in that area are hittable.

• Also shout out to @aayanalikhan09 for the idea to move the light source, now the shadows are much more unnoticeable :)

Please feel free to make some suggestions, whether that be small features like lighting or big things like gamemodes/sports you’d like to see!

I’ve linked a video of the dive in action below and today’s Goober photo:

Devlog #2 - Hit cooldown

Progress

Before this cooldown timer, you could basically double hit the balls and send them to space. Now, you have to wait one second between hits.

Feel free to make suggestions, should I make drills, volleyball-soccer cross minigames in the future, etc

Enjoy a portrait of Goober below (swipe right):

Devlog #1 - Foundations of Duos

What’s Duos?

Duos is a Unity-based 3D sports game that’s going to involve sports such as volleyball, soccer, etc. Feel free to make any suggestions on how you think I could make the game more fun :)

The game will be free on Steam when I get the volleyball and soccer parts done.

Progress

• So far, I’ve gotten down the WASD movement and jumping along with the bumping and spiking (hitting) for the volleyball.

• I’m starting with volleyball, then I’ll move onto soccer.

• The reason I haven’t made any devlogs before is because I only discovered Stardance from a teacher recently.

Stay safe and have fun with your projects :)

AI disclosure

• To be straight up, I have used a bit of Gemini/ChatGPT in some of the bugfixing for my code. Sometime’s I’ll come across some error message or smth that I have no idea what it means, so I’ll just get ai to tell me.
• Otherwise, the code’s all written originally by me, and I am using some free assets off the unity store for Goober and his sports equipment!

I’ve also attached some portraits of the main character, Goober, and some test gameplay.