BallBoy!

by neandi

co-authored: @kekluck, @sunsh4dow, @trsthstrs

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.57

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.31

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.02

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.62

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★4.05

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.48

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.62

Yaaay! Tennis!

A short game about being a Ballkid at an amateur Tennis Match. Enjoy!

Throw Tennisballs into the baskets on each tennisplayers side. If they get empty you lose a life!

Controls

+ Move - WASD / Left Stick
+ Aim - HOLD & DRAG Mouse / Right Stick
+ Throw - RELEASE Mouse / RB or Y
+ Jump - SPACE / A
+ Dash - SHIFT / X
+ Escape - Alt F4

Team

+ Coding by Neandi :computer:

+ Coding by KekLuck :computer:

+ Coding by SunSh4dow :computer:

+ Graphics by TouristHistories :pencil2:

Made with Unreal Engine 5, Krita, Audacity & Photoshop.
Sounds: SFX from Pixabay (opting out)

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Changelog :tools:

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Sixth time participating, first time with a team of 4 - still struggling with time management.

Notes from us

Touri: _I lost all my mental somewhere between NpcWalkSprite2 and NpcIdleSprite1._
Neandi: _Tennis is harder than expected._
Kekluck: _Secretly this is a game about birds and their sounds._
SunSh4dow: _Nice to ship a game project for once!_

Thank you very much for leaving feedback, playing & your rating!

Tags: #tennis

Genres: action

Tools: Audacity, Krita, Unreal Engine

Comments14

ZAZiOs6 Oct 2025, 23:51

I liked the funny graphics. But didn't understood where to put the tennis balls, but good job!

CaptainCorgistan6 Oct 2025, 23:52

Like overall art style! So minimalistic and still stylish

Adam Gallina7 Oct 2025, 00:04

The environment is really well done, the sprites/expressions are even goofier with the realistic backdrop and tie together nicely. Overall I had a lot of fun, would have been nice to have some extra mechanics to manage overtime, but it was really creative how the pigeons steal the balls and gradually make it harder!

Sirplop7 Oct 2025, 00:54

Charming artstyle, pretty fun concept! I had the players stop serving after about a minute, which I'm pretty sure isn't supposed to happen!

MaiMai7 Oct 2025, 04:09

Nice, this feels really solid for a game jam. I didn't understand why I got a game over the first time but then I realized what my job was actually supposed to be :smile:.
I was going to just toss balls to the other side in hopes they would get in the basket and then I understood why the birds were there :smirk: Great design!

Good job and clever use of the theme!

Nicso7 Oct 2025, 16:13

Tennis would be way funnier this way.

Nice entry with good graphics and solid gameplay.

I’m sure a funny music would have make it way funnier tho.

Nice work :thumbsup:

My4sthma8 Oct 2025, 10:10

The silly and cute graphics make me wish there was more silly gameplay. For example throwing the players with balls and birds to make them play slower.

Phobos8 Oct 2025, 20:49

Really good game with silly funny graphics

Aquanim9 Oct 2025, 07:35

I also had the tennis players stand still and stop doing anything for a while (with neither basket empty) but they eventually started playing again. Not sure why.

I did expect there to be a penalty for running through the court while there was a point in progress, but the game probably is more fun as it is.

Fun concept and fun game :)

Eugenik9 Oct 2025, 16:28

I definitely love the art style, very nice work !.

slay a stone12 Oct 2025, 08:31

These tennis players are quite bad for the amount of balls i need to collect for them :-). Nice take on the theme, throwing the balls in the basket felt satisfying!

6Knowledge13 Oct 2025, 17:56

Not quite sure what happened as the players just stopped playing by the first minute, expected it to go for as long as there were lives left. A very interesting take on the theme, can't say I've come across another like this one. The graphics and the style of them were absolute standout and a lot of time was clearly put into them.

daniel18 Oct 2025, 20:06

I love so much about this, the whole look and gameplay is right up my alley. Enjoying all the different takes on the theme like this one. The billboard sprites with the court works really well visually. Also had the players stop playing after 3 minutes, but still a really great self contained game that kept me engaged the whole time.

Zyrconium22 Oct 2025, 23:36

You've made a very ambitious game that gets a lot of things right, especially the tinier design decisions like the birds that help push the game towards an end point, the need to (fairly chaotically) throw the balls back into their recepticles and the addition of a dive button.

I might recommend some alternates for the more common sound effects that you cycle or randomly pick between so that the same sound wasn't playing quite so frequently.

Other games by @neandi

★4.05

★3.74