Hey guys here is a bowling starter kit i am working on.
http://inanegames.ca/bowlarama/bowlarama.html
Looks like a really good starting point.
Stuff I would want
*Ability to curve the ball
*Online
*AI opponent
*Power Meter
*Bumpers 
Yeah I wasnt sure if people wanted multiplayer because it would require photon, but i guess I will add it. Not sure what you mean by bumpers. And by ability to curve ball do you mean in game while its rolling?
Yeah the curve thing is probably the most important thing for me. I was thinking of like a button that could tell you the angle of the curve of the ball while it’s rolling down the lane. The bumpers are just like a bar that keeps the ball from going into the gutters, mostly there for kids so they don’t gutter ball.
*Also while I’m thinking about it could we have the ability to pick where to start the bowling ball at. Like you could pick the middle or right by the edge of the gutter.
*Also a sound for the ball and a sound for the pins would be great.
*Finally the pin physics seem a little off. Seems to me they are going to fast. Could you make it like an exponential explosion, where it starts off a little slower than picks up the speed on the demo.
*On second thought maybe the pin physics are closer than i think, could you possibly put the pins in a box like in real life to see how they act when they can’t go flying.
I have some ideas about how I would like a bowling ball game to be. Could you tell me if any of this is possible.
Okay see if that is any better.
You can choose which angle the ball is by holding down the left mouse button and using mouse x. You can set the balls position by selecting dragging it to the left and right, and you can flick the ball by starting on the ball and flicking it.
http://inanegames.ca/bowlarama/bowlarama.html
So much better! I like everything about it, so so much better.
The one thing I see now is perhaps the pins. They seem too light and makes it kind of easy to get strikes. Maybe make them “heavier”, because sometimes I accidentally throw it really softly and still get a strike.
Edit
The other thing I just noticed is with the curve system. You can setup the curve, but when you move the ball to the edge it loses the curve. That made it difficult to get the curve in the right spot.
But other than that, it’s truly really great and hopefully mobile ready. Can’t wait to buy.
As Shigidy has said, it’s pretty easy to get strikes. Also, you’ve got a small bug in the scoring code (see 10th frame in the screen shot.)
But you’ve got a nice asset here. Personally, I’m more interested in the bowling art assets then the starter kit/game as a whole. I’ve wanted to make a game for my son, an idea that uses bowling pins and bowling balls, but the only bowling asset collection on the store that I’ve found is, unfortunately, too expensive for this small project.
I don’t know what price range you have planned for the starter kit, if it’s not too pricey, than I’ll probably buy it just for the assets. Or, maybe you could consider releasing a pack that is just art, no game or scripts.
I dont know what you consider too pricey, but the basic kit will be available for $25. Just providing the art assets, ball and pins, i dont think it would even be worth paying someone to make the asset store key images, you can pick up some cheap bowling stuff from turbosquid.
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-model/sports/bowling
The kit isnt done, right now i made the pins really fat, really light, I made the ball balls x-force really low so yeah right now its super easy to get a strike. I will fix the scoring bug, etc and the GUI is still only temporary, its a WIP right now, not done yet, we are going to add a bowling alley – it wont be outside in the ocean.
So I am going to have 2 versions. The regular version - lite version for say $25. Then the pro-version with 2 player photon multiplayer, extra skins for balls, and pins, AI opponent – with varying 3 difficulties (easy, medium and hard) for $35. I could sell an art only pack as well for like $20, but I think the asset store doesnt like that much duplication, I will be lucky if I can add the pro and lite versions.
$35 seems like a great bargain if you can do multiplayer, AI, etc. Will pick up as soon as available.
Yeah I can do photon networking. But youll need to get the PUN for it, if you want to make it mobile (or have unity pro). Thats why I will have 2 versions this time.
Thanks for the turbosquid link. I guess I probably should have looked at other 3D model and art websites.
And your prices for the two versions of your pack seem like really good deals.
Hey guys i added a basic AI. There are now 5 differnet ball colors. Added new bowling sounds for rolling, when you fire the ball and the pin knockdown sound
http://inanegames.ca/bowlarama/bowlarama.html
Just played it. Amazing, again can’t wait to buy.
Edit:
I did get a small error. On the tenth frame I got a 9 and then got the spare. It didn’t give me the free extra roll. And maybe there could be a quick animation of the pin slider thing cleaning up the pins. And the pin organizer thing picking up the pins. To add more authenticity. Other than that it was awesome.
Finally, how easy will it be to port to mobile and android?
Okay give that a try. I added a different ponter and multiplayer. Just waiting on the GUI and probably more testing etc
http://inanegames.ca/bowlarama/bowlarama.html
Just played and everything is GREAT. There is even different levels of ai easy, medium and hard. The only thing I didn’t understand what “rank” did when I changed it.
The only little thing that would be good is maybe have a mph to show how fast you threw ball maybe.
I do have a major request too. Just things I would love to see.
Curve
I like the arrow and everything and the power they are great. But I was wondering if you could, could you make a button for spin that would change the straight arrow to like a curve arrow. And be able to hit the button again to make it straight again.
The Curve would be something like this
I played another bowling game and they use the accelerometer for the curve. Didn’t know what you thought about that idea.
Level Up
Another good thing would be some sort of leveling up system. This could be used for your future game kits as well. Could be great for unlocks like cool bowling alleys and bowling balls. For every pin you knock down you get 5 exp or something.
Sound
Something I also was thinking about was the pins. Is there anyway could possibly make each pin have it’s own sound. It seemed like to me there was just one sound for the whole set. One time there was only one pin and when I hit it is sounded like a full strike. Wondering if that was just me playing tricks on myself or what you thought about that.
Bowling Ball
The bowling ball starting height was another thing I had in mind. Is there anyway it could be set off the ground some so you hear that pop of when it goes down the lane. Right now as you know it’s on the ground at the beginning.
Local Multi-player
Wondering if you could have another option at the menu screen, for local multi-player.
Pin Catcher
I was wondering if you could add that animation in if you had time. It’s the thing that picks up the pin and the other thing then slides all the knocked pins away, then resets the other pins. Instead of looking at nothing for say gutter ball it could also be moving the pins too.
Pins
I still think they are too easy to knock down. I still think they should be heavier. I did some research and google said pins are, “Pins are 4.75 inches wide at their widest point and 15 inches (380 mm) tall. They weigh 3 lb, 6 oz, although as of 1998 pins weighing up to 3 lb 10 oz (1.6 kg) are approved”. I understand this is probably the hardest thing to get right or maybe I’m being overly critical here, I don’t know.
Edit: I think I just figured out about the pins. It seems there to easy to knock each other over. For example:
I hit some pins, and those pins were falling over slowly which is just fine. But then they slowly hit the other pins. They were falling so slowly they shouldn’t have knocked down the other pins, but they did. This is what I’m seeing that’s messing up the simulation feel. The bowling ball interacts fine with the pins i think. It’s the pin to pin action.
I got going pretty good, but I can’t think of anything else at the moment. But like I said earlier this package is already great and can’t wait to see more.
->Sound: yeah good point
->Pin catcher: we are going to add the pin catcher
->Pins: I tried making sure the ball always went a certain speed, but that means its always going to knock the pins easily. There could be a timeout if you threw the ball to slowly
I was wondering if you could make some accelerometer type of throw. Similar to this. So instead of the arrow, it could possibly be the accelerometer. What do you think?
Ill need to play it to see what they are doing, but it seems like they are just applying a force each frame depending on the tilt of the device. I am not sure i like that, where your turning your device like that in a bowling game – because you are not really being passive – your more active – and bowling is more a passive game IMHO.
If you’d like to try it out. I’ve got the the link.
Also was wondering what you thought about a tournament type.
-One type of game where there’s all four people or so and it’s the best score of three games.
-Other type of game like elimination. 2 vs 2. The two winners face each other.
Could this be done?