International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 5, July 2013

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Research and Development on Ultimate

Hoops
C. T. Guo
Department of Digital Entertainment and Game Design, Taiwan Shoufu University
No. 168, Nanshi Li, Madou Dist., Tainan City, Taiwan
[email protected]
Abstract
With the development of computer technology, it promotes
the growth of a range of related industries. Mobile phone is
very popular in our society, and the trend that more people
will play 3d game in mobile phone is more obvious. This
paper presents the design and implementation of a
navigation system into an Ultimate Hoops game created
using Unity3D game engine with the goal of improving the
usability and user experience, reducing the development
threshold of the device application program of the action
by way of vision innovated.
Keywords
Unity3D; Ultimate Hoops

Introduction
Modern mobile phones like small computers, with
limited processing power, are one of the most
powerful compact devices available for mobile
computing purposes. A recent study carried out by
ITU (International Telecommunication Union) shows
that by the end of 2008, mobile penetration has almost
reached 50 percent; about 4 billion mobile subscribers
worldwide while ten years ago it was close to zero and
the number is growing annually. This indicates that
mobile phone is one of the most widespread devices
available today. Nokia launched its first mobile phone
game Snake, which has penetrated into our lives with
an amazing and stunning speed. Mobile phone games
featured with short and easy are one of the fastest
growing segments of the game industry. Recent
advancements in mobile games include single player,
multiplayer and 3D graphics. With the advent of new
mobile phones with network connectivity capabilities,
multiplayer games quickly attract users attention,
taking advantage of the capability to play with other
players. Primarily geared for voice data, mobile
phones can send and receive other kinds of data as
well. This ability to share information offers an
opportunity to design games where players can
interact with others. With the development of

intelligent mobile phone with high performance, the

proportion of 3D mobile phone game is increasing in
mobile phone game. The 3D mobile phone game
development can use the underlying OpenGL like
general 3D game development, it will be more
difficulty during the development and the workload is
heavier. So the designers solve this problem usually by
using a 3D engine.
The hardware performance improves advancement
cell phone game experiences, and the cell phone game
becomes the populace focus. The success of Angry
Birds is a significant milestone. IPhone application
software that the body sells well most for 2010, this
game App Store in 69 countries employs ranking the
first in the shop. When its first anniversary, this game
has sold 13 million sets in the iOS platform, in
addition other Android and various free versions, the
total downloads already over 50 million times.
Unity3D, a popular 3D game engine in recent years,
particularly suitable for independent game developers
and small teams; mainly comprises eight products
such as the Unity, Unity Pro, Asset Server, iOS, iOS
Pro, Android and Android Pro. Without writing
complex codes, programmers can quickly develop a
scene by using the visual integrated development
environment of Unity3D. In the popular iPhone game
list, the games developed by Unity3D take a large
proportion, such as Plants vs. Zombies, Ravens word:
The Fallen King. In particular, Unity3D also provides
the Union and Asset Store selling platforms for game
developers. Unity3D has special advantages in easily
programming a game. For example, platform-related
operations are encapsulated in its internal, the
complex game object-relations are managed by
different visual views, and JavaScript, C # or Boo
scripting languages are applied to program a game. A
script program will be automatically compiled into
a .NET DLL file, so the three scripting languages, in
essence, have the same performance, in addition their

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International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 5, July 2013

execution speed is 20 times faster than traditional

JavaScript. These script languages have good cross
platform ability as well. That means developers can
deploy games on different platforms such as Windows,
Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, iPad, iPhone and
Android. In addition, games can run on the Web by
installing a plug-in.

correctly exported together with its texture to the

game engine that will be used in the game
development. Before exporting the geometric model to
Unity engine, the game engine used in this work to
natively import Blender files, we designed and
implemented the computer animation of the propeller
of the player.

This paper focuses on Unity 3D game engine

technology and its developing instrument develop
application analysis on in the mobile phone game,
reducing the development threshold of the device
application program of the action by way of vision
innovated to develop a Ultimate Hoops interdynamic mobile phone game. The realization of this
system will help the game developer of the mobile
phone to combine with the game operator of the
mobile phone better, thus holding more businesses
opportunity.

The key frame technique is regarded as a good

example of an agile method that can help mobile game
developers deliver better games faster. Also, to make
easy the process of definition of the sets of spatial key
frames of the character, a structure of armature, in
other words is created, a sort of skeleton of the player.
This skeleton consists of bones that help the handling
of the 3D object during the animation development.
Start game

Mobile Phone Game Design Method

Game Imitial

Ultimate Hoops Inter-dynamic 3D Mobile Phone

Game Frame
The frame of the game procedure actually just points
the engine of the game. The engine of the game is used
for controlling the main program of all game functions,
from calculating the relative positions of colliding,
physical system and object, get and import of the
player, and export sound, etc. according to correct
volume. After the game frame is typed well, mean the
completion of the engine of the game, the completion
of the engine of the game means the whole game is
basically shaped. The structure of the engine of the
game has nothing in common with each other, but
basically realize in a game is mainly gone back to
enclose. Figure 1 is the basic game frame diagram of
Ultimate Hoops.

Game over

Game exit

The importance of the original image is worth

emphasizing, in order to guarantee that it can be later

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Sound, sone
control

Game set

back

New game or load

game

Back to main
menu

Load level data

stop

Game work
back
yes

no

Game stop &set

(save, or Load
control)

Level end

Next level

Game Making and Released

Use The Ultimate Hoops game creates a basic minigame in which a basket moves around the screen and
the player controls three characters trying to shoot a
basketball. The concepts were about basic game
structure, triggering animations, the input class, and
collision, instantiation, using GUI for game feedback
and menu buttons, and utilizing power-ups. The game
built by adding levels, challenges, more power-ups, or
by using custom art assets and taking it in your own
direction.

Main menu

FIG. 1 THE BASIC GAME FRAME DIAGRAM

Game Programming
As previously mentioned, for the Ultimate Hoops
project, we chose Unity: an integrated authoring tool
for creating interactive content such as games and
real-time 3D animations. The editor runs on Windows
and Mac OS X and can produce games for Windows,
Mac, Web browsers, Wii, iOS (iPhone, iPod, Touch,
and iPad), Android, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Since
Unity can export the same game to several platforms,

International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 5, July 2013

the developer also saves time during this phase.

Another strong and positive point we have identified
using Unity as game developers is a quite productive
form of system development offered by its editor
What You See Is What You Get, very useful for fast
prototyping and iteration. The setup step is as follows:
(a). Main menu setup: Creating game with a menu
from which it can load the rest of the game
content. GUI Buttons and the Build Settings
window (implement your own editor GUI here
in Fig. 2).

FIG. 2 MAIN MENU.

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(d). Character control: Set up the framework

instantiate basketballs in the correct positions
and animate the player models to set up a shot
upon user input. Return true message during
the frame pressed down the virtual button
identified by button name, as shown in Figure
4. You need to call this function from the
Update function, since the state gets reset each
frame. It will not return true until the user has
released the key and pressed it again. Figure 5
is the player-control picture of Ultimate Hoops.

FIG. 4 SCRIPT FOR THE PLAYER CONTROL OF

INPUT.GETBUTTON.DOWN.

(b). Importing assets: 3D model data including a

basketball court, a ball, and a player import to
Unity 3D.
(c). Scene setup: Set up the level elements for the
basketball game. Placing the court, the players,
and the basket into scene, and setting the hoop
to move back and forth across the court. Moves
the transformation in the direction and
distance of translation, if the scene relatives to
left out or sets to Space.Self the movement is
applied relative to the transform's local axes.
(The x, y and z axes shown when the object is
selected inside the Scene View.) If the scene
relatives to Space.World the movement is
applied relative to the world coordinate system,
as shown in Figure 3.

FIG. 3. SCRIPT FOR THE HOOP MOVING BACK AND FORTH

ACROSS THE COURT.

FIG.5. THE PLAYER-CONTROL PICTURE OF ULTIMATE HOOPS.

(e). Scoring system setup: Once a ball is thrown

into a basket, it needs to detect the player's
success in doing so and increase the player's
score.
(f). New ball script: After the basketball was in the
correct positions, it can animate the players to
shoot the ball and then apply proper force to
launch it towards the basket. OnTriggerEnter is
called when the Collider other enters the
trigger. This message is sent to the trigger
collider and the Rigidbody (or the collider if
there is no Rigidbody) that touches the trigger,
as shown in Figure 6. Note that trigger events
are only sent if one of the colliders also has a
Rigidbody attached.

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International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 5, July 2013

FIG. 6 SCRIPT FOR THE BASKETBALL OF ONTRIGGERENTER.

(g). Ball physics: It needs to make some changes to

the ball's physics behavior to create a better
gaming experience, such as modifying its
bounciness and the force applied upon
shooting.
(h). Flame ball: It adds an extra bonus for the
player by making the ball catch fire after they
make enough baskets in a row. The flame ball
also adds more points per basket. It will use an
ellipsoid particle system to create the fire effect.
Figure 7 is the picture of the flame ball.

FIG.8 SCRIPT FOR NEXT LEVEL OF GUI.SKIN.

(k). Menu background: Adding a little visual

variation to the game, and well take a
screenshot and turn it into a loading menu
background.
(l). Game sounds: Sound is a critical part of game
design. It adds some basic sound effects for the
player shooting, missing, and swishing.
(m). To draw the HUD (Heads-Up Display) of the
battery icon, that is, to create the method by
which information is visually relayed to the
player as part of Ultimate Hoops user interface,
and a script is added in the camera.
(n). Ultimate Hoops released and test.
Results and Discuss

FIG. 7 THE FLAME BALL PICTURE.

(i). GUI skin: Adding visual feedback to the game

by displaying the score, and also by creating
buttons for the Main Menu. The global skin is
used. You can set this at any point to change
the look of your GUI. If you set it to null, the
skin will revert to the default Unity skin.
(j). Next level setup: At this point, the game only
has one level, so it needs to end the level after a
timer runs out, and then load another level,
and also add GUI labels and buttons to
facilitate this. Make a single press button, as
shown in Figure 8. The player clicks the icon
and next level scene happens immediately.

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In the game area, the creation and development

process is formed by a pipeline, from the 2D material
up to the creation of the final product. Our general
sense of Ultimate Hoops is that the core game
mechanics worked effectively and were engaging in
different mobile platforms: iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS,
iPhone 4, and iPad. However, it was observed that the
iPhone 3Gs performance is inferior to that of other
device models, probably due to its lower processing
capacity. The use of a graphic engine such as Unity
increased considerably productivity in terms of game
development, mainly due to its visual editor, and the
possibility to export the game to several other mobile
platforms.
Further, if we make just small code adjustments, Unity
can also be used to simplify the task of porting a
mobile game and executed on a browser (e.g., Firefox,
Chrome, IE, Safari), or even to create an executable file
for desktop computer platforms, such as Mac OS and
Windows. Therefore, it is believed that Unity does not
require much effort to work with multiple platforms.
Actually, for porting a mobile game to a new platform,
the biggest difficulty would be related to the input
interface, since the types of commands for game

International Journal of Information and Computer Science Volume 2 Issue 5, July 2013

control vary considerably (keyboards, touch screen,

accelerometer, etc.). As regards desktop computers
and mobile devices, it can be anticipated that it would
be necessary to implement a transparent layer to
modify or adapt the input form, or even to replace the
original code of the keyboard entry with a new one
that supports touch screen and accelerometer.
Although it is simple and easy to learn and
understand, Ultimate Hoops is still challenging to be
mastered overall. Players had to score as many points
as possible, requiring playing at speed. Consequently,
gameplay vary with different age groups. In general,
the user experience is very satisfactory and the
Ultimate Hoops is well accepted. Users have fun when
playing against other players, especially when they get
into situations that required an immediate action to
get more coins.
The object of the game is to shoot and score the
basketball into the hoop as many times as you can
while the basketball net moves left and right. The
game will continue for two levels which will increase
the shoot distance. Playing the game simply touches
the player picture to shoot the balls at the right time.
Figure 9 and Figure 10 are the game screen pictures.

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Conclusion
This paper has analyses and researched the
foundations of Unity 3D technology and developing
instrument, environment, developed the design of an
Ultimate Hoops inter-dynamic mobile phone game
and the whole course, in addition, the description on
the details of relevant technical design has been made.
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