''The Ball'' is a 2010 first-person

action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action ...

developed by Teotl Studios and published by

Tripwire Interactive Tripwire Interactive LLC is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Roswell, Georgia. History Tripwire was co-founded by John Gibson and Alan Wilson with support by members of the international team that c ...

. The game was one of the

OnLive OnLive was a provider of cloud computing, cloud X86 virtualization, virtualization technologies based in Mountain View, California. OnLive's flagship product was its cloud gaming service, which allowed subscribers to rent or demo video games, com ...

's UK launch titles, and one of the 13 games contained in the Potato Sack Bundle, which was a part of the Potato Sack

Alternate Reality Game An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by int ...

, promoting ''

Portal 2 ''Portal 2'' is a 2011 puzzle-platform game developed by Valve for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The digital PC versions are distributed online by Valve's Steam service, while all retail editions are distributed by Elect ...

''s release. A spiritual successor, ''

The Solus Project ''The Solus Project'' is a first-person single-player survival video game developed by Teotl Studios and Grip Games. An early access version of the game was released on Steam, Xbox One and GOG in February 2016, and the full version of the ...

'', was released on PC and consoles by Teotl and

Grip Digital Grip Digital (also known as Grip Games) is a developer and publisher of video games based in Prague, Czech Republic. It focuses on developing and publishing video games. Its main focus are consoles. History The studio was established by Jakub M ...

in June 2016. The game features a different setting, featuring an astronaut in the future stranded on an alien world, but the games share a universe and some themes.

Gameplay

''The Ball'' is a first-person action

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

. The player controls an

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

trapped in an

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * Buenos Aires Underground, a rapid transit system * London Underground, a rapid transit system * ...

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

, armed with only an artifact that can attract or repel a large

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

ball. To progress in the

game A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art ...

, the ball must be guided into triggering the

puzzle A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are differe ...

mechanisms, act as a platform in platforming or defend the player in

combat Combat (French language, French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent Conflict (process), conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed (Hand-to-hand combat, not usin ...

. As the player progresses, the ball will gain additional

abilities Abilities are powers an agent has to perform various actions. They include common abilities, like walking, and rare abilities, like performing a double backflip. Abilities are intelligent powers: they are guided by the person's intention and exe ...

, strengthening its combat ability or allowing the player to progress in platforming and puzzles. The game contains an eight-level single-player campaign and a survival mode focused on combat.

Development

''The Ball'' was developed by Teotl Studios, a small Swedish independent studio consisting of three developers:

Sjoerd De Jong Sjoerd De Jong, also known as Hourences, is a Dutch-Belgian video game developer, level designer and the founder of Teotl Studios. He serves as technology evangelist for Epic Games, promoting Unreal Engine 4 in the northern half of Europe. Care ...

, level designer and creative director, Markus Palviainen, art director, and Markus Arvidsson, programmer. Fifteen other independent developers were also involved in the project, including Theodore Wohng, composer and sound designer. To develop his game, Sjoerd De Jong had used several sources as inspiration: ''

Portal Portal may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), a series of video games developed by Valve ** ''Portal'' (video game), a 2007 video game, the first in the series ** '' Portal 2'', the 2011 sequel ** '' Portal Stori ...

'' for its simple and effective design, ''

Unreal Tournament ''Unreal Tournament'' is a 1999 first-person shooter game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The second installment in the '' Unreal'' series, it was first published by GT Interactive in 1999 for Windows, and later released on the P ...

'' for its style and

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

, ''

Tomb Raider ''Tomb Raider'', known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise i ...

'' for the mysterious and intriguing atmosphere that emanates from the individual settings and, on the whole, early first-person shooters which were set primarily in dark dungeons and castles. Originally developed as a

mod Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US * ...

for '' Unreal Tournament III'' at 2008, it was ported over to the

Unreal Development Kit Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) is the third version of Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. Unreal Engine 3 was one of the first game engines to support multithreading. It used DirectX 9 as its baseline graphics API, simplifying its rendering code. The ...

to enable a standalone commercial release. The game was released on October 26, 2010. In 2013, the game was ported as a launch title for the

Ouya The Ouya ( ), stylized as OUYA, is an Android (operating system), Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP ...

console.

Reception

The original mod entered the Unreal Engine 3 Make Something Unreal contest and picked up multiple awards, including prizes for Best First-Person Shooter Game Mod, and Second Prize overall. The commercial release generated a mixed critical response, receiving a rating of 68% from review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

and 73.83% from

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. PC Gamer US awarded the game 81/100, calling it "a joyous and addictive action puzzler". IGN gave the game a 7/10, criticizing the story presentation and combat but praising the variety of gameplay. ''The Ball'' was awarded by

PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

as the 2010 Action-Adventure Game of the Year.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ball 2010 video games Action-adventure games First-person adventure games Indie games Marble video games Ouya games Single-player video games Tripwire Interactive games Unreal (video game series) mods Unreal Engine 3 games Video games developed in Sweden Video games set in Mexico Windows games

Gameplay

Development

Reception

See also

References

External links