Ball Blast Game

Arcade action, score chasing, and clean Unity gameplay systems.

Built for a clean portfolio-style GitHub presentation with gameplay, UI, and scene-management systems.

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🃏 Feature Cards

🎯 Responsive Controls Horizontal movement feels immediate and is clamped inside the play area.	🔥 Arcade Combat Fire projectiles, destroy enemies, and keep the action moving.
🧠 Clean Game Flow Start, pause, resume, restart, and game over states are managed centrally.	💥 Hit Feedback Explosion particles and sound effects give every hit impact.
📊 Score & Health UI TextMesh Pro keeps the HUD readable and polished.	🧩 Reusable Systems Spawner, player, projectile, and menu logic are separated into focused scripts.

Table of Contents

• Project Overview
• Gameplay GIF
• Feature Cards
• Features
• Gameplay Mechanics
• Controls
• Technologies Used
• Unity Version Compatibility
• Folder Structure
• Installation and Setup
• How to Play
• Scripts and Modules
• Screenshots
• Future Improvements
• Contribution Guidelines
• License
• Author

🎮 Project Overview

Ball Blast Game is a Unity-based arcade project inspired by the ball-blast genre. The core loop is simple and responsive: move horizontally, fire projectiles, eliminate enemies, and stay alive as long as possible while the score climbs. The project is intentionally lean, making it a strong open-source portfolio example for gameplay scripting, scene setup, prefab workflows, and UI-driven game state management.

The repository contains a single playable scene, reusable prefabs, TextMesh Pro UI, sound and particle feedback, and a small set of focused scripts that separate responsibility cleanly across player movement, enemy spawning, collision handling, scoring, health, and menus.

✨ Features

• Fast arcade gameplay with immediate restart/pause flow.
• Horizontal movement constrained to the arena bounds.
• Projectile spawning with audio feedback.
• Enemy spawning on a timer at randomized X positions.
• Score and health tracking through a central game manager.
• Game over state with time freeze.
• Start menu and pause menu UI.
• Explosion particles and hit sounds for impact feedback.
• TextMesh Pro UI for crisp in-game text rendering.

🕹️ Gameplay Mechanics

Mechanic	Behavior
Movement	The player moves left and right with horizontal input and is clamped inside the play area.
Shooting	Press Space to spawn a projectile from the player position.
Enemies	Enemies spawn repeatedly after a short delay at random X positions.
Collision	Projectiles destroy enemies, and enemies that reach the player reduce health.
Scoring	Destroying enemies adds points to the score.
Health	The player begins with 3 health; reaching zero triggers game over.
Menus	The game opens on the start menu and supports pause, resume, restart, and quit actions.

🎯 Controls

Input	Action
A / D or Left / Right	Move the player horizontally
Space	Fire a projectile
Escape	Pause or resume the game
Mouse / UI buttons	Start, restart, resume, or quit through the menus

🧰 Technologies Used

Technology	Purpose
Unity	Game engine, scene management, physics, and prefab workflow
C#	Gameplay, UI, input, and menu logic
TextMesh Pro	Score, health, and menu text rendering
Unity Physics	Trigger-based collision detection
Particle System	Explosion and hit feedback
AudioSource / AudioClip	Shooting and hit sound effects
SceneManager	Reloading the active scene for restart flow
Unity Input Manager	Runtime movement and firing controls used by the scripts
Input System asset	Included in the repository for future input expansion

🧩 Unity Version Compatibility

The repository snapshot does not include ProjectSettings/ProjectVersion.txt, so the exact editor version cannot be confirmed from the source tree alone.

Compatibility	Notes
Recommended	Unity 2021.3 LTS or newer
Expected support	Recent Unity LTS releases with TextMesh Pro and standard 3D physics
Notes	The current scripts use classic input methods, while the repo also includes an Input System action asset

📁 Folder Structure

Path	Description
Scenes/	Main playable scene (SampleScene.unity)
Prefabs/	Enemy, projectile, and explosion prefabs
Materials/	Materials for the game objects and environment
2D Space Backgrounds/	Background art assets used for the scene look
Sprites/	Sprite assets for visual elements
TextMesh Pro/	TMP fonts, resources, shaders, and settings
EnemySpawner.cs and other root scripts	Core gameplay, collision, UI, and menu logic
InputSystem_Actions.inputactions	Input System action asset included with the project
_Recovery/	Unity recovery data generated by the editor

🚀 Installation and Setup

1. Clone or download the repository.
2. Open the project folder in Unity Hub.
3. Use Unity 2021.3 LTS or a newer compatible version.
4. Open Scenes/SampleScene.unity.
5. Allow Unity to import TextMesh Pro and any required package dependencies.
6. Press Play to launch the game.

If references are missing after opening the scene, check the inspector assignments for GameManager, MenuManager, PlayerMovement, and EnemySpawner.

▶️ How to Play

1. Click Start on the main menu.
2. Move left and right to dodge incoming enemies.
3. Press Space to fire projectiles.
4. Destroy enemies before they reach you.
5. Watch score and health in the HUD.
6. Press Escape to pause or resume.
7. When health reaches zero, the game shows Game Over and pauses time.

🧠 Scripts and Modules

Script	Responsibility
PlayerMovement.cs	Reads horizontal input, clamps the player to the arena bounds, spawns bullets, and plays shoot audio.
MoveForward.cs	Moves projectile objects forward each frame.
EnemySpawner.cs	Instantiates enemy prefabs at random X positions on a repeating timer.
Enemy.cs	Moves enemies toward the player and applies score/damage handling on collision.
DestroyOnContact.cs	Alternate hit-response script that plays explosion and sound effects when a projectile collides.
GameManager.cs	Tracks score and health, updates the HUD, and triggers the game over state.
MenuManager.cs	Handles start, pause, resume, restart, and quit behavior through the UI.
HealthSystem.cs	Lightweight health helper kept in the project for reusable or legacy health logic.

📸 Screenshots

Add screenshots here to complete the repository presentation.

View	Placeholder
Main Menu	Add a screenshot of the start screen
Gameplay	Add a screenshot of active gameplay
Game Over	Add a screenshot of the game over state

🔮 Future Improvements

• Add progressive difficulty scaling.
• Introduce multiple enemy types with distinct behavior.
• Add power-ups such as spread shot, shield, or rapid fire.
• Store and display a high score.
• Improve visual polish with hit flash, screen shake, and transitions.
• Add mobile-friendly touch controls.
• Expand audio with background music and layered sound effects.
• Create separate menu and gameplay scenes for a more production-ready flow.

🤝 Contribution Guidelines

Contributions are welcome. To keep the project clean and easy to review:

• Fork the repository and create a feature branch.
• Keep changes scoped and readable.
• Test gameplay changes inside Unity before opening a pull request.
• Update the README if controls, systems, or setup steps change.
• Prefer small, focused commits.

📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for the full text.

👤 Author

Muhammad Zeeshan Islam