Features of Virtual Reality Cricket

The Arcade Mode (or 2 over challenge) has been designed specifically for event based set up of the Balls! VR Experience. The short turnaround time for each player has been created to enable you to get as many people through the game as possible.

Each player who enters the arcade mode has to have their name and email addres entered into the arcade screen by the game’s administrator/organiser who is overseeing the event. The highest scores are stored and displayed on a daily basis (whereas the honours board through the rest of the levels are ‘all time’) meaning you can show a daily challenge when placing the VR setup at events.

The email data collection also enables you to send congratulation emails to people who score well in the challenge and contact them again in future.

A helpful feature available to you when batting is the ability to view an instant replay of any shot you’ve played. By holding down the controller’s trigger you can watch again the last delivery, watch where it hit the bat, or by how much you missed it.

The instant replay shows a slow motion frame by frame replay of the last shot, around which you can walk to view from any angle.

Run scoring is based on the distance a ball is hit. Due to the nature of moving around in the VR space you cannot physically run the length of the wicket, so the runs awarded per shot is based on distance to the boundary. You can score 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 runs.

When a 4 is hit a score card fades in your view showing a 4 and the crowd cheers. When a six is hit a similar score card appears, the crowd cheer and fire jets emerge from the ground in celebration.

Seeing your score in real time on the large live scoreboard gives you a real sense of how you are doing, be it in a full innings or a limited ball event challenge. The scoreboard can show your score, number of balls, strike rate, name and method of dismissal. It automatically shows the last 10 innings and can be configured to show additional information such as balls remaining.

The honours board can be shown in the ground within the VR environment and on third party locations, such as shared to websites and social media. The honours board shows the top 10 scores for a specific difficulty or event location.

The international level is the hardest level in Balls! VR. The game now contains a wide selection of different cricket grounds to choose from.

The ground itself is a full stadium with crowd, team balcony, electronic scoreboard, honour board, floodlights, camera rig and advertising banners.

The bowling on the international level is the trickiest and has a wide range of variations including;

• Slow, Medium, Fats Medium and Fast Bowling (fast is approx 90mph)
• Leg Spin and Off Spin
• Short, Good and Full length deliveries
• Left and right hand line

The fielders are sharp and catch the ball more often than not.

The village level is the easiest of the modes within Balls! VR cricket. You are placed in a small village ground, surrounded by small houses, a church, trees and other village settings.

The bowling in the village level is either slow or medium, there is no spin and the line and length is fairly consistent, making it easier for you to learn the skills needed to bat. The boundaries are also fairly small so scoring fours and sixes is not as difficult as on the harder levels.

Village is a good place to start learning your VR cricketing skills.

The indoor nets simulates a practice session with a bowling machine.

You are batting in a net protected lane and have control of the bowling machine from a menu panel next to you. You can choose the bowling machine’s speed (Slow, Medium, Fast Medium and Fast), length of delivery (Short, Good and Full) and spin options (Leg Spin and Off Spin).

The bowling machine fires a ball at you every few seconds, the green light on the top of the machine comes on before each ball is fired.

The nets are an ideal place to practice before heading out onto the pitch to play for real.

The Scenario Hall is where you can choose from a selection of challenges based on historical cricketing moments.

These set challenges place you in the heart of the action with a specific game state to play out. You might bat as the West Indies and face Ben Stokes in the final over of the 2016 world cup. You need to score 19 runs from 6 balls to win!

Or you might want to bat out 5 overs of tough leg spin with only 1 wicket remaining. Can you survive?

The scenario hall gives you the challenge to achieve certain trophies.

The changing room is your main menu scene where you can choose what you want to do. It overlooks the international stadium at pitch level and provides you with icons to do the following:

• Go to the indoor nets
• Go out and bat (village, county and international levels)
• Play 2 over arcade challenge
• Go to the ‘Scenarios’ hall to play different famous cricketing moments
• Go to the indoor sports hall
• Go to the settings screen

The balcony overlooks the international stadium and is where you choose your difficulty level before heading out to bat in the middle.

You have the option of batting at Village (easy), County (medium) and International (hard) levels. The harder the level the faster the bowling, the more spin and the more variation in the balls you face. The village and county grounds are also smaller than the international ground, making it easier for you to reach the boundary.

The indoor hall enables you to play seven-a-side indoor cricket.

The balls bounce off the walls and ceilings so try not to get caught out off the walls! You can nudge and nurdle runs to try and make your way onto the honours board for the highest scores in the indoor game.

Bowling is varied pace and spin, similar to the outdoor levels.

Balls! Vr Cricket has a content managed advertising module that enables you to change the sponsorship advertising throughout the game. From within the settings scene you can choose the advertiser that is shown and also the default fielding team you are playing against. The advertising is shown on;

• Four different advertising hoardings around the ground
• Advertising hoardings in the sports hall and indoor nets
• Advertising on the poster in the main menu changing room
• Cricket bat advertising
• Fielder shirts logos

You can also customise the game by changing the kit of the fielders around you. Choose from sponsored whites, county or international team strips. We can also add additional specific kits to the CMS, just ask.