Real Badminton

Badminton. How many of us play this game? I know of some avid players in the family, Dad being one of them. Dad used to play the game with his colleagues weekly. In my childhood, Bro and I always play it in front of our house in the evening.  I'm not very good at it, but at least I know how to hit the shuttlecock. It was a form of exercise for Bro and I in our younger days.

Badminton is quite popular in Malaysia, looking at the existence of private badminton courts in many neighbourhoods. Anyone can book a court for an hour or two, and then gather a few friends to enjoy a game. Any average person in Malaysia would probably be quite skilled at the game too! I remember on a few occasions in the past that my friends and I play the game at the court near our house ... just to sweat it out for a while.

Nowadays, I do not venture to the courts anymore. I can still play the game anytime I like though .... not physically, but virtually on my iPhone. Lol.

For the past year and a half, bro has been developing an app based on the badminton game. It would be a 3D mobile game, simulating a real badminton experience. Real Badminton, its name. He was doing it part-time at home, and it was not an easy feat. Throughout the year and a half, bro often stalled as he came across problems with the script.

Mom shook her head in disapproval, worried that Bro would just be wasting his time and effort.

Why badminton game? I asked him.

There weren't many 3D badminton games on the App Store, except for one called Super Badminton. Having played that, Bro felt that the experience was not real, and not satisfying at all. Why wait for people to develop the game when he could do it himself, Bro reasoned.

Bro's biggest achievement would be to work out a mathematical formula, so integral in the development of the app. Gradually, the game started to materialise ... and Bro was testing it time and again to fine tune it. Then, there's the graphics and the music .... all required plenty of work done.

I myself was a guinea pig who had tested many versions of the earlier app. But I sucked at the game. Too difficult to play, I would wail invariably. Who would want to buy such a difficult game? Only you know how to play it, I gave Bro the feedback he needed.

Bro did not say anything .... but continued to work on improving it. Initially, he had wanted to release it in time with the London Olympics ... when the whole nation was rooting for Datuk Lee Chong Wei at the finals of the Men's Singles.  Alas, it was not to be ... as Bro was too preoccupied with work and family.

Finally, on 24 April 2013, Real Badminton was released on the Apple Store at USD$2.99. It's been more than a month now ... and according to Bro, sales has been quite positive. It even reached no. 1 in the Malaysia App Store, for the paid app in the game category. Not bad eh?

I'd just played the official version yesterday ... and it was a much improved version than the ones I had tested earlier. It was much easier to play ... and I felt excited when I managed to hit the shuttlecock on screen. Lol. Then it was quite exciting to play a match against a virtual player ... cause like in every game, you anticipate winning. I found myself cheering when I won ... and swearing when I lost. Lol. It was rather fun in that sense.

It's my game ...  

Yeah, I win!! 

Bro is now developing the HD version for iPad and iPad Mini. Why not try out the game yourself? For more information, here are the links :
1) Website : real-badminton.com
2) Youtube : http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJAN3NEe3lj507et32Gtg_A?feature=watch