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Goodball: what's actually shipped

3 September 2026 · 1 min read

⇄ Paired with No. 006: Goodball

Most solo browser games stop at "kick a ball and watch it move." Goodball is a full 3D arcade football match: 11v11 games, penalty shootouts, free-kick practice, and real-time 1v1 multiplayer, built from scratch and live at goodball.imranmn.life.

WHAT'S DONE

The match engine runs on React Three Fiber and Three.js: charge-based shooting and passing, lofted balls, goalkeeper dive animations, and defenders that respond to formation, not just the ball. Real-time 1v1 runs over Supabase Realtime on top of the same engine. As of this post, that's 260+ commits of actual gameplay, not a tech demo.

WHY ARCADE, NOT SIMULATION

A simulation-accurate football game is a multi-year studio project. An arcade one rewards a good decision about which few mechanics matter (shot power, pass weight, keeper reactions, a scoreboard that sells the moment) and cutting everything else. That's a product decision as much as a technical one.

WHAT'S NEXT

More time in the multiplayer mode under real match load, and closing the gap between what the AI does in a scripted test and what it does against an actual person trying to break it.

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