Pocket Cricket crowdfunding campaign: 16 May - 13 June 2017

Play the Pocket Cricket BETA version at www.pocketcricket.net

Three years ago Nrvs Games published the BETA version of Pocket Cricket.

Our aim was to give the millions of cricket fans out there a challenging and fun alternative to traditional cricket gaming.

While response was overwhelmingly positive, we unfortunately didn't have the funds to take the next obvious step - a full commercial release delivering all the awesome features our fans were asking for.

This campaign's aim is to raise the funds needed to do just that. On 16 May 2017 we launch our IndieGoGo crowdfundinig campaign to help us build the ultimate version of our game.

Until then, we will be attempting to create as much awareness of the campaign as possible. Something we hope you'll help us with.

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The world NEEDS Pocket Cricket. Let's make it happen!

Play the BETA version at www.pocketcricket.net.

Pocket Cricket is a labour of love. It represents several sacrifices gladly made by a bunch of people who were passionate about building a game that effectively captures the nuances of cricket. A game that went beyond simply asking the player to choose where to smash his next six. One that required the player to do something he'd never done before in a cricket game: consider the quality and form of his batsmen and the opposition bowlers.

While it is certainly possible to win a match by simply coming out and risking it all from the first over - throwing your bat at everything and hoping for the best - long-term success is far more realistic if you plan and pace your innings the way the pros do it.

Ultimately, the game rewards a combination of aggression and patience. No match is ever the same and, more than any other cricket game, Pocket Cricket puts the player in scenarios faced by real batsmen.

This was our aim. To create a game that makes our players whoop with joy when they manage to squeeze a last-ball yorker past point for the winning single. To make them laugh in relief when an edged drive eludes the diving slip fielder. To make them holler in grief when a form batsman is caught on the boundary for a 125-ball 98. To make them WORK for a win.

Because we know that while hitting sixes is fun, there's a lot more to batting than that.

Pocket Cricket creator and cricket supergeek Adriaan du Toit first had the idea of a decision-based cricket game back in 2003 - right at the start of his career as a business analyst.

As with all worthwhile ideas, it wouldn't let him go and over the decade that followed the concept crystalised into a data model and UI.

During mid 2013 he would mention his idea to Cape Town property investor Ian de Kock, who would be so impressed with the unrehearsed pitch that he put up the funds for the creation of the proof of concept.

The two of them created the company Nrvs Games and went in search of a technical partner.

Fortunately for them the very first company they made contact with was startup studio PlayLogix, where CEO Roger Norton and technical lead Dean Boonzaaier would see the concepts come to life.

Comic book and storyboard artist Rial de Wet was the next piece of the puzzle to fall in place. His unique artistic vision is what gave Pocket Cricket its distinct visual flair.

The game was published over Christmas 2013 and through nothing more than minimal online promotion immediately grew a small but loyal following. the r/Cricket subreddit in particular had several extremely complimentary threads.

Over the next three years countless attempts to fund the Full Version were made but, despite a number of them looking extremely promising, none succeeded.

Three months ago, the team decided that it was time to turn to our existing player-base for funding.

And here we are.

What is our long-term vision for Pocket Cricket and how will this campaign contribute to achieving it?

Pocket Cricket it it's current guise is the framework upon which we want to build a continuously evolving gaming environment, releasing new features, rule updates and gameplay enhancements on an ongoing basis. Our goal is to keep our users engaged by keeping the game relevant and fresh - providing them with new challenges in an ever-evolving gaming environment.

This campaign is to fund rebuilding core parts of the game's architecture in order to facilitate the features we have in mind for the future. All of these are listed in the "New features" section below. Some of them are covered by the main funding goal of $32 000 and some are associated with our two stretch goals.

While the majority of the campaign funds will go towards features that our fans have requested, much of it will also go towards creating a more stable, extensible environment that can be monetised.

Creating revenue is critical for this vision to become a reality. And while we guarantee our donors that we will never make the basic enjoyment of the game dependent on payment, there will be some features and levels that will only be accessible to players who have purchased premium membership at a very reasonable cost of $11.00.

More on this below.

If our campaign is successful we intend to pack what is already one of the most innovative cricket game around with even more groundbreaking features, all combining to give our players the most enjoyable and authentic cricket gaming experience possible.

Play the BETA version at www.pocketcricket.net

----------------- MAIN GOAL: $ 32 000 -----------------



The BETA version of Pocket Cricket is only playable in your browser. Should our funding campaign be successful, we will launch a Steam Greenlight campaign which should see the game released on the most popular PC gaming platform.

The web version of the game will remain online - meaning that our players will still be able to play Pocket Cricket wherever they have access to a browser.



We get it. Pocket Cricket is a difficult game. It was meant to be. But we also get that sometimes our players wanna just put their cricket brains in neutral and have a bit of a hit-and-giggle.

I mean, we didn't create the art for an off-stump yorker switch hit just so it can be seen once every 20 matches!

Pocket Cricket's full version will have a shorter 5-over match series which will test our players' ability to deposit as many balls into the stands - and make as many bowlers cry - as possible.





Currently your batsmen's form is reset at the start of each match. This means that regardless of your players' performances in the previous encounter, you are ensured of minimum and maximum form value. However, as MANY of our fans pointed out, this is not only unfair, it's unrealistic.

So we're going to implement a logic that has your batsman take a percentage of the form he gained from his previous match into the next encounter so that by the time you're facing the big guns in the latter stages of the series your players should ideally be boasting some pretty good numbers.

This will work both ways, however. Ending an innings with negative form will result in a form penalty in the next match.





Run outs were a pretty controversial component of Pocket Cricket BETA. Mainly because, just like in real cricket, they're not always preventable.

Based on a particular likelihood logic, each time there was a run, your batsmen had a chance to be run out regardless of your in-game decisions.

The Full Version of Pocket Cricket will give players the ability to prevent losing a wicket in the worst way possible by presenting them with a run-out prevention minigame whenever there was going to be a run-out.





It's a batsman's game right? No bowler would come up with a rule this cruel. You make a mistake and you get punished. Twice.

Regardless of how inhumane it is, it was a very popular request from our BETA players. "Please guys, give us the ability to humiliate my opponent even more!"

In the Pocket Cricket Full Version we're introducing no-balls. Meaning that not only will you occasionally get an extra run without the ball being subtracted from your remaining deliveries, you'll also have a risk-free free-hit the delivery after.





With the introduction of the Form Retention feature above, we felt it was important to give our players the ability to bring in a player who's current form is appropriate for the context of the match.

You could be cruising. Needing 90 runs from 110 balls when you lose your first wicket. Why bring in your form player when you can push an out of form player up the order so he can spend some time in the middle, playing himself in for the next match.

At the same time, you'll need to bring in your big-hitting form player at the expense of a batsman lacking confidence if you're looking for quick runs and you're under pressure.





NOTE: This feature will be limited to players who purchase Premium Membership for a once-off cost of $11.00.

Currently the Pocket Cricket single player mode offers players a relatively limited campaign experience - thirty sequential matches against ten increasingly challenging opponents.

The purpose of this series was simple - win all 30 matches with the best possible Net Run Rate to appear on the leaderboard.

Pocket Cricket's Full Version will extend this series by a further 30 matches, adding an additional 10 teams to the roster of opponents.





Premium membership feature

All Premium Members will be able to access and display their team's performance history and player statistics on their team profile page. See your player averages and career strike rates. Reminisce about the time they played a career-best innings and view the scorecards of each match your team ever played.

In addition to being able to view this data, they will also be able to customise their player names, upload a team profile image as well as a personal profile picture. Because what's the point in nabbing the number one spot in your country's hi-scores list if no one knows what you look like?





There was a distinct lack of leather against willow in Pocket Cricket's BETA version. This is something we will address in the full version.





A significant investment will be made in rebuilding technical components of the game that created stutters in the timing minigame and other performance issues that had a negative effect on gameplay.

The goal is to create a technical environment scalable enough to accommodate our long-term vision for Pocket Cricket (See "Our Vision" above).





This comprises a relatively small portion of the funding amount but we feel it should be disclosed nonetheless.

The name Pocket Cricket was selected three years ago because our intention was to take the game in a mobile direction immediately after the BETA release.

However, the decision having been made to focus on the browser and PC versions of the game for the foreseeable future, we feel that the name no longer captures the spirit of our game.

We'll be looking to our donors for input on the name change.

----------- STRETCH GOAL 1: $42 000 -----------

If the funding campaign exceeds our main goal by the specified amount, we will implement a gameplay element that is unprecedented in sports gaming: role playing mechanics.



Every second form level reached by a batsman, he unlocks a Skill. The player selects which one of several Skills should be unlocked, based on the context of the match. The Skill remains active throughout the batsman's innings and provides a number of benefits for the batsman and, in some cases, his batting partner.

The Skills currently planned are as follows:



Your player's placement when hitting straight deliveries to the leg side is significantly improved and the likelihood of picking up a boundary much greater.



Front foot shots straight down the ground are significantly more likely to beat fielders and reach the boundary.



Finding a single or extra run when nudging the ball in the direction of any fielder is greatly increased with no increase in the likelihood of a run-out.



Your player thrives when the opposition shows weakness and receives a timing bonus when facing a bowler with a low form.



The batsman thrives against against top quality opposition and sees his form increase rapidly when facing bowlers with high form levels.



Your player's excellent running between the wickets means that a run-out when he is at the crease is virtually impossible.



Your player's calming influence on his batting partner means that a percentage of his form increase is shared by the non-striker.



Fear is not in this batsman's vocabulary and his ability to pull off an impossible shot when the pressure is on is greatly improved.

------------- STRETCH GOAL 2: $57 000 -------------

Reaching our second stretch goal will enable us to build the gaming platform that we've intended to when we first kicked off this project: the world's first multiplayer cricket arena.





Premium membership feature

In order to enable the multiplayer arena (see below) players will need to determine a default bowling strategy.

This will be done by allocating a pool of "base" form points to their five bowlers. The option being to create their ideal configuration of player quality. Do you want three legends supported by two clowns who won't get a bowl in a club net session? Or do you want five workhorses who are unlikely to set the world on fire but won't let the team down either?

Experiment as much as you want and figure out with what works best for you.





Premium membership feature

The ultimate Pocket Cricket experience. Take on the world to TRULY claim your place as the best cricket strategist with a couple of hours to kill every day.

The principle that makes Pocket Cricket multiplayer possible is non-synchronous gameplay. An issue with playing a long game against another person is that they may need to stop playing at some point in the middle of the game just when you're getting warmed up. We don't want that.

While the fielding team is able to monitor the state of the opponent's innings, he does not actively control his bowlers beyond the bowler management functionality detailed above.

If you want to play a friendly match, all you have to do is find an opponent and challenge them. If they are a Premium Member you will immediately start batting against their bowlers. When they log on to the Pocket Cricket servers, they will see that you have played an innings against them and commence their response innings.

The Multiplayer Arena's main purpose is to serve as the platform for worldwide leagues and regular cup tournaments. Competitions where cricket fans across the planet can test each others' skills.

In closing... why should you help us make this project a reality?

We've already shown that we have the creative and technical ability to build a truly unique, fun and challenging cricket game. Play Pocket Cricket BETA here.

We have been in constant contact with our loyal fans via a number of online cricket communities and taken all their feedback on the game into consideration when designing the Full Version.

Barring certain extended features, the game will be free to play. Always. This is a guarantee. We will never give any in-game benefit to paying players.

The world needs our game. Cricket is a sport that has never really been replicated in this space and we are on the verge of changing that!

We sincerely look forward to interacting some more with our potential donor-base.

Please feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have.