This is a submission to Three Thing Game - March 2026

A downloadable game

Voting Monkey Balls

Voting Monkey Balls is a spectator brawler where participants compete to amass the largest hoard of bananas by predicting and influencing volatile, physics-driven battles.

Built for the "Three Thing Game" jam, the game utilises a live multiplayer architecture that allows a host to run a match while players join from their own devices to influence the chaos through offerings to the "Wise Monkey".

Play Voting Monkey Balls

Developed by Jayden Holdsworth + Archie Hull

OST by Archie Hull

Player Objective

In this arena, bananas are the ultimate prize and the only currency recognised by the Wise Monkey, the arbiter who owns the space. He does not grant his favours for free; each round, players offer up their hard-earned bananas to vote on Draw Event cards, hoping their offering is significant enough to convince him to select their preferred outcome.

Your goal is to have the largest banana hoard when the dust settles. To get there, you must balance your bets on the winning ball against the cost of trying to influence the Wise Monkey’s decisions, all while navigating a battle style where luck and environmental chaos are just as important as any weapon upgrade.

Core Systems

  • Hosting a Lobby: Click "Host Game" from the main menu. The game will generate a 4-character Room Code. You can adjust match settings (like starting bananas, timers, and bot counts) and then click "Start Match" when players are ready.
  • Joining a Lobby: Click "Join Game" from the main menu. Enter the Room Code provided by the host and a Player Name, then click "Join Room". You will wait in the lobby until the host starts the match.

Game Flow (Stages)

The game runs in a loop of specific phases during a match:

  1. Prematch: Players select their monkey character and place a "Main Wager" on which ball (Red or Blue) will win the round.
  2. Running (In Progress): The physics simulation begins, and the Red and Blue balls fight automatically.
  3. Vote: The match pauses. Players use their bananas to vote on one of three random event cards (which grant weapons or modifiers).
  4. Reveal: The voting results are shown, and the winning card's effects are applied to the game.
  5. Wagers: Players can place a quick wager on specific events that might happen in the next interval of gameplay. After this, the game goes back to the Running phase.
  6. Round End / Settlement: When a ball loses all its health or the timer runs out, the round ends, and main wagers are paid out.

Game Mechanics

  • Volatile Physics Battles: These are high-speed, unpredictable encounters where the environment and physics engine dictate the flow. Every minor collision or environmental shift can flip the momentum of the fight, meaning matches are never truly settled until the final hit.
  • The Wise Monkey’s Favour (Voting): Between combat rounds, the game enters the Draw Event phase. Three random cards are presented, ranging from Weapon upgrades (like Katanas or Bazookas) to Arena changes (like Gravity or Vortices). Players spend bananas to increase their "Vote Power", attempting to sway the Wise Monkey's choice for the next round.
  • Wagers: For those seeking extra bananas on the side, you can place Wagers on specific aspects of the chaos. You might guess which ball will hit the wall more often, which team will deal the most damage, or if total collisions will exceed a certain threshold.

What is a Wager?

A wager is placed during the brief pauses in gameplay. Instead of wagering on who wins the whole round, you bet on specific events occurring before the next pause. The available wagers are:

  • Red outdamages Blue
  • Blue outdamages Red
  • Red hits more walls
  • Blue hits more walls
  • 10+ total ball collisions

Arsenal & Modifiers

Ball Modifiers

These alter the stats or behaviour of a specific ball:

Armored Halves all damage and starts with a 20 HP shield.
Artillery Specialist Projectile damage is doubled, but melee damage is halved.
Baby Shrinks the ball to 60% size and increases speed, but takes 30% more damage.
Berserker Speeds up as health drops.
Growth Hormones Instantly grows the ball to 1.5x size and adds 3 damage to collisions.
Mitosis Splits the ball into two linked copies that share a health pool.

Arena Modifiers

These alter the environment or rules of the entire match:

Bumpers Adds 5 indestructible bumper obstacles that deflect balls at high speed.
Portal Balls wrap through walls to the opposite side instead of bouncing.
Vortex A gravity vortex at the centre slowly pulls and spins all balls.

Weapons

Weapons are equipped to a ball and deal damage:

Bazooka Launches explosive rockets that detonate on players or walls with splash damage.
Katana A mirror-edged katana that slices in arcs and deflects projectiles.
Treble Clef A dramatic clef that locks onto the enemy and launches booming crescendos.

Developer Tools

The project was developed with a focus on responsive UI that synchronises with the music. To maintain balance across the variety of weapons and modifiers, the application includes a built-in suite of developer tools accessible from the main menu:

  • Card Gallery: A visualiser for testing the UI, descriptions, and quality scores of every card in the Weapon, Modifier, and Arena catalogues.
  • Audio Test Bench: A tool used to calibrate the dynamic music system, ensuring UI pulses accurately match the loop's specific timestamps.
  • Character Lab: A sandbox for verifying the rendering of the custom monkey SVG avatars and their associated colour palettes.
  • Bot Simulation: A mode for observing how automated agents interact with the betting markets and combat physics.

Source Code & Deployment

As this is a live, browser-based multiplayer game, the source code is not included in the local download. You can play the game immediately using the link below:

More information

Comments

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Jayden Holdsworth3 days ago

wow this is really cool

Reply