Vibe Basketball

About the game

Vibe Basketball is a half-court street game with two modes, played on a floodlit outdoor court at night. In 1v1 you play to eleven, win by two, with a 15-point cap, against a computer opponent. Baskets are worth two points, three from beyond the arc and two for a dunk; whoever scores keeps the ball ("make it, take it"), and a 24-second clock stops anyone from dribbling forever. After every change of possession you have to carry the ball past the glowing three-point arc before you can attack, and you have to deal with steals, blocks, rebounds and out-of-bounds calls.

The 3-Point Contest is a separate mode for one to four people on the same keyboard, with the other slots played by the computer. Each shooter gets 70 seconds to shoot 27 balls from five racks around the arc, for a maximum of 40 points: regular balls, a money rack where every ball counts double, and deep balls. The three best scores in round one go through to the final, and the highest score in the final wins.

Everything you see is generated by the game itself: the players are built from simple shapes and animated by code, the court is drawn by the game, and the sounds are synthesised in your browser, so the whole thing is a small download. The author describes it as an AI-assisted experiment in how far a small Three.js game can go without a game engine or ready-made animations, and the details show it: dribble moves, pump fakes, hop shots, layups and dunks all exist, and the ball reacts to the rim, backboard and net.

Playing it here

Click Play and pick 1v1 Street or the 3-Point Contest from the menu; the How to Play screen there explains the controls and the rules. A keyboard is needed (a gamepad works too, but there are no touch controls). The court uses real-time lighting and effects, so on an older computer close other tabs if it runs slowly.

Controls

In the 3-Point Contest, choose how many local players are taking part, pick the money rack with the left and right arrows when it is your turn, then hold and release Space to shoot. During a CPU turn, Enter skips ahead to the next local player.

A few things worth knowing

Watch the shot meter. Holding Space fills a release bar next to the shooter; letting go near the top of the bar is what makes a jumper drop. Early or late releases come up short or long.

Make the defender commit. A pump fake or a hop shot gets the defender in the air, and a quick handle move past them opens the lane for a layup or dunk.

Pick your money rack. In the contest, every ball on the rack you choose counts double, so choose the spot where you shoot best. Running, picking up balls and moving between racks happen by themselves; all you do is time the release.

Credits and licence

Vibe Basketball is by mike007jd and is released under the MIT licence. It uses three.js (MIT). The players, court, sounds and rack models are original to the game; the repository states that it ships no third-party character, animation, image or audio assets. The game is the same as the author published it; for this site only the path of one file was changed and a security policy was added so that the page cannot contact other sites. This is an unofficial street-basketball game with fictional players and no connection with any league, team or brand.

FAQ

Can I play against a friend? The 1v1 mode is against the computer. The 3-Point Contest lets up to four people take turns on the same keyboard.

Does it work on a phone? Not really: it has no touch controls and needs a keyboard or a gamepad.

Is anything saved? No, each game starts fresh. Nothing is stored or uploaded.