Backyard Volley

What Backyard Volley is

A first-person volleyball game for a group of friends. There are no hit buttons. Your mouse is your arm: you jump, you time it, and you flick your mouse at precise times. The game reads what you meant from your timing, your jump, where you're looking and the shape of your swing (mouse movement), so the same motion that bumps a pass can also slam a spike. It's easy to pick up in a minute and hard to master, and it's at its best on a voice call with your friends.

Every touch is a real swing

Spike: jump and whip your mouse down through the ball. Hit it at the top of your jump for extra power.

Tip: hold the LMB and swing soft to drop it just over the blocker.

Bump: get under the ball and pass it to your setter. Whip up for a high pass, pull down for a softer one.

Set: catch it overhead, aim, and push it up for your hitter.

Block: jump at the net and put up a wall.

Serve: toss it up, and the shape of your swing picks the serve.

Ways to play

Online matches: 2v2 or 3v3 with friends. Invite them straight from Steam, or share a room code. First to 15, win by 2; a match takes about ten to fifteen minutes.

Bots on your side, or against you: any empty seat is filled by a bot, so two friends can play 2v2, or you can play a full match on your own. Seven bot personalities, from a clumsy rookie to a pro (multiple styles of play).

Team practice: a no-score court where a group can warm up together and see simple stats of their swing.

Solo drills: hitting, passing, serving and receiving, with bots feeding and returning the ball.

Two tutorials: Beginner teaches every swing and ends in a real match against rookie bots. Advanced covers aiming, reading sets, roll shots, tips and the serve types, and ends with a match against the pros.

Instant replays

Every point ends with a slow-motion replay of the play that won it, so nobody misses the spike, or the whiff. Anyone can skip it.

The backyard

One court, in a fenced-in yard behind a family house: string lights over the deck, neighbours peeking over the fence, and a whole cartoon neighbourhood around it.

Early Access: what's here now and what's coming

Everything above is in the game today. We're in Early Access because the game around the volleyball is still growing, and we want players shaping it: a career mode, new modes that add power-ups, matchmaking and a competitive mode, Steam achievements, player stats, and play to get cosmetics. See the Early Access section for the full picture.