A big thank you, and a look at the latest updates

First, a big thank you to everyone who's been playing Snooker Rivals this early. People have been sending bug reports, screenshots and suggestions, and taking the time to explain what doesn't feel right. It's been a huge help.

A lot of the recent work has come directly from those conversations. Someone spots a rule behaving strangely, struggles with a camera angle or points out that a sound doesn't match a real table, and that gives me something concrete to work on. Here's a catch-up on some of the things I've been improving.

Making the table look better

The balls, cloth and table lighting have all had some attention. The balls have better materials and reflections, the cloth has more texture, and the lighting makes the table easier to read. I've also spent time improving the pocket shape and tuning their width after feedback from players.

There are chalk marks now too. A firm shot with deep screw can leave a small mark on the cloth, and those marks stay for the life of the room. It's a little detail, but I like the idea of a table looking as though it's actually been played on.

Getting the sounds closer to a real table

Sound was one of the first things people told me needed work, and they were right. I've been using real recordings as references to improve cue strikes and ball collisions, with more variation so every contact doesn't sound identical.

The harder pocket shots have had work too. The sound is meant to be the ball hitting the back of the pocket, so the timing and speed matter. Gentler pots are much quieter, and very slow pots stay silent. There's still more to do here, so keep telling me what you hear.

More ways to look at a shot

Free cam lets you stand up from your shot and walk around the table to check an angle. It works with WASD and mouse look on desktop, or a movement joystick and swiping on mobile. You can also crouch for a lower view, and adjust the look sensitivity to suit you.

Spectators and players waiting for their turn can use it too. There's also a POV option for anyone who wants to stay in their own view when they strike, rather than switching to the cinematic shot camera.

Keeping the menus lighter

I've changed when the game engine starts. Opening the homepage or browsing rooms doesn't need to load up a 3D table, so the engine now starts when you actually enter one, with a short loading screen to show what's happening.

Going back Home pauses the rendering and simulation on your device. The loaded scene stays cached so returning to a table is quick. The aim is to keep browsing lighter, particularly on phones, without making you load everything again each time you leave a room.

Sorting out the rulebook problems

I've been fixing issues around snookers, foul-and-miss decisions, replacing the balls and free-ball situations. Colour clearance has had fixes too, including the game asking you to nominate when only one colour is on, and frames continuing when the final-black situation should already have settled them.

Snooker has plenty of awkward edge cases. Reports of a specific shot going wrong have been especially useful for finding them. If you spot another one, tell me which ball was on, what happened and what you expected the game to do.

Your frames, breaks and high scores

Online games now build up your player statistics. Your highest break is the main number on your profile, alongside frames won, win rate and your win/loss ratio. You can also look through your scoring visits, break milestones, legal pots and fouls, with all-time, seven-day and thirty-day views.

You can look up other players and your friends, and open a player card from chat. I wanted it to be easy to see who you're playing and follow your own progress as you get better at the game.

The high-score table records breaks from online games against another player. Registered accounts qualify with a break of 17 or more; guest accounts, practice and local games don't appear there. Clicking a name takes you to that player's stats.

Thanks for sticking with it

This is still pre-alpha, and there will be more things to fix. But seeing people come back for another frame, make friends in the rooms and help me improve the game makes me want to keep working on it.

Whether you've sent a detailed bug report, suggested a small quality-of-life change or just played a few frames and told a friend, thank you. Please keep the feedback coming. You're helping decide what Snooker Rivals becomes.

For now, give it a go and let me know what you think. If you'd like to share feedback or follow along, join us on Discord.