Rim Rush: Why I Disappeared for a Couple Weeks
If you’ve noticed things being a little quiet around Epic Collector lately, don’t worry. I’m still very much around, and regular posts will be picking up again soon.
But you might be wondering why things slowed down for a bit.
The truth is, it wasn’t really a break.
How the Idea Started
During my day job, we recently started discussing ways to bring more interaction to the websites we work on. One of the ideas that came up was introducing some sort of simple browser-based game. Since we primarily deal with sports sites, a sports-themed game seemed like the obvious direction.
That conversation stuck with me.
So in my spare time, I decided to see what I could build.
My goal was simple: create something easy to pick up, but hard to master. Something that could hook players for a few minutes at a time. The kind of experience that feels familiar if you’ve ever played one of those arcade basketball machines.
That’s where Rim Rush was born.
Building Rim Rush
To be completely transparent, I leaned heavily on Cursor AI to help build the game. As part of the scope of this project, we’ve also been experimenting with a new development workflow that incorporates Cursor into the process.
And I have to say, I came away genuinely impressed.
Now, I’ll admit something. As someone who has been a developer for most of my adult life, the idea of AI writing code was not something I was particularly excited about. Like many programmers, and honestly like many professionals in general, there’s always that initial reaction that AI is coming for your job.
But after spending real time working with Cursor, my perspective shifted quite a bit.
AI is powerful, no question about it. But what became immediately clear is that it still can’t create anything truly valuable without strong direction.
And trust me… it needs a lot of direction.
Less Coding, More Creating
What surprised me most about this process was how it changed the way I worked.
Instead of spending most of my time typing out code, I spent more time designing the experience.
I had a clear vision for what I wanted the game to be, so the process became a series of small, incremental steps where I guided Cursor toward that vision.
First step: I knew I wanted the game to be 3D, so I brought in Three.js as the rendering library.
From there, we began building things piece by piece:
- Creating the environment
- Adding the basketball
- Implementing bounce physics
- Building the throw mechanic
- Adding gravity and trajectory
- Creating the rim and net
- Developing the scoring system
Each step was built on the previous one.
By the end of the weekend, I had a working proof of concept.
And here’s the crazy part.
The entire prototype was built in less than 16 hours.
Two days of work.
Polishing the Game
After the initial build, I spent about a week and a half refining everything.
That meant improving the feel of the shots, adjusting the physics, tightening the scoring mechanics, and generally making sure the experience felt fun and responsive.
Once it reached a point where I was happy with it, I decided to release the game on the new Reddit Games platform.
And honestly, it turned out exactly how I hoped.
It’s simple.
It’s addictive.
And it’s the kind of game you can jump into for a few minutes just to see if you can beat your previous score.
Why I Love Building Stuff Like This
This isn’t the first game I’ve built, and it definitely won’t be the last.
One of the things I’ve always loved about programming is the ability to take an idea and turn it into something people can actually interact with. A website is one thing. A tool is another.
But a game is something different.
It’s pure interaction.
People either have fun with it… or they don’t.
And when they do, it’s incredibly satisfying to see.
What’s Next
My next development project will likely involve Godot, which I’ve been wanting to spend more time exploring.
But before that happens, I’ll be shifting focus back to Epic Collector for a while.
That means:
- New articles
- Feature updates
- Improvements to the site
- And more community interaction
The journey with Epic Collector has been a fun one so far, and I’m excited to keep pushing it forward.
In the meantime, if you want a quick distraction and think you’ve got a good shooting hand…
Give Rim Rush a try.
Just don’t blame me if you end up playing longer than you planned.