Hi everyone! Jay and Tim here with some helpful tips for Disc Jam, our arcade sports game that joined the PS Plus free games lineup for this month.

In our previous post we announced the beta and detailed the updates to our doubles game mode. Now that the game has launched, we’re going to dig into some core mechanics and give an overview of our key design pillars to help you get the winning edge against your opponents!

Scoring System Basics

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, we want to talk about how scoring works in Disc Jam.

You win a rally by either getting the disc behind the other team or getting the disc to hit the ground on their side of the court. Longer rallies are worth more points; each time the disc is thrown its top speed increases and the value of the rally goes up by one.

Although rallies start at five points, aces are worth double if you’re able to sneak one by off the serve. First team to 50 points wins the set, and best two out of three sets wins the match. Now that we’ve covered the basics of scoring, let’s talk about the keys to success in Disc Jam.

Increase Your Throwing Power to Win Rallies

The two fundamental pillars central to Disc Jam’s design are timing and positioning. Every mechanic in the game is related to these principles in one way or another.

You execute “perfect” throws by timing your input just as you catch the disc. If you throw three perfects in a row, you become “juiced” which significantly increases throw power across the board and is often the difference in who wins the rally.

If you’re out of position and forced to slide, you won’t be able to achieve a perfect throw which in turn breaks your juiced streak and gives the upper hand to your opponent. If you find yourself getting beaten often, remember to center up after making your shot! With the exception of juiced throws, every shot in the game can be retrieved from the center dot on the court. Once you’ve mastered these fundamentals, it’s time to move on to advanced throw techniques.

How and Why to Curve the Disc

There are several ways to negotiate the disc about the court. Although we’ve already covered perfect throws and getting juiced, we have yet to touch on curving the disc.

In Disc Jam, there are two ways to apply spin: Skill Curves and Quick Curves. Skill Curves are performed by rolling the left stick after you press the throw button (X by default). You aim the left stick as usual and then immediately press throw while rolling the stick in the direction of the desired spin.

Quick Curves, on the other hand, are easier to execute and have less windup than Skill Curves, but take a more predictable flight path. To Quick Curve, simply aim left or right to control how wide you want the disc to curve and then tap the corresponding Quick Curve button (L2/R2 by default).

Finally, Wall Skip throws are performed by executing a Skill Curve into the near-side wall. If you apply enough spin (about 75% of the maximum curve), the disc will skip along the wall. This can be a useful mix-up when your opponent isn’t respecting the wide lanes.

That about wraps it up for this update! Thanks for checking it out, and be sure to grab your copy of Disc Jam if you haven’t already. It’s free for PS Plus subscribers this month and we have a lot of exciting updates planned for the months ahead!

See you on the court!