Ball Don't Cry

Ball Don't Cry puts you in front of an NBA stat sheet and nothing else: season by season, games played and games started, minutes, points, rebounds and assists, shooting percentages, three-point and free-throw percentages, steals, blocks and turnovers. Only one column is missing: the teams column, hidden by a gray banner. It’s up to you to recognize the player behind that trajectory. The header shows the date, the edition number and your position in the day’s series; an input field and a Guess button occupy the bottom of the screen, and nine small boxes summarize the whole day: three players, three attempts each.

1. Read the sheet from top to bottom: each row is a season, and changes in the volumes tell the story of a career.
2. Spot multiple lines for the same year: the game warns that these indicate a midseason transfer, each line then corresponding to a different team.
3. Type a name into the “Guess the player…” field and submit with Guess.
4. Accept the mistake: each wrong guess reveals part of the teams hidden in the Tm column.
5. Three attempts per player, then move on to the next. The “Give up” button abandons the current round.

There is a subset of basketball fans capable of recognizing a career from its three-point percentage curve, and this game is written for them. Ball Don't Cry gives neither silhouette nor team nor biographical hint: only a table of numbers, the franchises column carefully redacted, and three attempts to put a name on it. The pleasure is that very particular one of reading a trajectory: the adjustment season, the one where minutes double, the turning year when the player becomes a full-time starter. Three players per day, no timer nor ballast, and the option to give up whenever the sheet refuses to talk.

The only clue the game is willing to give is the teams column, and it must be paid for with attempts: each failed guess uncovers a part of it. What is visible at all times: the series counter in the header, which indicates the current player out of the three for the day, and the row of nine boxes under the input field, grouped three by three, which serves as the progress bar for the entire day.

Daily series

Three players to identify, presented one after the other, with an edition number and the date in the header. No other mode is offered on the page.

• The games played / games started pair is more informative than points: a player who goes from reserve to starter from one season to the next is spotted in that column before you even look at his production.
• A year that has multiple lines is a gift: it signals a midseason transfer, and there are not that many careers with a trade on that exact date.
• Attempts also serve as clues. If the sheet stays silent, offering a plausible name early to free part of the teams column is better than burning all three tries on variations of the same profile.