Unity 3D Playmaker Creating Helix Jump - Ball and Platform

In this mini Unity 3D Playmaker tutorial series, we will be taking a look at creating Helix Jump. In this first edition of the tutorial series, we will look at creating the platform using ProBuilder in Unity, creating the ball and making the ball bounce. (to Join my discord server add a comment an

This Helix Jump tutorial builds the two core pieces of the game: the pie-slice platforms arranged in a tower and a ball that bounces in a predictable, controlled way. Rather than rely on physics materials, the bounce is driven by Playmaker adding a fixed upward force on every platform hit, which keeps the ball's height consistent.

Model a platform slice

Use ProBuilder to make a pipe (with ProGrids snapping), thickening it toward the center and lowering its height to about 0.2 to form a ring. Set it to 12 sides so each slice spans 30 degrees, then delete the faces you do not need to leave a single pie piece. Use the edge selector and Bridge Edges to close both open sides into a solid slice, and apply a green material.

Assemble the platform prefab

Rotate copies of the slice in 30-degree steps to rebuild a full 360-degree ring, tag them all platform, and group them inside a central cylinder (with its capsule collider removed since you only collide with the slices). Save this as a platform prefab. Because it is a prefab, you can drag in an instance and delete individual slices to create the gaps the ball falls through.

Make the ball fall and bounce

Create a sphere scaled to about 0.4 with a shiny red material, add a Rigidbody with Use Gravity checked, and position the camera with control-shift-F to frame the tower. Pressing play, the ball falls but does not bounce. You can test a physics material with friction 0 and bounciness 1, but for Helix Jump remove it, because you want a deliberate, repeatable bounce rather than physics-driven variance.

Control the bounce with Playmaker

On a game manager add a ball object with a Ball Bounce FSM. In a Detect Ball Hit state, use a Collision Event on the ball that, on hitting a platform-tagged object, fires a bounce ball event. In the Bounce Ball state, use Add Force on the ball's Rigidbody with a Y value of 4 in Impulse mode for an instant upward kick, then a Finished transition back to Detect Ball Hit. Because the same force is applied on every hit, the ball bounces to a consistent height, exactly what the game needs.