Hello, everyone! I used to be very active here, but it’s been several years since I’ve posted. Some of you may remember me by the “Run This” stop-shot puzzles I would post for members to solve. Over the years I’ve gone by Bluepepper, then CueAndMe, and now I’m Angle Detective — the name of an angle recognition, aiming, and labeling system I’ve been developing for many years, which has now become a book, an angle-training video game, and a set of printable practice tools.
The main reason for this post is to announce that the angle recognition training video game for pool and snooker has been improved and is now free for everyone to download. It was formerly a paid app. Designed to build transferable skills you can take to the real table, it trains your ability to recognize shot angles through repeated visual problem-solving.
An especially useful Practice Mode lets you choose any angle between 0° and 90° (in 0.1° increments) and the game continuously generates geometrically accurate randomized layouts at that exact angle — ideal for deeply ingraining angle recognition. You can even raise or lower the view to match your real-life eye height, then click through shot after shot while the view remains at the same height you would have at a real table.
For example, you could choose to repeatedly click through shot layouts of any of the common theoretical fractional aim angles (7/8-ball 7.2°, 3/4-ball 14.5°, 5/8-ball 22°, 1/2-ball 30°, 3/8-ball 38.7°, 1/4-ball 48.6°, 1/8-ball 61°, 1/16-ball 69.6°) so that these angles become more and more recognizable when you come across them in real life play.
Core Features
Pool and snooker equipment
Infinitely randomized shot layouts
Adjustable real-world view and movement with eye-height display
Overhead view with zoom, rotation, and drag
Precision analysis guides: Ghost Ball, Shaded Angle, Master Square (Angle Detective system)
Freeze-and-Draw overlay for drawing shapes and patterns atop shot layouts
Instant camera jumps to key standing/viewing positions
Adjustable table cloth color
Saved high scores across both play modes — Amateur and Professional
Preferences persist between sessions
Relatively lightweight, with performance quality setting options for slower computers
Clean, focused interface — other than a quick opening splash scene showing the book, there are no ads, no in-game purchases, and no internet required
The game currently runs on Windows and macOS, with mobile versions planned for later in the year.
It’s a fun and addictive game, but more importantly a serious practice tool for burning shot angles into memory. I hope you all enjoy it, and I’d be glad to hear any feedback or feature ideas for future versions. Here's the itch.io page with download links.
https://angledetective.itch.io/angle-detective
Enjoy and thanks for reading!
Jeff
The main reason for this post is to announce that the angle recognition training video game for pool and snooker has been improved and is now free for everyone to download. It was formerly a paid app. Designed to build transferable skills you can take to the real table, it trains your ability to recognize shot angles through repeated visual problem-solving.
An especially useful Practice Mode lets you choose any angle between 0° and 90° (in 0.1° increments) and the game continuously generates geometrically accurate randomized layouts at that exact angle — ideal for deeply ingraining angle recognition. You can even raise or lower the view to match your real-life eye height, then click through shot after shot while the view remains at the same height you would have at a real table.
For example, you could choose to repeatedly click through shot layouts of any of the common theoretical fractional aim angles (7/8-ball 7.2°, 3/4-ball 14.5°, 5/8-ball 22°, 1/2-ball 30°, 3/8-ball 38.7°, 1/4-ball 48.6°, 1/8-ball 61°, 1/16-ball 69.6°) so that these angles become more and more recognizable when you come across them in real life play.
Core Features
Pool and snooker equipment
Infinitely randomized shot layouts
Adjustable real-world view and movement with eye-height display
Overhead view with zoom, rotation, and drag
Precision analysis guides: Ghost Ball, Shaded Angle, Master Square (Angle Detective system)
Freeze-and-Draw overlay for drawing shapes and patterns atop shot layouts
Instant camera jumps to key standing/viewing positions
Adjustable table cloth color
Saved high scores across both play modes — Amateur and Professional
Preferences persist between sessions
Relatively lightweight, with performance quality setting options for slower computers
Clean, focused interface — other than a quick opening splash scene showing the book, there are no ads, no in-game purchases, and no internet required
The game currently runs on Windows and macOS, with mobile versions planned for later in the year.
It’s a fun and addictive game, but more importantly a serious practice tool for burning shot angles into memory. I hope you all enjoy it, and I’d be glad to hear any feedback or feature ideas for future versions. Here's the itch.io page with download links.
https://angledetective.itch.io/angle-detective
Enjoy and thanks for reading!
Jeff
