ACT [freeko] Pong styled game

[freeko]

I finally did it. I got around to putting enough continuous effort (about 2 hours or so) into actually making a game. The game is simple, it is pong afterall. You are the blue paddle on the left and your mission is to defeat the red paddle controlled by the computer stationed on the right. You do this by utilizing the ever so complex control structure of the game.

The controls are as follows:

Space Bar: Functions as the primary "button" in the game. There are multiple functions, though the most useful is launching the ball into play on the main game screen.

W: Moves your paddle upward

S: Moves your paddle downward

Move combinations-

W then S: Moves your paddle upward and then downward

S then W: Moves your paddle downward then upward

Utilizing these combinations will allow you to have the highest chance of repeatedly deflecting the ball back toward the red paddle.

The game is played to 3 points to win a set and winning two sets will win the match.

The game can be downloaded here in its current form:

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The game is completely playable and all systems seem to function properly in testing. I have yet to add the final cgs into the game so for now consider this to be a demo of the final version of the game.

I could very likely change the difficulty of this game or add in a selector for the difficulty. However I felt no need to do so currently as it was not a core element of the game play. I figure that to be able to view the winning and losing cgs when I complete them, the game should be easy enough that it is not too difficult to win. Losing is easy enough as you can simply avoid deflecting the ball back to the other side.

As an aside, I classified this as a full game as the gameplay is wholly complete. I could do nothing more to this game and it is perfectly functional as a whole and complete game as it currently stands. However I do plan on adding at minimum the ending cgs along with the possibility of things that may be mentioned though feedback of people who play the game.

 

[undeadclown]

Re: Pong styled game

Well, there's potential for a game I might like here. What are your plans. You said CG, but are you going to put some kind of text story in as well? How many CGs, what kind of content is it? Are these girls having a strip tennis match? What exactly is going on here? But I definitely like the idea of winning and losing CGs.

In terms of gameplay you might want to speed up the players paddle juuuust a bit.

 

[freeko]

Re: Pong styled game

Well, there's potential for a game I might like here. What are your plans. You said CG, but are you going to put some kind of text story in as well? How many CGs, what kind of content is it? Are these girls having a strip tennis match? What exactly is going on here? But I definitely like the idea of winning and losing CGs.

The plans are basically to add a static cg similar to the ones that are shown after the first set is won on either side onto the end that would replace the current game over screen.

Due to the simplistic nature of this game, a story and what not seems to be just idle work for no real payoff. If I were to add a story I would likely make it so that different opponents were of different skill levels (aka paddle speeds). For now I made a conscious decision to keep the game simple and focus the game on the gameplay itself.

The reality of it is, I wanted to make a pong clone. Pong was originally designed by Atari as a training exercise. This is exactly the same reasoning behind my desire to make this particular game. For me it is a training exercise in how to learn some of the basic methods of utilizing game maker. I set things as close as I could to how I believed the original pong arcade cabinet was designed in the way of gameplay. The ball does not deflect at a perfect angle every time and the ball speed picks up incrementally as it remains in play. Both gameplay elements were part of that original arcade cabinet.

In terms of gameplay you might want to speed up the players paddle juuuust a bit.

Noted. If I get more feedback that leans toward this direction then I will certainly look into making an adjustment to the base paddle speed. My initial design thought was that I had the initial paddle speed set (both for the player and the cpu) so that as the game progressed there would come a point at which the ball would simply move too fast from being in play for an extended period of time that a point would be scored one way or the other.

For now, I have basic plans in place to make adjustments via adding a difficulty selector to the game. When they become implemented, the easier setting would have the player paddle speed increased. The harder difficulty would have the paddle speed of the cpu increased. Of course the balance of finding that middle ground where the base paddle speed is not too slow and not too fast for the normal difficulty is what I am looking to do first and foremost. So the more input I get the better for this.

Thanks for taking the time to leave the feedback on the game.

Edit: I completely forgot that I left out the sound effects and bgm from that first demo as well. I would expect that they are going to be implemented into the game while I await more feedback on any gameplay adjustments that are suggested.

 

[freeko]

Re: Pong styled game

Is there a way to embed sound clips on here?

I was playing around with my soundboards and realized pretty fast that I had completely overlooked adding in the music and sound effects on the "demo" that I had released earlier.

What I was going to do if it were possible would be to throw out a few simple beats and a few blips and boops to see what people liked in the way of the bgm and sfx for the game. If it is not possible, then I guess I will have to look into other options for having a way to have people choose what music to put into the game.