FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD30 → A Pong Story

A Pong Story

By stencyltuo

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Audio1553.46
Humor3782.63
Mood4043.17
Fun5853.00
Overall8022.96
Innovation8552.77
Theme9792.54
Graphics10202.31
Coolness120449

Comments

boskosokolov 2014-08-25 03:30

Nice game, love the music. :)

peculiarcarrot 2014-08-25 03:36

It's not mentioned once that you have to press Enter to make a new ball. Also, I don't know if there's supposed to be anything other than Pong, but I can't find it other than the few lines at the very beginning.

foolmoron 2014-08-25 03:36

Really cool music

ultravisitor 2014-08-25 03:39

The music is really great. There are some many parts and progressions. I have never taken the time to do a study of pong. Now I am intrigued.

stencyltuo 2014-08-25 04:44

@ Bosko: Thanks. This was my first time using cgMusic. I went through quite a few random samples to find ones that fit the mood for each stage.

@Carrot: I guess I should have been clearer with my "and start the game" comment on the instructions. There are three versions of pong, each a part of a larger story (although with only three parts, the story is short too :P).

@Cobra: Thanks. Yes, the history of Pong is a rather fascinating one. I almost named the two individuals after the creators of it, but I didn't know how that would go down.

stencyltuo 2014-08-25 04:45

@ Fool: Thanks :)

endesga 2014-08-25 04:54

Snazzy music! :D Cool game!

stencyltuo 2014-08-25 05:01

@ ENDESGA: Thanks. I'm glad you liked it :)

stencyltuo 2014-08-25 21:31

Just fixed a quick bug (allowed by rule 8) that caused the game to be unwinnable if you lost in story mode.

2014-08-26 12:57

I kept losing stage 1 :( But I know that's my fault and I'll keep trying in the coming days until I beat it!

stencyltuo 2014-08-26 14:19

@ Navarckyx: There is a difficulty option at the bottom. You start off on normal, so you can change to easy if you want. Also, one strategy is to keep bouncing back straight across to build up the speed, and once it's fast enough, THEN try to angle it. ;)

thingostudios 2014-08-27 19:50

Very cool. I would make it clearer which levels you've unlocked on the main menu, as I couldn't tell initially that I only had level 1 unlocked.

2014-08-28 11:02

Thanks StencylTuo, but I just beat the game on normal ... I don't think I would've been satisfied beating it on easy anyway.

As for the game, it's fun and I think the music is pretty good! I don't really remember the second (and third?) tracks, possibly because the first one is stuck firmly in my head :) There were times I swear the ball should've bounced but went through - not sure if that's just me being crazy or the game though. My only real suggestion for improvement is that the border of the play area is the same black as the area beyond it so it's hard to see where it will bounce; would've been nice if it was different.

Good job!

stencyltuo 2014-08-29 14:50

@ Thingo: I agree; I tried using alternate font colors to help, but that destroyed the black & white theme. Perhaps I should have darkened the unavailable options... Also, one thing I did not have time to do was to add in a small hover text that said something like "Unlocked by beating story mission x."

@ Navarckyx: I'm glad you were able to beat it. The paddle does indeed work properly despite what it could look like. If you move the paddle over the ball after it's already passed the front, it will not bounce back, and that is what players often see when it looks like it went "through"; in reality, you moved the paddle through the ball, not the other way around. As for the border, I agree it would have helped (for the coding too :P), but I was being as true to the original Pong game as I could (and that game did not have borders).

natrium729 2014-08-31 16:22

Well, it is a pong game. However, I care as much (more?) for the story than for the gameplay. And the story simple but good. The idea of the inverse pong where you have too loose is fun too!

piscythe 2014-09-02 02:27

That was the most intense pong I've ever played. When I first started, I had the brilliant idea to set the thing to hard. I lost 0-11, tried again and lost 1-11. Then I turned it down to normal and it seems I was just way the heck out of practice with pong because it took me 4 failed attempts before I won decisively. The second two game modes were fun, though I found the third game a bit easy compared to the previous two. Loved the music!

stencyltuo 2014-09-04 15:24

@Natrium: Yes, the focus of the game is on the story. The pong game is just a backdrop for it. I wanted a game type that I could change based on the story, and Pong seemed like a good option :).

@Piscythe: Yes, it can be very challenging; it takes some skill of prediction to where the ball will bounce to do well. Ironically, I have had others who found the third level to be harder than the first, so I guess you just learned the system for it ;).

powerspark 2014-09-09 22:49

I'm bad at this because I can't keep track of the small ball. Good game though.

stencyltuo 2014-09-12 04:01

Thanks. I did think about making the ball bigger, but it seemed like a good size as it was (gameplay-wise).

snapdragon 2014-09-15 02:33

Nice game