Skew Pong

not-as-artistic 2021-10-05 09:15

I've played Pong, I've played badly made Pong, I've played Pong that I've programmed and crashed immediately, but I've never played 3D Pong. I think it's also the first time I ever cursed audibly at a Pong AI. It's nearly impossible to predict the course of the ball and react in time, which makes it all the better. Craziest Pong I've played in my life, and perhaps the best Pong. Solid graphics and music to add taste to the experience. 10/10 would force my friends to play this game.

disn 2021-10-05 20:33

Man, do I REALLY suck at pong! A very cool game.

gaming-night 2021-10-07 08:14

I liked the idea of twisting a very known concept. Adding some instability to the ball depending on the rotation of the board is a good idea, but it makes the game pretty hard! Good thing you provided some adjustment parameters, even if the easiest mode (Low) still requires a lot a training. Also, maybe the speed of the platform is too low, sometimes I know at the very last time where to go, but I can't because of that, which is kind of frustrating! Apart from that, I liked the neat Tron-like graphics, music and sound, all good!

weenie-walker-games 2021-10-11 01:49

Great little game. Great way to prove I can't think in multiple dimensions! Just hitting the ball was an accomplishment. Loved the numerous options. Great job!

wolfmeryx 2021-10-11 08:32

The idea and how it's so well executed is amazing! It's super fun trying to compete with the Instability setting and how it moves like crazy. The sound and music are really good too! And the small option to customize color is a good detail too. Great entry! Really fun and innovative :)

huntrt 2021-10-13 14:13

Really nice game overall.

panagiotis-iatrou 2021-10-13 21:40

Really solid submission. Very fitting to the theme. The idea of reinventing the pong game with an unstable aspect along with some flashy 3D graphics made it even more fun. A tip I would give for an unstoppable AI (of course something like this is near-impossible to achieve in a 3-day game). You can actually calculate the final position of the ball when you first hit it with some simple math and physics. Hint: The angle of incidence equals to the angle of reflection

vladadamm 2021-10-13 22:54

@gaming-night Yeah, the balancing, especially against AI, is a bit off currently, and I'll look into it if I happen to make a post jam version.

@panagiotis-iatrou Making an unbeatable AI in Pong is quite easy (even if it could be slightly more complex there as you cpuld ideally account for the game area turning around, gravity, paddles' position influencing the tilt and so trajectory, etc...). But having an AI that is too good and that the player can't beat kind of defeats the fun imo and that's why I wanted to keep it somewhat dumb. In fact, the current AI feels a bit too strong already and can already be very hard/frustrating to beat, especially when playing on an high unstability setting, even if it doesn't do any kind of real prediction. Regardless, I had thought of making several AI difficulties or behaviours, but already had troubles balancing one during the jam time. If I happen to make a post-jam version, AI will definitely be one of the main point I'll adress, with ideally giving several AI difficulties options.

ghpxi 2021-10-14 16:58

love this game. nice that it has multiplayer mode

denatus 2021-10-14 20:22

Wow, great game! Love the 90s computer music, visuals and fun twist on the classic game. As other have said the computer is too hard to beat. Would love to see a difficulty setting. Honestly I had more fun admiring AI vs AI play while listening to the music than actually playing myself.

sam-onella 2021-10-18 19:15

A very thoroughly polished rendition of a classic, with a fun twist that doesn't feel too gimmicky. Clean graphics , solid sound design... This one's gonna place pretty high, I can feel it ;)

yessica 2021-10-18 20:22

Love the graphics and the sound effect, it's very polish and that makes me love it

sirtobyb 2021-10-18 20:29

Really good game, well done! Hard ai, polished graphics and look and feel and music. Love the main menu.

varundevs 2021-10-19 02:59

Graphics are pretty good as well as the gameplay is pretty unstable

anchorlight 2021-10-21 02:30

The instability setting does _NOT_ mess around. I feel like I'm not built for this game, as I simply can't wrap my head around the precise kind of reactions you need to counter the tilts. I would say that the AI can feel a bit brutal when maxing the instability, as the player already has the cards stacked against them without an average-strength AI. Despite that complaint, this is a cool entry with a great vaporwave aesthetic I can get behind. For all my complaints, the instability system is very smoothly executed and has a visually interesting layout-- I like the visual of the gyroscope around the map that twists as a reference point for how the map is tilting, a very minimalist but more than adequate approach.

I'm also pleased with just how many little QOL things you got in there, like customizable colors-- little things you'd never think of for a 72 hour competition. It makes the game feel relatively feature complete.

Solid stuff. Thanks for the submission!

spode 2021-10-21 15:38

Really enjoyed the audiovisual presentation of the game, but man I struggled tons vs the AI, haha!

rengo 2021-10-21 17:24

this is wicked hard. really damn interesting and fresh idea. love it! graphics are the only downfall