Play this thing
SUPER PONG's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Pong-itude | #1 | 4.857 | 4.857 |
| Fun | #2 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Creativity | #5 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Innovation | #7 | 3.429 | 3.429 |
| Novelty | #9 | 3.143 | 3.143 |
Ranked from 7 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Summary
It's a level based pong game where each level has a new enemy to learn and defeat.
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Comments
This was a very fun experience, really well executed! Good job.
This is amazing, the graphics fit perfectly into the world you created. The janky movement adds immense atmosphere, and it is just really fun to play
This game is really clean, simple and fun, the variety of challenges kept me retrying to see the next level, great job!
This is the best one I've played so far! The new mechanics introduced were challenging but the game was pretty forgiving in that I didn't have to start again from the beginning if I lost. Especially the ones mirroring my movement were really cool opponents. Great work.
really cool work, this one stands out, for sure.
Loved this game! Very smooth gameplay experience all around, I can tell that you made use of that playtesting really well. The aesthetic is simple and pleasing, the animations of the paddles are extremely satisfying, and even the ball has some nice visual touches to it. The blocks that you break are a bit dull in comparison to these cool things, but that's okay! The game was just the right level of challenge for me - enough to make me try but not get angry and give up. Decent length too! And the idea works superbly even if "level-based pong" isn't the most crazy thing out there, you've done it really well.
The ball travelling in exactly the same angle every time does detract a bit from the Pong experience. Pong usually has the ball travel at different angle depending on how high up the paddle you hit it, which adds a nice level of skill and challenge that isn't present here. Perhaps you thought the game would be too hard with that though, since again I do think you have a nice balance of difficulty in this.
Would've loved to see some more variation in the enemies! The ones that copy your movement got me really excited to see more unique behaviors, but I never really had to 'learn' an enemy other than that.
The final boss battle was A++. Seeing an awesomely-drawn figure like that after the, shall we say "chaotic" paddle designs you see before was actually a cool contrast. Once again really smooth animations here!
Some audio would really make this feel like a full package!
Great work, one of my favourite submissions so far, by far
Hey! Thanks for playing, I’m glad to know the pacing is good and not challenging to the point of causing rage.
The ball-paddle mechanic is admittedly different from traditional pong games and -also admittedly- poorly implemented. There is a way to change the ball’s direction with your paddle with something I called “Spiking.” Spiking is when you move your paddle while the ball collides with you, and the ball moves in the direction you’re going regardless of it’s original trajectory. The mechanic wasn’t taught to the player, and (because it’s not how the ball usually works in pong) people didn’t know beforehand. The mechanic doesn’t have any “coyote time” style quality of life improvements.
The enemy variety also is due to this lack of telegraphing of their mechanics. I’ll explain them now because why not:
- The enemies with a circle on them are the run-of-the-mill pong opponent, they follow the ball, but don’t do anything to really catch you off guard.
- The enemies with a triangular looking design are like the circle enemies, however they can spike the ball in a different direction.
- The enemies with a square (the enemy that people remembered the most) follows the player, and sometimes move away from the player to make them more of a challenge.
One thing I’d love to do with the square enemies is make it so that the ball can bounce in both directions depending on if it was in front or behind the enemy, because that would make the square enemies that much more interesting, making them not only an opponent, but also a tool.
The sound in the game (or extreme lack there of) is the part I’m the least proud of for this game, because there was originally going to be sounds, but because of many domino effect-like mistakes, I couldn’t have them in the game, even though they could’ve made the game that much more juicy, (there was even going to be a roar sound for the boss).
I’m actually working on an update to the game that smoothens some of the rough edges that coincidentally cover many of the critiques you had about the game. And thankfully, you actually gave me an interesting perspective on ways to help fix these problems, which I’ll be using for the update. For instance, the undercooked spiking mechanic was one thing I wanted to fix up for the update. But then, after you brought up the more traditional way that the ball could be controlled when hitting it, I’m testing out a build that has that mechanic on top of the spiking mechanic. And hopefully if it feels good enough to use, I’ll probably keep both mechanic in the final update. I’m also of course going to do other stuff like adding sounds, music, a proper tutorial, and some juice such as that wall breaking “animation.”
And again, thanks for playing. :)