Posted April 22, 2021 by Jimmiefan
Since Reverse Pong is so heavily inspired by the original Pong game, I never wanted to stray too far from the classic rectangular feel. However, the classic board just doesn't function as well or is as fun when you're controlling the rapidly moving ball. The first level I wanted to keep as classically rectangular as possible, but including the four scoring zones and computer-controlled paddles allows for more opportunities for the players to potentially score. Ironically, having more computer paddles actually helps reduce the number of goals players can get, as it spreads out the number of incoming balls which would more often overwhelm and regularly score on the AI paddles.
There are some other features of the levels that became more necessary due to the ball physics, such as the slanted corners. The angled corners both prevented balls from occasionally getting "stuck" bouncing exactly vertically or horizontally between two corners, and allows for the player to get better angles rebounding off of them.
Working with the angling of the corners in the first level led to some experimentation that worked well for a second level. The angled blocks on the sides of the goals both allow for protection against balls scoring in it and to allow skilled players to score new shots. There are infinitely many variations that could be used, but I found this one worked well with the simple modifications.
Due to how faced paced the game is, all of the levels will naturally need to be more open. The ball moves quite quickly and adding additional obstacles which cause more rapid ricochets makes it hard to have enough reaction time to know where the ball will end up. Since you can speed up, slow down, and drift the ball left and right, you also find you need that space to maneuver any significant amounts.
I made Reverse Pong as part of Florida Polytechnic University's 2021 Virtual Game Expo. We all had about a month or less to design and develop a game while having the option to use assets such as models that weren't ours. The games will be published on April 23rd and will be ready to play. There are some great games being made, so be sure to support them by voting!