The physics seem very different from classing pong / arkanoid physics, where the angle is determined by which part of the paddle was hit. Instead it seems like it's maybe totally random within a fairly small cone around the horizontal axis. Is that intentional?
I've never "studied" "paddle dynamics" in these games, and when implementing pong, always just reflected, which doesn't provide good game play, but pong is always a "I'm trying out a different framework" type exercise.
Pong using where it hits to affect the angle never totally made sense to me. I assume the explanation is "the paddle is drawn as a rectangle, but is actually parabolic." Additionally, I've always wondered why I've never seen a pong where the paddles have acceleration to some maximum velocity, and if the paddle is not stationary, you get lateral spin, causing non-linear ball paths on the return hit.
You reminded me of one of the first Mac games I got as a kid: Shufflepuck Cafe, I don't think it had spin but the sideways speed of your mouse was imparted on the puck
> Pong using where it hits to affect the angle never totally made sense to me. I assume the explanation is "the paddle is drawn as a rectangle, but is actually parabolic."
It doesn't have to be realistic, only fun. The justification (very much not an explanation) is that it is more fun if the player can affect the angle of the rebound by positioning the paddle.
It's also not realistic for Mario to change his jump's arc after he leaves the ground but the "rule of cool" holds in the Mushroom Kingdom, too.
Well yes, of course. The way the different angles are computed isn’t intuitive. If a ball bounces off a table, it doesn’t change direction from its normal reflected bounce just because it didn’t hit the center.
That’s why I’m suggesting there must be something that guides the idea that hit position changes the angle. If the paddle was actually parabolic, and just drawn as a rectangle, that’s an intuitive reason for the different reflective angles.
> That’s why I’m suggesting there must be something that guides the idea that hit position changes the angle.
Fun. The guiding principle for all games should be: is it fun?
The reason the position of impact determines the angle is because it’s more fun, Not because it’s realistic.
Realism is rarely fun.
It’s a game, not a physics simulation.
Edit:
Additionally, if you only implement perfect reflection and have a rectangular arena, then the only bounce angles that can occur are the initial ball angle A and 90 - A on the top and bottom sides. That’s not fun.
I love Arkanoid and other pong-alikes, so also I'm curious about seeing how deflection angles on paddle location hit would play. Great design, music and play!
In that case I think the strategy would be to create a lead and then let all the balls through so that the game ends. At the start I was winning but at some point I wasn't able to keep up anymore.
Ah, thanks. I paused and came back here, saw this comment, then went back and let the balls go by. Okay, I'll be honest, I accidentally unpaused early and they went by before I had a chance to think about whether I had enough of a lead. I did! Final score 405, the difference between my score and the bot's.
I didn’t know it was when no balls were left. So this time I got an initial game, jumped ahead after using a special, then let all balls pass. I won by two points! :)
As I learned from other comments, the game ends when all the balls are out of play. Whoever is in the lead wins, and your final score is the amount of the lead. So you can allow the balls to get past you and go out of play to end the game, but make sure you have enough of a lead first!
Hmm, next I'll see how low of a score I can have and win the game.
I was thinking "okay I think I am about done with this, I am at 2.5k to 2k", and then the game spawned a "defend" powerup for the computer player, which blocked off the entire computer side with destroyable blocks, and I decided I was done. 2721 to 2167.
Cute idea, could be kinda fun with another human, maybe with some way to push a button to lose points in exchange for a powerup on your side?
Holding down one arrow key and only pressing the other makes directional changes much quicker, since the second press overrides but doesn't cancel the first.
I liked it but would suggest maybe changing the orientation so you can use left/right instead of up/down. i was playing way better once i rotated my keyboard so i could use two fingers
At first the CPU was beating me as it could jump around to get more of the balls returned, but once it was thick enough I pulled ahead as I seemed better able to aim for returning the big clusters.
The physics seem very different from classing pong / arkanoid physics, where the angle is determined by which part of the paddle was hit. Instead it seems like it's maybe totally random within a fairly small cone around the horizontal axis. Is that intentional?