Elemental Pong
About the Game
Elemental Pong is a 2-player arcade-like game that is a unique take on the classic pong game. In this game, the balls are called Orbs, and in all levels, 2 orbs are guaranteed to spawn: the regular Orb and the Fake Orb.
There are also unique orbs in the game called Elemental Orbs, and the type of elemental orb that appears during the game corresponds with the level chosen. There are four different levels, meaning four different elemental orbs, with each orb providing different effects to the gameplay.
Obtain up to 15 scores to beat your opponent and win the game.
Players have also the option to choose between 2 different modes: Normal and Turbo
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Game Engine
Design Process
Concepting
This project was my first school assignment and my second game project that I did for university. The task that I was given was to make a fully working Pong Game with some added features.
The features that I could add was not limited, thus I could add whatever features I wanted in the game.
So when planning the idea for what kind of pong game it should be, I decided to use the theme of elements in my game. Though not following the classic 4 elements of water, earth, fire, and air, the elements used in the game are based on the 4 main elemental damage in the game Warframe: Heat, Cold, Electric, and Toxin.
With that in mind, I began planning how to implement by theme into the pong game.
Pre-Production
During this stage, I had a rough idea what I wanted in my game. I had already planned to have 3 different kinds of balls to spawn in the game: 1 normal ball and 2 unique balls.
The 2 unique balls consisted of a fake ball which will not grant any points, and a special ball that adds the unique feature in the game. I called the special ball as an Elemental Orb, I also called all the balls in the game as orbs too. I also planned for different elemental orbs to spawn based on level in the game. Since I am adding in 4 different elements into my game, I would need to make 4 different levels.
Originally I wanted all the balls to spawn randomly aside with each other. However, since this is the first game I am making using Stencyl, I didn't really know how to do that and the best I did was make only the regular ball and the fake ball spawn randomly.
For the elemental orbs on the other hand, I decided to make it spawn in the level at every 5 seconds.
Game Mechanics
Game Features:
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Fake Orb: In every round, a fake orb will spawn instead of the regular ball. The chance of a fake ball spawning is randomized meaning there is no set timer for when it will spawn. It even looks identical to the regular ball to make it difficult for players to tell whether the ball is a real or a fake. There isn’t any serious punishment with the fake ball, as the fake ball doesn’t add or take away points. It exist as a dud.
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Elemental Orb: In every round, an additional orb spawn in the form of an elemental orb. The type of elemental orb that spawns depends on the level the players are playing in. For example, a Heat Orb will spawn in the level that has the Volcanic scene. An elemental orb will also spawn every 5 seconds in the game. Each elemental orb also offers unique feature of its own:​​
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Heat Orb: An orb so hot, that it awards double the points.
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Cold Orb: An orb so cold and fragile, it will break on impact on any paddle and if that happens, a point will be taken away from the player whose paddle got hit.
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Electric Orb: An orb that's lightning fast, it moves faster than other orbs, and it will also create more orbs after it leaves the scene.
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Toxin Orb: An orb high on acid, it gives points to the player when they score it in their own goal instead of their opponents.
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Hot Orb Cold Orb
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Electric Orb Toxin Orb
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Game Modes:
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Normal: As the name suggest, this game mode allows players to play the game at a moderate speed.
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Turbo: In this game mode, the velocity of the orbs is doubled, forcing players to react faster to the incoming orbs that are quickly spawning.
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Score System:
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When a player scores an orb in the opponent's goal, they gain a point.
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A player wins the game when they have scored 15 points.
Original Ball
+1 Score
Fake Ball (Appears Identical)
+0 Score
Production
In this stage, I began designing my assets and started coding in Stencyl.
Since I already had a rough code outline for this game, coding wasn't that much of a problem. The only problem I faced here was when I had to code the randomization of the regular orb and fake orb spawning.
I was very passionate about wanting to add in this feature, so I tried various methods that I could think of at that time. And through different trials and errors, I was successful in having the 2 different orbs be randomized.
As for the assets, I used Microsoft PowerPoint and Paint.Net to design my buttons, orbs, and paddles. For the background scenes and music, I went online to search for existing assets, with all of it being free to download and obtain online. Credits to location I obtained these assets from will be linked below.
Game Screenshots
Asset Credits: Click Here