Pong. It's a game that everyone knows, and it's a game everyone's seen plenty of times, with some twists.
And yet, therein lies the spark of potential - how can we evolve Pong far beyond that which God and Science intended?
By making it a bullet hell arcade game.
Yeah, that works as a tagline.
Screenshots
Breakdown
This project was made for the RPI Arcade Game Jam, in the spring of 2023.
We had two programmers (myself included), two musicians, and 48 hours to make something fun for the school's arcade cabinet.
It was a blast to make, and seeing how much fun everyone has while playing has been a highlight of my game dev career.
Because, hey, it's fun! It fits perfectly on an arcade cabinet, and the friendly competition and satisfying gameplay really gets people involved. The game is pretty simplistic, but we worked to experiment with ways to keep the experience fresh. Whether it's the array of different stages, game modes, the "turf" mechanics, just al the juice we added, PongChamps is one of my favorite projects, hands down.
And stay tuned for the next update where we introduce a character select screen!