Acheron Pong 2

A classic idea merged with modern awesomesauce...
[ Game Jolt Page! ]

[ Ver. 3.0.0 ]


[ Description ]​

A complete remake of the classic PONG, featuring gameplay with up to 4 simultaneous players or intelligent (?) bots, plenty of different gamemodes, tons of different pong balls, extensive statistics tracking, awesome graphic FX, and frantic gameplay with the multiple pong balls on screen at the same time!

[ Update Log ]
+ addition, - removed, ^ changed, * fixed, = extension​

Spoiler

Ver. 1.0.0
+released

Ver. 1.0.1
^incomplete menu options are red
*fixed game crashing bug

Ver. 1.1.0
+fancy wave bars
+pressing escape on any menu returns up one level
^balls spawn in smoothly
*fixed ghost ball always trick shotting
*fixed bricks not aligned properly
*fixed maximum mass not resetting
*fixed quitting on pause menu somewhat freezing the game
*fixed being unable to get out of results screen

Ver. 2.0.0
+even smarter AI!
=+ignores pong balls it can never reach in time
=+targets pong balls that will reach the goal quicker, rather than solely on distance
=+behind paddle ignore zone width now dependent on the pong ball size
+direction of which pong balls spawn in is made so as to balance and not overwhelm players
+parasite ball
+weakling ball
+critical mass ball now has an added effect
+new controls intro included that only happens at first time
+version indicator in the intro at the top left
+the game modes screen is starting to have its own developed menu
+advanced mass/weight system to determine which pong ball to spawn
^statistics screen now display distance in meters, rather than pixels
^fancier intro sequence
^default controls are more "intuitive/logical"
*fixed radioactive ball not inheriting an event properly
*fixed accelerate ball not inheriting an event properly
*fixed random ball not spawning smoothly
*fixed teleporter ball not affecting the wave bars
*fixed normal balls created by splitter ball counting as normal balls and outputting an event for normal balls
*fixed splitter balls potentially bunching up together

Ver. 2.0.1
*fixed default controls being set to absurd values

Ver. 2.1.0
+super extra trippy RGB color shift!
+random balls affect the RGB around where they randomize to
*fixed potential chance of interpolation happening

Ver. 2.1.1
*fixed critical mass ball having debug variable set

Ver. 3.0.0
+more things can be trippy
+critical mass balls have a gravity distortion effect
+critical mass balls have extra particle animation stuff
+take screenshots with F12!
+a fancy countdown timer!
+save different game modes user-inputted data
+brick blocks have a slightly more interesting destruction sequence
+brick scatter ball has its own sprite animation now
+dice ball
+reflector ball
+attractor ball
+Game Jolt support!
+super fancy post game stuff!
+fancy paddle "swerve"
+double-tap boosts, so that players get some competitive edge against bots
+dedicated fancy menus (except for Settings menu >_< )
+achievement notification
-removed AI idling
^particle balls released by the critical mass ball have had a few variables changed
^paddles 2, 3, and 4 are bots by default
^random, teleport, and reorientation balls only do their proper event a couple times per paddle hit, so that they don't linger on screen for long
^minor graphic change regarding the wave bars
^changed default controls for paddle 4 to numpads 4 and 6
^made AI a bit less jittery in their movements
^compiled differently
*fixed very uncommon bug regarding division of zero and AI calculations
*fixed teleporter balls not spawning in smoothly
*fixed debug HP value for brick scatter ball
*fixed clipping of pong balls spawned by cluster balls and brick scatter balls (if still present, I can slightly change some variables)
*fixed missing parasite ball statistics at statistics screen
*fixed life mode completely and everything
*fixed ghost ball getting stuck in bricks (by reworking most of the collision code -_- )
*fixed controls not being saved
*fixed paddle 1 far misses being assigned to paddle 2
*fixed square ball regarding mass counter
*fixed allowing the spawn of large mass pong balls that would exceed the maximum mass limit
*fixed method of direction of spawning pong balls, so that it randomly chooses between any optimal choices
*fixed parasite balls making pong balls have a sort of pierce functionality
*fixed divide by zero crash when forfeiting a match before any pong ball spawn.

[ Known Issues ]
!!! extreme, !! moderate, ! mild, # inefficiency, % aesthetical, = extension​

 

I actually love this, especially the balls that actually have their own specs, which reminds me of that one Breakout clone which had completely erratic upgrades.
There's a few things I have noted:
• The teleport and random ball have a small possibility to stay somewhere in the middle, and might teleport when they get close to the
sides. Maybe change it to a max amount of teleports per paddle hit.
• Are you still working on the sound and music or is my system having some sort of problem, because I kinda think that.
• I don't understand why, but I don't know how to control the 3/4th paddle, as one of them seems to react always when I press a key(and
moves to the left), as the other doesn't do anything at all.

Other than that, It looks amazingly good, and I can't wait to see it finished.

 

I actually love this, especially the balls that actually have their own specs, which reminds me of that one Breakout clone which had completely erratic upgrades.

There's a few things I have noted:
• The teleport and random ball have a small possibility to stay somewhere in the middle, and might teleport when they get close to the
sides. Maybe change it to a max amount of teleports per paddle hit.

That's a pretty darn good idea actually! Thank you for the tip! ^o^

• Are you still working on the sound and music or is my system having some sort of problem, because I kinda think that.

Sadly, there is no sound or music in the game yet. (I'm not really a music composer or sound producer person ^_^; )

• I don't understand why, but I don't know how to control the 3/4th paddle, as one of them seems to react always when I press a key(and
moves to the left), as the other doesn't do anything at all.

The controls can be seen and set in the settings menu, by default they should be left and right arrows for paddle 3, and the mouse buttons for paddle 4. (despite paddle 4's controls being default to mouse buttons, users cannot set controls to mouse buttons yet)

EDIT~ Huh, Paddle 4 does seem to always move left, I'll get to fixing that in the following update, probably for now just set Paddle 4 as a bot or something

Other than that, It looks amazingly good, and I can't wait to see it finished.

Thanks! Personally, I can't wait to get the next update done myself!

EDIT~ BBCode seems to have have gotten out-of-whack recently >.<

 

Ah, as a linux user, I'm not able to run it, even through WINE. From the screenshots, the game looks pretty cool though..

 

Ah, as a linux user, I'm not able to run it, even through WINE. From the screenshots, the game looks pretty cool though..

That's an annoying quirk from the programming language I use, sorry about that ^_^'

 

Wow, this is awesome! I don't have anyone near me who can play, so I can't wait for the online feature to be added.

 

That's an annoying quirk from the programming language I use, sorry about that ^_^'

What programming language do you use?

 

A few things I felt needed to be addressed...

Single player defaults need to be changed to the following:

Player 1 Bot = False
Player 2 Bot = True
Player 3 Bot = True
Player 4 Bot = True

Also I can't navigate game modes (life, score, etc.) with the keyboard. It is mouse only, yet everything else is keyboard only.

 

What programming language do you use?

It's gamemaker, judging by the exe's icons + splashscreen
mac + linux exports cost extra if you bought pro edition before may 18 (may 18th and on, mac + linux is included in pro edition, just for extra $50)
decent engine, I use it sometimes, but it has its glitches and quirks

I would use ENIGMA engine (open-source clone) but there are always issues with getting the IDE working for me

 

A few things I felt needed to be addressed...

Single player defaults need to be changed to the following:

Player 1 Bot = False
Player 2 Bot = True
Player 3 Bot = True
Player 4 Bot = True

Not bad of an idea actually; come to think of it, making the game save the values the user put in for the different game modes would be nifty too!

Also I can't navigate game modes (life, score, etc.) with the keyboard. It is mouse only, yet everything else is keyboard only.

Originally all menus were navigated only through the keyboard. After being suggested that making the menus navigable through the mouse would be more user friendly, I started the conversion process. I've only completed the game modes screen as of yet ^_^;

The following update should make all menus prettier and navigable through the mouse and the keyboard.

----------

It's gamemaker, judging by the exe's icons + splashscreen
mac + linux exports cost extra if you bought pro edition before may 18 (may 18th and on, mac + linux is included in pro edition, just for extra $50)
decent engine, I use it sometimes, but it has its glitches and quirks

You got that right! I'm not sure why there is a Game Maker splash screen though :\ It never was there until a recent GM:S update.

I could also try to use their advanced compiler, maybe that'll work through WINE for Mac and Linux.

I would use ENIGMA engine (open-source clone) but there are always issues with getting the IDE working for me

Interesting, I'll give it a try, see how well it fairs and whatnot.

 

Quick thought: You should probably try to get the audio from PacMan CE DX. I think it would fit nicely.

 

You got that right! I'm not sure why there is a Game Maker splash screen though :\ It never was there until a recent GM:S update.

I could also try to use their advanced compiler, maybe that'll work through WINE for Mac and Linux.

I'm assuming you've got the Pro edition - given that the app's title isn't "Made in GameMaker: Studio" - so you can change the splashscreen, the app logo as it appears in file explorer, and the app logo as it appears on the taskbar via Global Game Settings

 

Quick thought: You should probably try to get the audio from PacMan CE DX. I think it would fit nicely.

I'm a bit more partial towards learning how to make music, but thanks for the thought!

----------

I'm assuming you've got the Pro edition - given that the app's title isn't "Made in GameMaker: Studio" - so you can change the splashscreen, the app logo as it appears in file explorer, and the app logo as it appears on the taskbar via Global Game Settings

I had disabled the splash screen before, but thanks for directing to that, I thought GM:S started forcing it or something ^_^;

 

Heya, I've got a new update, and a pretty massive on at that! ^o^

One important thing, the downloads will only be maintained on the Game Jolt page. I've also implemented Game Jolt's API, so go get yourself an account or something and start getting achievements!

It also has been compiled with a different compiler, it runs much faster and it may be possible to use WINE for Linux.

Ver. 3.0.0

Spoiler

+more things can be trippy
+critical mass balls have a gravity distortion effect
+critical mass balls have extra particle animation stuff
+take screenshots with F12!
+a fancy countdown timer!
+save different game modes user-inputted data
+brick blocks have a slightly more interesting destruction sequence
+brick scatter ball has its own sprite animation now
+dice ball
+reflector ball
+attractor ball
+Game Jolt support!
+super fancy post game stuff!
+fancy paddle "swerve"
+double-tap boosts, so that players get some competitive edge against bots
+dedicated fancy menus (except for Settings menu >_< )
+achievement notification
-removed AI idling
^particle balls released by the critical mass ball have had a few variables changed
^paddles 2, 3, and 4 are bots by default
^random, teleport, and reorientation balls only do their proper event a couple times per paddle hit, so that they don't linger on screen for long
^minor graphic change regarding the wave bars
^changed default controls for paddle 4 to numpads 4 and 6
^made AI a bit less jittery in their movements
^compiled differently
*fixed very uncommon bug regarding division of zero and AI calculations
*fixed teleporter balls not spawning in smoothly
*fixed debug HP value for brick scatter ball
*fixed clipping of pong balls spawned by cluster balls and brick scatter balls (if still present, I can slightly change some variables)
*fixed missing parasite ball statistics at statistics screen
*fixed life mode completely and everything
*fixed ghost ball getting stuck in bricks (by reworking most of the collision code -_- )
*fixed controls not being saved
*fixed paddle 1 far misses being assigned to paddle 2
*fixed square ball regarding mass counter
*fixed allowing the spawn of large mass pong balls that would exceed the maximum mass limit
*fixed method of direction of spawning pong balls, so that it randomly chooses between any optimal choices
*fixed parasite balls making pong balls have a sort of pierce functionality
*fixed divide by zero crash when forfeiting a match before any pong ball spawn.

 

It works!

But I have to sleep now, so I'll try it out tomorrow.

 

It works!

But I have to sleep now, so I'll try it out tomorrow.

Woot!
I was beginning to doubt it would work when a friend couldn't use it on Mac, probably some WINE mishap of sorts.

Sleep well!