gamedevjourney

[gamedevjourney]

The Final Blog Post

I learned so much from taking this Game Studies class! I learned about many game design principles like the "flow" state, paper-prototypes, and guiding players in creative ways. I also learned a lot history-wise like how video games have historically been used to bring attention to social issues like mass shootings and inclusivity. Then I learned so much about the technical aspect of game development like C#, Unity Tools, teamwork, and Github! There was a lot of connections between everything we learned. The history and principles of design helped inspire me to create my first game which taught me valuable skills I brought to Darkness In Me. I had so much fun reading about games like Jeremey Gibson Bond's Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development. I had so much fun writing about games in these blog posts and assignments, especially when I got to analyze games through the MDA framework. Then I of course had fun playing the games! The social games like Jackbox and Bullshit were my favorite. I also had so much fun designing my own game (I stayed up all night working out the bugs, but I felt so motivated to do it!) I'm genuinely going to miss this class and I wish I could have gone in person. But I will definitely continue to play, learn about, and make games!

[gamedevjourney]

The Final Game!

As I am writing this, my group and I are approaching the deadline for our videogame: The Darkness In Me. I joined this project as a replacement programmer of sorts. Johnathan Vargas was the main ideas-man behind the conceit of the game and the person who graciously allowed me to join his team. In The Darkness In Me, players will assume the role of a demon who is guided by an Angel towards the goal of rising out the Void and defeating fowl devils and angels.

Mechanically, players can run, jump, and dash across platforms in the Void. Along the way, they can fight angels and demons. Players must be careful though because they only have 3 hearts! Players who love a challenge will enjoy this game.

I would say one of the strongest characteristics of our game is our art style! The art was originally done by Johnathan Vargas, but after our team was formed, Angelique Joy Fernandez and Josh Chin became our go-to talented artists. Josh did work on the angel seen above and Angelique created some the environmental assets in our final level. My role was to create and polish the game's knockback mechanics. Players and Monsters can deal unique amounts of directional knockback and can even have their own unique knockback resistance. I also created the pause, restart, and settings functionality to help with player accessibility! We hope anyone playing our game enjoys it! It has been a wonderful learning experience to create this Metroidvania-like game and have the opportunity to work with such a talented team!

[gamedevjourney]

My Experience Playing Jackbox!

The other day my class played a few Jackbox games together. First, we played Trivia Murder Party, which let 8 people play the "main characters" which had doll representations on the screen. The audience, which included me, could play along, but there were some activities we couldn't do. The goal was to escape the murderer.

An interesting feature that the game employs is allowing the audience play as 1 entity. The total correct and incorrect answers from the audience affects how well our representative entity does in the game. This means that the audience can affect the game to the point that the winner can be the audience. It means that more than the listed 8 players can enjoy the game which is perfect for our large class.

The other game we played was FibbageXL. This game only allowed 8 players and no audience. One interesting mechanic the game employed was letting the players decide the point totals. The lie with the most votes would get the most points. This means that player must strategize and consider who their opponents are in order to make to fabricate a lie that would convince most of them. I got the opportunity to be one of the eight fibbers which was very fun! I felt very clever whenever someone fell for my lie.

[gamedevjourney]

Creating the Bubblegum Escape Prototype!

Play the game: https://bellowsmay.github.io/WebGLFinal/index.html

Bubblegum Escape is a vertical platformer with some puzzle elements. The player plays as a gumball that is trying to escape a monster that's trying to eat them. To do this, the player has to find a route upwards that will let them outpace the monster. Sometime the path upwards will be blocked with ice. If this happens, the player has to pick up a pepper which will cause the monster to spew fire. It is up to the player to figure out how to use this feature to get past the ice.

Bubblegum Escape is the first video game prototype I've ever made. I was the programmer (and made some sprites) while my partner, Angelique Joy Fernandez, did the majority of the art and animations such as our monster, bubblegum, pepper, and platforms. I also used a "boing" sound effect from WaveSource (https://www.wavsource.com/sfx/sfx.htm).

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised with how the prototype came out. We progressed a lot from the alpha which just had 2 animations and no gameplay. Due to time constraints, I wasn't able to add all the features I wanted such as functional ladders and item pickup-drop mechanics. I also wish I could have added more animations and sounds like music. The pick-up drop mechanics in particular would have greatly affected the game mechanics because the player would risk being hit by a fireball. However, the current pepper "pickup" feature works as well and adds additional puzzle elements in when the player picks up the pepper.

At the time of writing this blog post, I doubt I will continue the prototype. While creating the game and learning more about game design principles, I realized why there are so few vertical platformers on pc. The horizontal camera view limits how much the player can see above and below them which can make it hard for players to platform.

If I do continue, I want to add ladders and the pick-up drop functionality. I also want to rework the art to be more cohesive and complex.

This was honestly a really cool experience and I learned a lot about game development principles, techniques, and about Unity.

[gamedevjourney]

First Playable

For my very first video game, me and my partner decided to create a vertical platformer where you play as a gumball trying to escape a monster. We aptly named it "Bubblegum Escape." I was the programmer while my partner did the art.

We were originally inspired by Nintendo's Kirby series when we were coming up with character designs. That's how we came up with the gumball which then inspired the idea of the monster which will try to eat the gumball.

From these concepts, my partner designed the background, platforms, and monster. Meanwhile, I started to program some of the features. I did not make much progress compared to the other teams. However, I made some progress on the movement such as moving left and right, and jumping with the space bar. However, I struggled to get it right.

After doing the playtesting and seeing the responses on our feedback forms, our movement system still needs a lot of work. For one, the jumping feels too floaty. One of my game testers and I agreed that I need to reduce the jump velocity.

Additionally, a play tester reported that there is a bug where if the player doesn't land perfectly on the platforms, they will start spinning and the camera will as well. I have some ideas on how to fix it, starting with detaching the camera from the player.

[gamedevjourney]

Indie Games Galore!

The above image is the 8th stage of "This is the Only Level by Armor Games.

The above image is of "Triad" by Anna Anthropy and Leon Arnott.

As a part of our fourth game lab, I played a variety of indie browser games and I found some of them to be very impressive! Two games I played were: "This is the Only Level" by Armor Games and "Triad" by Anna Anthropy and Leon Arnott. From the start, these two games have seemed very different from each other. "This is the Only Level" is primarily a platformer where you need to get the elephant to the exit, while "Triad" is a puzzle game where you need to find some bed configuration to make a throuple have a good night's sleep. However, dynamically, "This is the Only Level" is also a puzzle game. While platforming is a big mechanic of the game, the way the elephant platforms change per level, whether it be different controls, different rules, or different physics mechanics. When I was playing, I was always pleasantly surprised by how each stage's platforming mechanics would change and was usually baffled as to how to win with them. It was even more of a puzzle to watch my partner play since I didn't have any of the immediate action I usually would have by pressing the keys! Nonetheless, it was cool to think about the implications of the changes. This means that players must puzzle and figure out how to complete the level, like how players need to figure out how to configure the bed in "Triad." Aesthetically, these two games also share the "challenge" aesthetic since both tasks the player to overcome some confusing obstacle in order to clear the game. And above all, both games were very fun to play!

Finally, I played a third game: "Blub Blub" by the CSWWM team! (Previous students from this class!). Blub was a pleasant "doge game" where the player controls a fish trying to reunite with their love by dodging sharks, nets, and other ocean obstacles! Blub Blub plays a lot like classic Sonic games where you need to memorize where and when obstacles appear after repeated plays. It was a pretty good game overall and it was quite the challenge!

[gamedevjourney]

Creating My Paper Prototype!

My paper prototype, which I will tentatively call Pushing Your Luck after its core mechanic, is primarily a card game that utilizes a standard 52 card playing deck, a checkered board, and 2 pieces representing the two players. Players face off against each other with the goal of pushing the other player's piece off of the checkered board. To do this, players draw hands of 5 cards and "duel" by simultaneously placing down cards. Whoever has the highest value card, wins the duel and their opponent is forced to move in the direction of the card's suit. Diamond means up, heart means left, spade means down, and club means right. There are also special cards like Queens and Aces which have special effects. Additionally, there is a shop feature where players can trade their hand for new cards at the end of their turn.

As alluded to before, "Pushing Your Luck" is the main mechanic of my game and it's baked into nearly every aspect. Players can decide to "push their luck" by saving all their good cards in the end or using them all immediately. They have no idea what their opponent could play so they could be wasting a really good card, or wishing they had used it a lot sooner. The shop mechanic also forces players to test their luck because of the "dispute" feature where both players bid over a card, but both players end up losing all the offered cards by the end. Through this dispute feature, players have the potential to benefit in many ways such as: earning a very good card, preventing their opponent from earning a very good card, or simply refreshing their hand for their next turn. However, if they lose the bidding, they could lose everything they bid and their opponent can still walk away with an amazing card.

Here are 3 of my most notable play logs which influenced the changes I made to my game.

Game 1: In this first game, each player had 3 cards in a hand and the directions of each suit differed: Diamond - North; Heart - South; Spade - East; Club - West. From this first test, I learned that the game would be more fun if players had a larger hand to better strategize and chain their moves. With a hand of 5, players could think more turns ahead and save their best valued cards and suits to the end. I also noticed how hard it was to remember what direction each suit matched to, so I rephrased the rules to be the current directions (up, down, left, right) instead of cardinal direction. With the direction changes, black piece would naturally want black cards since black cards would push the opponent down or right which would be the closest path to pushing off the opponent. Likewise, the red piece would naturally want red cards.

Game 2: In my second game, players had 5 cards and the directions are what they are now. From this playtest, I realized I needed to abolish my turn counter rule which stated that "the board would become 1 unit smaller at the end of every 6th turn." I decided to abolish this rule because I kept forgetting to count the turns and the games were ending rather quickly to need the rule. I also noticed that my sister wasn't utilizing the shop because there would be times when there wasn't anything useful for her to buy. So I created the rule that the least value card in the shop would be discarded and replaced with a new card at the end of every drawing phase.

Game 3: In this game with my friend, we implemented new, engaging rules for how to settle disputes in the shop. Originally, whoever won the last round gets shopping priority, but my friend had the idea that players can bid for the card. Both players can put facedown any number of cards. Then we flip them 1 by 1, and whoever has the greatest total value by the end wins the card. Both players must discard the cards they bid with. I think this is a much more fun, engaging feature that compliments the "push your luck" mechanic.

So far, I am very proud of my game and I think it's very fun!

Game 1:

I was the red piece and my sister was the black piece.

Both players draw 2 cards.

3 cards are placed in the shop: 2 of clubs, 4 of hearts, queen of spades.

I get a 2 of diamonds, 7 of diamonds, and a queen of hearts.

I put down my 7 of diamonds face down and she puts down her card.

We flip. She has a king of clubs.

I move to the right by 1.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 3 cards.

Difference Rule: The difference between the cards was 6 so I draw an additional card.

I got a king of diamonds and an 8 of spades.

I put down my king of diamonds face down and she puts down her card.

We flip. She has a jack of spades.

She moves up by 1.

Jack Rule: I give her a card matching the jack’s suit: my 8 of spades.

I have 3 cards already so I don’t draw. She draws.

I got a 3 of clubs.

I put down my 2 of diamonds face down and she puts down a card.

We flip. She has a 8 of spades.

I move down by 1.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 3 cards.

Difference Rule: The difference between the cards was 7 so I draw an additional card.

I got an 8 of hearts and a 6 of spades.

I put down my queen of hearts face down and she puts down a card.

We flip. She has a 8 of spades.

Queen rule: Despite the card’s suit, I can choose any direction and I choose up.

She moved up by 1.

I have 3 cards already so I don’t draw. She draws.

I trade in my 8 of hearts and my 6 of spades for the queen of spades.

I put down my 3 of clubs face down and she puts down a card.

We flip. She has a 6 of hearts.

I move down by 1.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 3 cards.

The shop refreshes and now has a 10 of clubs.

I got a 9 of spades and a 8 of diamonds.

I put down my 8 of diamonds face down and she puts down a card.

We flip. She has a 5 of diamonds.

She moves up by 1.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 3 cards.

I got a queen of spades.

I put down my queen of spades face down and she puts down a card.

We flip. She has a 9 of clubs.

Queen Rule: Despite the card’s suit, I can choose any direction and I choose up.

She is pushed off the board and I win!

Game 2:

I am the black piece. My sister is the red piece.

Both players draw 5 cards.

3 cards are placed in the shop: 6 of spades, 4 of hearts, king of spades.

I got a 9 of spades, 3 of spades, ace of diamonds, 10 of clubs, and a jack of clubs.

I put down my 9 of spades face down. She puts down a card.

We flip. It’s the 9 of diamonds. 

It’s a tie so we both move. She moves up by 1. I move up by 1.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 5 cards.

I got a 10 of hearts. 

I put down the 10 of clubs facedown. She places a card.

We flip. It’s a king of hearts.

I move left by 1.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 5 cards.

I got a 7 of spades and a 10 of hearts.

I trade in my 10 of hearts and 3 of spades for the king of spades.

I put down my 7 of spades face down and she puts down a card.

We flip. She has a 6 of diamonds.

She moves down by 1.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 5 cards.

The shop refreshes and now has a 3 of hearts.

I got a 2 of spades and a 4 of spades.

I trade in my 2 of spades and 4 of spades for the 6 of spades.

I put down my 6 of spades face down and she puts down a card.

We flip. She has a 8 of hearts.

I move to the left by 1.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 5 cards.

The shop refreshes and now has a 7 of hearts.

I got a queen of spades.

I put down my queen of diamonds face down and she puts down a card.

We flip, She has a jack of diamonds.

Queen rule: despite my card’s suit, I can choose any direction. I choose down.

Jack rule: despite losing, I must give her a card of the same suit (diamond). I give her my 8 of diamonds.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 5 cards.

I got an ace of clubs.

I put down my king of spades face down and she puts down a card.

We flip. She has the 5 of diamonds.

She is pushed off the board and I win!

Game 3:

I am the black piece. My friend is the red piece.

Both players draw 5 cards.

3 cards are placed in the shop: 2 of spades, Ace of spades, king of spades.

I got a 6 of clubs, queen of hearts, 3 of spades, 10 of hearts, and king of clubs.

I try to buy the king of spades, but my friend also wants to buy it. Current rules state that the person who won the last round has priority, but there hasn’t been a round yet. My friend and I come up with the current “dispute” rules to handle the shop and we implement it from this point on.

Both players put down any number of cards face down.

I put down my 10 of hearts, 3 of spades, and 6 of clubs.

He puts down 4 of his cards. 

We flip one card at a time. His total is 34 and mine is 19.

I noticed that he bidded with all black cards which are useless to him. A strong strategy for getting rid to make room for better cards.

He wins the king of spades.

We now duel.

I put down my king of clubs face down. He puts down a card.

We flip. He has a 7 of diamonds.

He moves to the right by 1.

I realized that I had wasted my king because I thought he would put down his newly acquired king.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 5 cards.

Difference Rule: The difference between the cards was 6 so he draws an additional card.

The shop refreshes and now has a 7 of hearts. The 2 of spades is replaced with a jack of hearts.

He trades a 5 of spades, 3 of clubs, and ace of clubs for the jack of hearts.

Then he trades a king of spades for the 7 of hearts.

We now duel.

I put down my 10 of spades facedown. He puts a card down.

He has the king of hearts.

I move to the left by 1.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 5 cards.

The shop refreshes and now has a 10 of clubs and a jack of diamonds. The ace of spades is replaced with a 10 of diamonds.

We dispute over the jack of diamonds.

I put down a 4 of diamonds, 4 of clubs, 2 of diamonds, and a 9 of hearts facedown.

He puts 2 cards facedown.

We flip one card at a time. His total is 16 and mine is 23.

I win the jack of diamonds.

We now duel.

I put down my jack of diamonds facedown. He puts down a card.

We flip. He has a hack of hearts.

It’s a tie. We both move. I move left by 1. He moves up by 1.

Jack rule: We both have to give a card of the corresponding suit to the other. He gives me his ace of diamonds. My only heart card is my queen so I give him that.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 5 cards.

The shop refreshes and now has a 2 of clubs. One of the 10 of diamonds is replaced with a 5 of hearts.

I got a 9 of clubs, 2 of hearts, 6 of hearts, and jack of spades.

I buy the 10 of clubs with my 9 of clubs and 2 of hearts.

I put down my jack of spades facedown. He puts down a card.

We flip. He has a queen of hearts.

I move to the left by 1.

Jack Rule: he gives me his 7 of spades.

We discard the played cards.

We both refill our hands to have 5 cards.

The shop refreshes and now has an ace of hearts. The 2 of clubs is replaced with a queen of clubs.

I got a 10 of clubs, 7 of spades, 3 of diamonds.

We dispute over the queen of clubs.

We both put down all of my cards. He beats me with a value of 34.

He wins the queen.

I am a fool and have no cards left. He puts down the queen and I lose.

[gamedevjourney]

So... Apparently You Can Lose Solitaire

Continuing my game dev journey, I tried to create a session report for my first ever game of solitaire. It went very poorly. I went in thinking that solitaire was a boring game since it's a seemingly complex card game that is played by yourself to kill time. After drawing my first ace, I thought to myself, "Oh I can see how the luck of the draw can be exciting." But then I made it to page 2 of my session report. Then page 3. By page 4 and I corrected myself, thinking, "Wow, I was right. This is insanely boring." I thought I made some kind of mistake in my play though and "soft-locked" myself: I had finished 2 foundations and could see no other way to progress. Then I learned something about solitaire which should have been painstakingly obvious.

You can lose at solitaire.

Why did the rules not tell me it was possible to lose! I know most games have a way to lose, but I just thought it just some mindless way to kill time! I never realized there was actual strategy! But at least I learned... I hate solitaire.

Oh but I also learned about how to create a session report! I hope mine isn't too wordy, but I tried to include minute details about my gameplay just in case they came in handy. It was by reviewing the session report that I realized I had entered an infinite loop of drawing from my stock. So in a way, my session report freed me from my misery.

My Session Report:

First, the 7 tableaus were created with the following face-up cards (in ascending order column order): 9 of diamonds, 8 of diamonds, 7 of hearts, 2 of clubs, jack of hearts, 2 of diamonds, queen of hearts.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 7 of diamonds.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a Queen of diamonds.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a King of diamonds.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 4 of  hearts.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 8 of spades. 

I place it on column 1’s 9 of diamonds.

The next top card in the stock is 3 of clubs.

I discard them.

I move the column 3’s 7 of hearts to column 1’s 8 of spades.

Column 3’s new top card is 5 of clubs.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 4 of diamonds.

I place it on column 3’s 5 of clubs.

The next top card in the stock is 5 of diamonds.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is an ace of clubs.

I create the first foundation.

The next top card in the stock is ace of spades.

I create the second foundation

The next top card in the stock is 3 of spades.

I place it on column 3’s 4 of diamonds.

I draw 1 stock card (the last one). The top card is a 6 of hearts.

I discard them.

I flip and reuse the discard pile for stock.

I move column 4’s 2 of clubs to one of my foundations.

The next top card is 9 of clubs.

I move column 6’s 2 of diamonds to one of my foundations.

The next top card is a 5 of diamonds.

I move column 3’s 3 of spades, 4 of diamonds, and 5 of clubs to one of my foundations.

Column 3’s new top card is the jack of diamonds.

I move column 2’s 8 of diamonds to column 4’s 9 of clubs.

Column 2’s new top card is 7 of spades.

I move column 2’s 7 of spades to column 4’s 8 of diamonds.

Column 2 is now empty.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 10 of diamonds.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a king of spades.

I move the king of spades to column 2, replenishing it.

The next top card is a 8 of hearts.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a king of diamonds.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 4 of spades.

I place it on column 6’s 5 of hearts.

The next top card is a queen of clubs.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 3 of clubs.

I place it on one of the foundations.

I move column 6’s 4 of spades and 5 of hearts to one of my foundations.

Column 6’s new top card is the 3 of diamonds.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 5 of diamonds.

I discard them.

I draw 1 stock card (the last one). The top card is a 6 of hearts.

I place it on one of my foundations.

I flip and reuse the discard pile for stock.

I move column 4’s 9 of clubs, 8 of diamonds, and 7 of spades to one of my foundations.

Column 4’s new top card is 3 of hearts.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 10 of diamonds.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a Jack of clubs.

I place it on column 7’s queen of hearts.

The next top card is 8 of hearts.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a queen of diamonds.

I place it on column 2’s king of diamonds.

The next top card is a king of diamonds

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 6 of hearts.

I place it on column 2’s 7 of hearts.

The next top card is a 4 of diamonds

I discard them.

I move all of column 1 to one of my foundations.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 5 of diamonds.

I discard them.

I flip and reuse the discard pile for stock.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 10 of diamonds.

I place it onto one of my foundations.

The next top card is a 10 of spades.

I place it onto one of my foundations.

The next top card is a 9 of hearts.

I discard it.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 10 of hearts.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 5 of diamonds.

I discard them.

I move column 7’s jack of clubs and queen of hearts to one of my foundations.

Column 7’s new top card is 2 of hearts.

I move column 6’s jack of hearts to one of my foundations.

Column 6’s new top card is the king of hearts.

I move column 5’s king of hearts to one of my foundations.

Column 5’s new top card is the 10 of clubs.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 4 of hearts.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 5 of diamonds.

I discard them.

I flip and reuse the discard pile for stock.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 8 of hearts.

I discard them.

I move column 5’s 10 of clubs to column 3’s jack of diamonds.

Column 5’s new top card is the jack of spades.

I move column 2’s queen of diamonds and king of spades to one of my foundations.

I have completed 2 foundations.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a queen of clubs.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is the 7 of clubs.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 5 of diamonds.

I discard them.

I flip and reuse the discard pile for stock.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a queen of clubs.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is the 7 of clubs.

I discard them.

I draw 3 stock cards. The top card is a 5 of diamonds.

I discard them.

"I’ve done something wrong. I can no longer see a way to progress." - Foolish Me

[gamedevjourney]

I am not a retro gamer by any means. I would perfectly describe myself as a Switch gamer since the majority of my gaming experiences have been on the Nintendo Switch. That is why the idea of trying the 1982 arcade game Ping-Pong King by Taito America initially daunted me. My modern Nintendo-fan sensibilities told me that I would be frustrated by the retro mechanics of this game.

One major frustration I had right off the bat was the controls. I played a browser emulated version of Ping-Pong King which was originally designed for an arcade cabinet so I obviously wouldn't have the luxury of playing the game the way it was meant to be played. Also, unlike a real arcade machine with a limited user interface, my laptop has a ton of buttons and input styles. So I found myself having to spamming every button on my keyboard to discover every single action including starting the game, entering my name, hitting the ball, and moving my character. Sometimes I would press a button that seemingly crashed the emulation. Thankfully, the emulator comment section was able to help me figure out the controls.

However, there were gameplay frustrations other than the controls. I couldn't understand how to serve the ball over the net. Every time I served the ball, I would immediately hit the net and my opponent would earn a point. My best guess is that I have to time my serve at just the right moment to hit the ball over the net, but I just couldn't get it right. I would only ever get points if the opponent NPC served the ball first. I frustratedly gave up after 5 games.

However, this game surprised me at how much charm and detail was put into the game. First, the screen to enter the player's name utilized a unique ping-pong animation to enter the player's name where entering a character would shoot out a ball to the textbox. This was a very neat detail and one I don't even see in very many modern games I play so I was delighted to see it. Another cool feature I noticed was how the ball projected a shadow under it so players could better understand where the ball was in 3D space despite the game being 2D pixel art. I know a lot of modern 3D games that don't include this detail which makes it hard to navigate the world so I was surprised that such an old game would have thought about this.

Overall, I'm glad to have tried Ping-Pong king and all its charms, but I definitely wouldn't want to play it on my free time.

(This post was assigned as a part of the CS108 Intro to Game Studies Class)