10 – OTHER POSSIBLE TWEAKS

INTRO

In this section, we will simply discuss other tweaks that could be made to improve the game. For real games, this is a very important part of the development stage as it is where you make the game fun for users.

Here are some possible tweaks that for the most part would be easy to do:

GROWING BALL SPEED

We could easily increase the ball speed after every time that it hits a paddle. This would help with situations where the initial velocities are low and the game is too easy.

VARIED ANGLE

We could change the ball’s angle depending on where on the paddle the ball hits. This can be done in many ways. One approach could simply involve changing the velocityY value a little depending on where it hits on the paddle. More specifically, it could look like this:

· Ball hits near middle of paddle – VelocityY stays the same

· Ball hits near the bottom of paddle – VelocityY decreases by a small amount

· Ball hits near the top of the paddle – VelocityY increases by a small amount

SHRINKING PADDLE SIZE

We could change the paddle size. We could gradually do so after each bounce. The amount in reduction could even be related to where the ball hits the paddle. This will lead to an increasing difficulty for each goal. After each goal, the paddles could be reset. Or perhaps only the losing paddle gets reset.

A different strategy may be to force the player that is winning to play with a shorter paddle. This would encourage the game to stay close and be more competitive.

MOVING PADDLE LOCATION

As the points get longer, we could also move the paddle a tad towards the middle again gradually increasing difficulty for both players. After a goal, the paddle could be reset.

PADDLE HOLE

To increase difficulty as the point gets longer, you can also place a hole in the middle of the paddle. It can gradually grow bigger and bigger.

BONUS ITEMS

This works best with the varied angle option from above where users have some ability to control the ball’s location. Then, you can make random bonus packs appear on the screen. The packs could have different effects such as:

· Increased or decreased paddle size

· Increased or decreased paddle speed

· Increased or decreased ball size

· Increased or decreased ball speed

· Walls that appear on the screen on which the ball bounces off

· Mutiple balls appear at once

SPLASH SCREENS

Another nice addition is to have a start screen and an end screen.